Countless students are frustrated by the fact that they do great on all their assignments and then when it comes to their tests, they blow it. They are frustrated, discouraged and beat themselves instead of understanding that this is a common phenomenon that CAN be overcome.
The first thing is to have a thorough understanding of the three major causes of Test Anxiety. Next, it is necessary to have a strategy for addressing the specific cause / causes that are holding you back.
Psychological
Although this is the cause that most commonly gets the blame, it is NOT the greatest villain. Most students feel shame about poor test performance because they think it means that they are weak psychologically, choking when the pressure is on. But when you read on, you will discover two more powerful causes that may be in play.
If it does turn out that the Psychological factor is your biggest problem, then the best way to address it is with practice tests and visualization. By vividly imagining yourself doing great, whizzing through the test on test day, while you are completing a practice test, you can retrain your brain to be calm and confident instead of anxious. Having a number of successful practice tests is a very powerful way to curb test anxiety on test day.
Physiological
This is an extremely powerful cause of poor test performance and most commonly overlooked. When a person is under stress, they begin to breathe less. Shallow breathing deprives the brain of oxygen and seriously hurts your ability to perform. (In extreme cases, this causes a person to faint.)
A great example of this is in studies that the Air Force did during World War II to determine the performance of pilots in high altitude environments. They found that very simple tasks, like dealing a deck of cards, became increasingly difficult as they got less oxygen. This happens by flying to higher altitudes, or it happens with shallow breathing brought on by anxiety. You actually cause yourself to be less sharp and resourceful by being nervous. Thus, the psychological cause can trigger a physiological problem!
The great news is that you can beat this with a technique the Army calls "combat breathing." Take 8 deep breaths, inhaling for three seconds through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. Count to 3 while inhaling, hold it for 1 second, and count to 3 while exhaling. It will take you only 56 seconds to do this and you will oxygenate your blood to ensure that you are at full intellectual functioning! Do this before a test and even during a test and you will see a huge difference in your performance.
Improper Study Methods
The third cause for poor test performance is the inability to recall what you studied because you didn't study using the correct method. Everyone learns and retains information differently. Some are visual learners who need to see things to remember them, others are auditory learners who do better hearing information, and still others are kinesthetic learners, who need to 'feel' and experience the subject matter.
By taking a Learning Styles Assessment, you can begin to understand how important it is to your test performance that you study in a way that is compatible with the way your are wired intellectually. A digital voice recorder is a great tool for auditory learners, and talking and joking in study groups really accelerates the learning and retention of kinesthetic learners.
The best way to internalize these practical strategies for improving test performance is with further practice. For a four hour online course, go right now to http://www.CollegeExamTutor.com/ and sign up for the ACT preparation course, whether you are taking the ACT or not. This course begins with a Learning Styles Assessment and focuses on test taking strategies and eliminating test anxiety, which will be a great help to any student.
Showing posts with label ACT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ACT. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
ACT Math - Why Students Struggle
The Three Sections
The math portion of the ACT is divided into three parts, basically corresponding to freshman, sophomore and junior math. Interestingly enough, the freshman math is where many students do poorly, as this math is two years old for them and not 'fresh' in their minds! The good news is that a quick brush up is generally all that is needed to bring up this part of their math score.
There are 60 questions on the math test, and they are divided as follows:
The biggest fear that most students have is that they will not know how to do the problems on the test. With the math test, the culprit is trigonometry. However, worrying about 4 questions out of 60 does not make sense. Instead, students should focus on the area that has the largest number of questions, which is algebra ! Once they are very confident in that area, geometry is the next priority.
The Best Strategy
In the algebra area, the most mistakes are generally made with figuring out how to set up the equations for the word problems. So this is the best opportunity for studying that will give the greatest return on your score!
Do as many practice tests as you can, focusing on algebra equations and you will see your score rise quickly. Most mistakes made on this, the biggest portion of the math test, are made in determining from the word problem what the formula should be! That's right, the majority of the time that students are punching numbers into their calculator, they are on the wrong path. The reason that they don't realize it is that the multiple choice answers always provide options for the most common errors. Students complete the problem, see their answer as one of the five options and move on to the next problem never realizing that they got the question wrong!
