On Your Own: Preparing For A Standardized Test (1982)

Please make sure that your admission ticket is on your desk. If you have other papers of any kind, books, pamphlets, this is a scene familiar to just about all of us. Most likely sometime in our past we've had to sit down and take a standardized test and more than likely sometime in our future we'll have to take another one. Pick them up after the examination. Watch calculators must not be used during the test. This group of high school juniors has gathered here on a Saturday morning to take their scholastic aptitude test or SAT. The SAT is one of the criteria used by college admissions officers to evaluate students for acceptance. But colleges are not alone in using these types of tests. If you want to go to medical school or prep school, practice law, or sell insurance, you often have to show that you are ready by taking a standardized test first. One of your answer sheet. When I tell you to open your test book, read the directions, and begin work. Begin work. [Music] I'm Bill Paul. And I'm Shirley Brown. We've come to the Educational Testing Service, one of the largest test development companies, to learn some of the things you should know about test preparation. We've interviewed the experts who designed these tests, the teachers and admissions officers who use them, and we've also spoken with some ordinary people who've taken them. We learned there are no easy tricks to raise your score, but if you're willing to work at it, there are steps you can take to improve your test readiness. Of course, we can't cover everything in a 26-minute film, but we will tell you some of the questions you should ask and where you can go to find the answers. You know, all of the information you've learned is right up here in your brain. And if it's working, it's got a lot of Mia Reeves is a counselor and test preparation expert at Pine View Elementary School in Tallahassee, Florida. She spends several hours each month developing the test taking skills of her young students. The last part that we're going to talk about today is on test anxiety. Now, that's a pretty big word, anxiety. And you may not know it, but all of you have anxieties. What are they, Michelle? Um, I feel like I got butterflies in my stomach and I can hardly ride cuz I'm shaking real bad. When I start taking a test, I feel scared. And I think it's important for everyone who's going to take a test to know that you can do things to prepare yourself for the test and you should do everything possible to prepare yourself to make as good a score as possible on the test. I teach elementary students skills that make them better test takers. They're not complicated things. Most of them are very simple and you can do many of the same things that I'm teaching these children to do here. The first thing you need to do is forget any misconceptions you've made. You should find out what's covered on your test. And if you're in school, the place to start is right here. Good morning. For every test, there's an information booklet called a bulletin. Stacks of these are sent to schools and colleges around the country. If you're not in school, you can get them directly from the organization that gives your test. Your bulletin is an essential source of information. It has just about everything you'll need: descriptions, sample questions, even a complete practice test. Others are smaller, but usually include a form you can send away for a separate booklet of sample questions or practice tests. As soon as you decide to take a test, you should get a copy of its bulletin and sample questions. Once you have these in hand, you're ready to begin. There are three basic steps in test preparation. And these steps can be applied to any test you take. First, know the material your test covers. Second, know the test and the types of questions that are on it. Third, understand what your score means. Let's examine the first step and see how we go about learning the material for our [Music] test. Now, I think you can see that a coalition war of this nature might present some problems. There are many types of admissions and selection tests, including achievement tests, aptitude tests, licensing and certification exams. So the area you need to know depends upon your specific test. An achievement test, for example, measures your understanding of a course or subject, very much like a final exam. Know something about the First World War. But one of the things that's important to understand about the Second World War is that it in fact was a coalition war. When this class is over, these students can take an achievement test that will compare them with other American history students across the country. There are achievement tests for subjects from French to physics on both the high school and college levels. A similar type of test is licensing and certification exams. Before these real estate agents could open this office, they had to take a special course and pass a licensing test. And there are similar exams for professionals from lawyers to insurance brokers. You study for a licensing or achievement test just the way you would for a final exam. But be careful. Last minute cramming can help you learn facts and formulas, but you'll need to know what the facts mean and how the formulas are used. It's fine to know what year Washington crossed the Delaware. It's more important to know why he did it. And that kind of review takes more than a few days. Allison Krueger is a member of her high school track team. when she recently signed up to take a Spanish achievement test. She decided to bring the same rigor and discipline to her test preparation as she does to her running. I chose to take the Spanish achievement test because I've been taking Spanish for 4 years and I felt I was good enough now to take the achievement, but I also felt that I had to study for it. So, what I did is I studied from some vocabulary lists and I did some review exercises in a Spanish book. I did this about an hour each night so I could familiarize myself with the kind of questions that would be on the test. As with her athletic training, Allison began preparing for her achievement test weeks in advance. Allison's careful review and study techniques not only got her ready for the test, but also increased her understanding and knowledge of the Spanish language. Knowledge that will serve her well the rest of her life. The result, I