The math portion of the ACT is divided into three parts, basically corresponding to freshman, sophomore and junior math. Interestingly enough, the freshman math is where many students do poorly, as this math is two years old for them and not 'fresh' in their minds! The good news is that a quick brush up is generally all that is needed to bring up this part of their math score.
There are 60 questions on the math test, and they are divided as follows:
- Pre-Algebra / Algebra - 24 questions (basically freshman math)
- Intermediate Algebra / Coordinate Geometry - 18 questions (basically sophomore math)
- Plane Geometry - 14 questions / Trigonometry - 4 questions (basically junior math)
The biggest fear that most students have is that they will not know how to do the problems on the test. With the math test, the culprit is trigonometry. However, worrying about 4 questions out of 60 does not make sense. Instead, students should focus on the area that has the largest number of questions, which is algebra ! Once they are very confident in that area, geometry is the next priority.
The Best Strategy
In the algebra area, the most mistakes are generally made with figuring out how to set up the equations for the word problems. So this is the best opportunity for studying that will give the greatest return on your score!
Do as many practice tests as you can, focusing on algebra equations and you will see your score rise quickly. Most mistakes made on this, the biggest portion of the math test, are made in determining from the word problem what the formula should be! That's right, the majority of the time that students are punching numbers into their calculator, they are on the wrong path. The reason that they don't realize it is that the multiple choice answers always provide options for the most common errors. Students complete the problem, see their answer as one of the five options and move on to the next problem never realizing that they got the question wrong!
The Main Thing
No matter what portion of the test you are working on, just as in life, you want to focus on the most important, high value things first. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing! And in the math test, it is algebra!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Guessing is KEY to the ACT
When should I Guess?
Unlike the SAT, there is no penalty on the ACT for getting an answer wrong. Therefore, it is absolutely a waste to leave any question unanswered. If there is only 5 minutes left and you have 20 questions to go, it is best to just guess on all of them and then use the time to go back and read some of the questions to try and get the best answer. This will ensure that the clock doesn't run out and you have unanswered questions! You will get zero points for a question that you didn't answer, but you have a shot at getting a point if you guess the correct one.
What are my Odds?
The English, Science and Reading tests all have 4 answers to choose from, so your odds are one in four, or 25%. That means in our scenario above, where you just randomly guess on 20 questions, you could expect to get 5 of them right! The Math test is a bit different, with 5 answers to choose from, so you have a 20% chance of guessing the right answer. Either way you slice it, 20% or 25% is much better than zero percent for a question left unanswered!
How do I Increase my Odds?
Guessing is not just for last minute desperation. Unless you are one who will get a perfect score, there will be a LOT of answers that you aren't sure of. The good news is that you can turn this into a positive instead of a negative. Instead of focusing on the fact that you didn't know the answer, see if you can eliminate one or two obviously wrong answers and then guess from the remaining choices. If you eliminate 1 Math answer from among the 5, you will have increased your guessing odds from 20% to 25%. That is something to focus on, because it is a victory, however small, and can keep you from becoming demotivated during the test.
Remember that almost no students in America will know the answer to every single question. If you go into the test expecting that, then you are less likely to get discouraged during the test. Take away a small victory from every question.
1) Increase your odds by narrowing down the possible answers.
2) If you have to just guess without having a clue, focus on how much time you just saved by quickly moving on to the next question! Get those questions that you don't know out of the way and save your time and energy for the ones you can solve.
With the ACT, it's all about managing your attitude. The more positive you remain, the better your score will be!
Unlike the SAT, there is no penalty on the ACT for getting an answer wrong. Therefore, it is absolutely a waste to leave any question unanswered. If there is only 5 minutes left and you have 20 questions to go, it is best to just guess on all of them and then use the time to go back and read some of the questions to try and get the best answer. This will ensure that the clock doesn't run out and you have unanswered questions! You will get zero points for a question that you didn't answer, but you have a shot at getting a point if you guess the correct one.
What are my Odds?
The English, Science and Reading tests all have 4 answers to choose from, so your odds are one in four, or 25%. That means in our scenario above, where you just randomly guess on 20 questions, you could expect to get 5 of them right! The Math test is a bit different, with 5 answers to choose from, so you have a 20% chance of guessing the right answer. Either way you slice it, 20% or 25% is much better than zero percent for a question left unanswered!
How do I Increase my Odds?
Guessing is not just for last minute desperation. Unless you are one who will get a perfect score, there will be a LOT of answers that you aren't sure of. The good news is that you can turn this into a positive instead of a negative. Instead of focusing on the fact that you didn't know the answer, see if you can eliminate one or two obviously wrong answers and then guess from the remaining choices. If you eliminate 1 Math answer from among the 5, you will have increased your guessing odds from 20% to 25%. That is something to focus on, because it is a victory, however small, and can keep you from becoming demotivated during the test.
Remember that almost no students in America will know the answer to every single question. If you go into the test expecting that, then you are less likely to get discouraged during the test. Take away a small victory from every question.
1) Increase your odds by narrowing down the possible answers.
2) If you have to just guess without having a clue, focus on how much time you just saved by quickly moving on to the next question! Get those questions that you don't know out of the way and save your time and energy for the ones you can solve.
With the ACT, it's all about managing your attitude. The more positive you remain, the better your score will be!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Understanding the ACT: A Parent's Guide
What is the ACT?
The ACT is a nationwide standardized test that many colleges use as a guide to determine admission. The test takes about 4 hours and has sections on English, Math, Reading and Science. Scores range from 1 to 36, with 20 being about the national average score. Doing well on this test, along with a good grade point average, is necessary to gain admission to most of the prestigious colleges and universities. Many scholarships also consider this in determining who will be awarded money.
Who Takes the ACT
Each year over 1.5 million high school students take the ACT. Most students take this test in their Junior year, but many wait until the Fall of their senior year. Although t he ACT used to be taken just by college bound students, the following states now require all students to take the test, in order to comply with the testing requirements of No Child Left Behind:
• Colorado
• Illinois
• Michigan
• Kentucky
• North Dakota
• Wyoming
What is the PLAN Test?
The PLAN test is a “mini-version” of the ACT taken in the sophomore year of high school. It is designed to give students some experience taking this type of test and the results are meant to be a predictor as to how well students can expect to do on the ACT the following year. The PLAN test is administered by all schools in the following states:
• Arkansas
• Florida
• Illinois
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Minnesota
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• West Virginia
Format of the Test
Although there is an optional Writing Test, the majority of students just take the English, Math, Reading and Science portion of the test. Each is multiple choice format and is timed. The English section has 75 questions in 45 minutes, the Math section has 60 questions in 60 minutes, and both the Reading and Science sections have 40 questions in 35 minutes. Each question has four answers to choose from, with the exception of the Math section, which offers 5 choices.
What’s All This About Guessing?
Unlike the other national college test, the SAT, the ACT doesn’t penalize students for incorrect answers. Therefore, it is in the student’s best interest to guess on questions that they are not sure of.
Isn’t This Just the Same as the SAT?
Not at all. In addition to the fact that guessing is not penalized on the ACT, the SAT tests three areas: reading, writing and math. There is no science section on the SAT.
Why is Timing So Important?
The most common problem that students experience with the ACT is running out of time before they have answered all the questions. Obviously, for a question that you don’t answer, you have a zero percent chance of getting the question correct, so keeping an eye on the clock and proper pacing is key to doing well on this test. If a student sees that they are almost out of time, it is best to just guess on the remaining answers in the hopes of getting
How is the ACT Just Like Life?
Because in life there is too much to do and not enough time to do it. And, like in the business world, you must prioritize where you will get the biggest bang for the buck. It makes no sense to spend 5 minutes on one math problem, when instead you could get three or four others answered.
The College Exam Tutor ACT preparation course begins with such an assessment, in order to help students work smart instead of just having to work hard. For more information, visit http://www.collegeexamtutor.com and sign up for the free newsletter.
The ACT is a nationwide standardized test that many colleges use as a guide to determine admission. The test takes about 4 hours and has sections on English, Math, Reading and Science. Scores range from 1 to 36, with 20 being about the national average score. Doing well on this test, along with a good grade point average, is necessary to gain admission to most of the prestigious colleges and universities. Many scholarships also consider this in determining who will be awarded money.
Who Takes the ACT
Each year over 1.5 million high school students take the ACT. Most students take this test in their Junior year, but many wait until the Fall of their senior year. Although t he ACT used to be taken just by college bound students, the following states now require all students to take the test, in order to comply with the testing requirements of No Child Left Behind:
• Colorado
• Illinois
• Michigan
• Kentucky
• North Dakota
• Wyoming
What is the PLAN Test?
The PLAN test is a “mini-version” of the ACT taken in the sophomore year of high school. It is designed to give students some experience taking this type of test and the results are meant to be a predictor as to how well students can expect to do on the ACT the following year. The PLAN test is administered by all schools in the following states:
• Arkansas
• Florida
• Illinois
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Minnesota
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• West Virginia
Format of the Test
Although there is an optional Writing Test, the majority of students just take the English, Math, Reading and Science portion of the test. Each is multiple choice format and is timed. The English section has 75 questions in 45 minutes, the Math section has 60 questions in 60 minutes, and both the Reading and Science sections have 40 questions in 35 minutes. Each question has four answers to choose from, with the exception of the Math section, which offers 5 choices.
What’s All This About Guessing?
Unlike the other national college test, the SAT, the ACT doesn’t penalize students for incorrect answers. Therefore, it is in the student’s best interest to guess on questions that they are not sure of.
Isn’t This Just the Same as the SAT?
Not at all. In addition to the fact that guessing is not penalized on the ACT, the SAT tests three areas: reading, writing and math. There is no science section on the SAT.
Why is Timing So Important?
The most common problem that students experience with the ACT is running out of time before they have answered all the questions. Obviously, for a question that you don’t answer, you have a zero percent chance of getting the question correct, so keeping an eye on the clock and proper pacing is key to doing well on this test. If a student sees that they are almost out of time, it is best to just guess on the remaining answers in the hopes of getting
How is the ACT Just Like Life?
Because in life there is too much to do and not enough time to do it. And, like in the business world, you must prioritize where you will get the biggest bang for the buck. It makes no sense to spend 5 minutes on one math problem, when instead you could get three or four others answered.
The College Exam Tutor ACT preparation course begins with such an assessment, in order to help students work smart instead of just having to work hard. For more information, visit http://www.collegeexamtutor.com and sign up for the free newsletter.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Parents: How to Motivate Your Kids to Study for the ACT
Nothing is more frustrating than seeing your child doing something that you know will hurt them in the long run. When our kids fail to take the ACT seriously, we cringe because we know how important this is. Yet as parents, we sometimes do things that are very counterproductive to helping our kids study more and study more effectively.
First Rule: Understand Your Child's Study Style
Believe it or not, everyone has a different study / learning style. Not everyone studies like you do. Some are more visual; some are more auditory. The hardest style to deal with is the kinesthetic, or "tacticle." Instead of learning through seeing or hearing, these students need to 'feel' or experience' in order to retain knowledge. They are also ususally fidgety and have short attention spans. These students learn best if they are involved in a study group, discussing facts and figures while tossing a football or moving around, and tend to stop doing well after 20 minutes or so. If you child is one of these kinesthetic learners, you need to help them adapt their study time accordingly.
Second Rule: Don't Nag
Nagging never works anyway. The last thing you want to do is connect negativity with the ACT; it is stressful enough.
Third Rule: Get Some Help
Unless your student is a great test taker who loves to study by just sitting alone for long hours reading, then you would do well to have a quick assessment of their learning style and help them craft their study time accordingly. You will be amazed at the transformation. They will avoid studying less and retain much more, and will be on their way to improved grades and a more successful work life as well.
The College Exam Tutor ACT preparation course begins with such an assessment, in order to help students work smart instead of just having to work hard. For more information, visit http://www.collegeexamtutor.com and sign up for the free newsletter.
First Rule: Understand Your Child's Study Style
Believe it or not, everyone has a different study / learning style. Not everyone studies like you do. Some are more visual; some are more auditory. The hardest style to deal with is the kinesthetic, or "tacticle." Instead of learning through seeing or hearing, these students need to 'feel' or experience' in order to retain knowledge. They are also ususally fidgety and have short attention spans. These students learn best if they are involved in a study group, discussing facts and figures while tossing a football or moving around, and tend to stop doing well after 20 minutes or so. If you child is one of these kinesthetic learners, you need to help them adapt their study time accordingly.
Second Rule: Don't Nag
Nagging never works anyway. The last thing you want to do is connect negativity with the ACT; it is stressful enough.
Third Rule: Get Some Help
Unless your student is a great test taker who loves to study by just sitting alone for long hours reading, then you would do well to have a quick assessment of their learning style and help them craft their study time accordingly. You will be amazed at the transformation. They will avoid studying less and retain much more, and will be on their way to improved grades and a more successful work life as well.
The College Exam Tutor ACT preparation course begins with such an assessment, in order to help students work smart instead of just having to work hard. For more information, visit http://www.collegeexamtutor.com and sign up for the free newsletter.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
ACT Practice Tests: Get the Most Benefit Without Paying a Dime
For high school students wishing to get a good score on the ACT, practice tests are both an invaluable and misunderstood tool. The first thing to know is that you should never pay for a practice test, as you can get them for free very easily from a high school guidance counselor or at http://www.actstudent.org/. The second thing to know is how to use a practice test to improve your score; simply taking a lot of practice tests won't help you much unless you are using them to diagnose your shortcomings.
Many expensive ACT prep courses use the lure of a diagnostic ACT practice test to generate income from parents with deep pockets, and even have the nerve to charge a couple hundred dollars to administer the test and interpret the results. Since you can get the tests for free, the only thing you need to do is interpret the results. That is very straightforward.
While many free tests abound, the test that is the most helpful will break your score down into subscores for Math, English and Reading. The tests you get from ACT will have this breakdown.
The Math test has 60 questions, basically divided into elementary, intermediate and advanced math, loosely corresponding to freshman, sophomore and junior year math classes. Since the free practice tests provided by the ACT organization break the results down for you into these three categories, you can very easily determine what you need to study to increase your score.
Many students are surprised to find that they did better on the more advanced math and poorly on the elementary math. This is because they haven’t seen the freshman math problems in two or three years, and just requires some brushing up. As far as Trigonometry goes, the ACT has only 4 questions on this, so if you haven’t yet taken Trig, don’t worry too much.
The English test score is also broken down into two categories: rhetoric and usage/mechanics. Rhetoric is basically your abilities at writing and identifying good writing, which is difficult to improve quickly. The usage/mechanics portion tests grammar and punctuation and since these skills can be improved much more quickly, this is where you should focus your efforts.
The subscores provided for the Reading test are really of little value and the Science test has no subscores. However, by taking the time to see if you missed questions of a certain type on each test, you can identify areas where you can improve your score. For instance, did you miss Reading questions that asked you to identify persons, places or things in the passage? If so, then underlining these items when you read each passage will help you improve.
While each of the four tests on the ACT seem to be quite different, there are methods to approaching questions that students can learn that will apply to all four, saving time and quickly raising their score.
More information about the ACT and test taking tips are available at http://www.collegeexamtutor.com/ where you will find a newsletter and also a four hour video course available either online or on DVDs.
Many expensive ACT prep courses use the lure of a diagnostic ACT practice test to generate income from parents with deep pockets, and even have the nerve to charge a couple hundred dollars to administer the test and interpret the results. Since you can get the tests for free, the only thing you need to do is interpret the results. That is very straightforward.
While many free tests abound, the test that is the most helpful will break your score down into subscores for Math, English and Reading. The tests you get from ACT will have this breakdown.
The Math test has 60 questions, basically divided into elementary, intermediate and advanced math, loosely corresponding to freshman, sophomore and junior year math classes. Since the free practice tests provided by the ACT organization break the results down for you into these three categories, you can very easily determine what you need to study to increase your score.
Many students are surprised to find that they did better on the more advanced math and poorly on the elementary math. This is because they haven’t seen the freshman math problems in two or three years, and just requires some brushing up. As far as Trigonometry goes, the ACT has only 4 questions on this, so if you haven’t yet taken Trig, don’t worry too much.
The English test score is also broken down into two categories: rhetoric and usage/mechanics. Rhetoric is basically your abilities at writing and identifying good writing, which is difficult to improve quickly. The usage/mechanics portion tests grammar and punctuation and since these skills can be improved much more quickly, this is where you should focus your efforts.
The subscores provided for the Reading test are really of little value and the Science test has no subscores. However, by taking the time to see if you missed questions of a certain type on each test, you can identify areas where you can improve your score. For instance, did you miss Reading questions that asked you to identify persons, places or things in the passage? If so, then underlining these items when you read each passage will help you improve.
While each of the four tests on the ACT seem to be quite different, there are methods to approaching questions that students can learn that will apply to all four, saving time and quickly raising their score.
More information about the ACT and test taking tips are available at http://www.collegeexamtutor.com/ where you will find a newsletter and also a four hour video course available either online or on DVDs.
Friday, June 4, 2010
The ACT: Which Month Should HS Juniors Take the Test?
There are a few differing opinions on when Juniors should take their ACT. One school of thought is that the best time is the last test of the year, as this has given you time to take more classes before taking the test. Another school of thought says that it is best to take the ACT early in the year so that you have time to retake it in case you do poorly.
The most advantageous time is December! This gives you plenty of time to retake the ACT if you do poorly. However, most importantly, for an additional fee of under $20, you can get a Test Information Release, which will be an invaluable tool to help you increase your score should you decide to retest! According to the official website, www.actstudent.org, :
“If you order and pay for Test Information Release (TIR) and test at a national test center on a national test date that offers this service, you will receive a list of your answers, a copy of the multiple-choice test questions used to determine your score, the answer key, and scoring instructions.”
By taking the ACT in December at a location designated a ‘National Test Center’ you will be able to get a TIR and be well positioned to increase your score on a retake. In addition, do NOT designate any colleges to receive your score results at this time, even though it is free to send the score report to several schools. If you are satisfied with your score, you can pay an additional charge to have the scores sent later.
This way you will be less stressed, because you know that even if you do bomb on the test, nobody will see the results unless you choose to send them. Plus, with the TIR you will receive, you will be well equipped to figure out how to improve your score on a retake.
College Exam Tutor offers an ACT prep course that takes only 4 hours, has guaranteed results, and can be taken online or with DVDs. For more information, visit http://www.collegeexamtutor.com/3-ACT-Mistakes.htm
The most advantageous time is December! This gives you plenty of time to retake the ACT if you do poorly. However, most importantly, for an additional fee of under $20, you can get a Test Information Release, which will be an invaluable tool to help you increase your score should you decide to retest! According to the official website, www.actstudent.org, :
“If you order and pay for Test Information Release (TIR) and test at a national test center on a national test date that offers this service, you will receive a list of your answers, a copy of the multiple-choice test questions used to determine your score, the answer key, and scoring instructions.”
By taking the ACT in December at a location designated a ‘National Test Center’ you will be able to get a TIR and be well positioned to increase your score on a retake. In addition, do NOT designate any colleges to receive your score results at this time, even though it is free to send the score report to several schools. If you are satisfied with your score, you can pay an additional charge to have the scores sent later.
This way you will be less stressed, because you know that even if you do bomb on the test, nobody will see the results unless you choose to send them. Plus, with the TIR you will receive, you will be well equipped to figure out how to improve your score on a retake.
College Exam Tutor offers an ACT prep course that takes only 4 hours, has guaranteed results, and can be taken online or with DVDs. For more information, visit http://www.collegeexamtutor.com/3-ACT-Mistakes.htm
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