felt confident when I went in to take my Spanish achievement test because I had studied as much as I could have for it and I felt prepared for it. So when I came out of the test, I felt that I had done as well as I possibly could have. Licensing and achievement tests like Allison Krueger's Spanish exam cover specific subjects, but there's another group of admissions tests that don't. Instead, these tests measure some of the skills and abilities that are important to your success in many fields, whether in high school, college, or graduate school. As a group, they're called aptitude tests. And that word aptitude has caused a lot of confusion. To find out about aptitude tests, we spoke with ETS's director of test development for higher education programs, John Freemer. Many people think that aptitude tests measure innate abilities, the abilities that you were born with. But really, they are much more limited than that. All they can measure are those skills that you've developed up until the time that you take the test. Uh your verbal skills, for example, your ability to read a passage and comprehend it and answer questions about it. your mathematical skills, your ability, for example, to compare quantities and evaluate which one is larger or whether they are of the same magnitude. And that's all that a test can do. Measure the skills that you've developed up until the time you sit and take the examination. We can't go back in time and measure the abilities you might have had given a different education or a different set of experiences. We also talked with Ethel Porter, ETSs's program director of college level services. Admissions personnel use a combination of information in making admissions decisions. Test scores enable them to make judgments about the likelihood of individuals applying to their institutions succeeding. Aptitude test scores, however, don't measure such things as motivation or creativity or other abilities that may prove very important in long range success. You learn the material for an aptitude test differently than from a licensing or achievement exam. You've been developing the skills they measure all your life with every class you took here. What is and also outside with every book you've read, every checkbook you've ever balanced. But there are ways to improve your aptitude skills so you'll be better prepared when you take your test. Leah Reeves had this tip on improving verbal skills. best things you can do is to read and read widely. Read on a broad range of topics. Challenge yourself to read things that you wouldn't normally read. And as you come across words that you're unfamiliar with, have a dictionary there right there with you to look up those words. By doing this, you'll increase your vocabulary skills. The quantitative sections of an aptitude test often require basic math, algebra, and geometry. And before you take the test, you should go over them again. And remember, geometry isn't like riding a bicycle. It won't all come back when you look at your test. And when was the last time you tried to calculate interest rates, multiply fractions, or determine the volume of cylinders like these? If you're like me, it's been a while. So, you should look in your bulletin and find out which skills are needed for the test. Then, go through your books or notes until they're fresh in your mind. Or if you feel you need help, look for a school or college in your area that offers counseling or refresher courses. That's what Julie Schaperman did. After being out of school for 25 years, Julie Schaperman felt uneasy when faced with the prospect of taking her graduate record examinations. So, she enrolled in a course at the UCLA Extension School. The course, coupled with extensive study at home, helped her brush up on her math skills. When I started uh studying for the GRRE, I realized that I could answer a lot of the sample questions in the verbal area, but I found that I just had forgotten how to do a lot of the basic procedures in math. To think that I had forgotten everything was absolutely crushing. I started to relearn some of it and I found it just as exciting and interesting on relearning it as I did originally. = 40. Therefore, the angles are 40 and that's deep. If I hadn't studied, I just know that I could not have answered half the questions that I did. Studying was extremely helpful to me. Julie went on to do very well on her GRE and enrolled at the school of her choice, but the initial uneasiness she experienced is not at all unusual for adults preparing for standardized tests. Larry Kuvon is an associate professor at Florida State University's College of Education. Many of the students that we work with are adults who are returning after years of being away from school to prepare for a standardized test. They're generally very concerned that they'll not be able to compete with the younger students. My experience is just the opposite. They come back with greater dedication, greater perseverance, and in my experience, they do well. Once you are confident that you know the material, whether it's Spanish vocabulary or geometry, then the next step is to know the test. This means knowing what types of questions you'll be facing. The more acquainted you are with your test and its question types, the better you'll be at pacing yourself, working out the harder questions, and knowing when to skip and when to guess. You can begin knowing your test by studying the sample questions part of your test bulletin. Read the directions for each type of question closely to help you remember the directions. Take the time to underline key phrases. One very important thing that you can do for preparing for standardized aptitude test is learn the instructions for the various types of questions that are on the test. Jane Glight is the program administrator at Florida State University Center for Professional Development. so that when you get to the test taking situation, you're familiar with the instruction. You of course will reread them and then go right on to answer the questions. You save yourself 10 to 15 minutes in the test taking situation. Once you've read and understood the directions, try to answer the sample questions for yourself. Then read the explanation that follows each question to see if you got it right or if you got it wrong, what the right answer is and why. You may have trouble with the instructions or the answers to some of the questions. If you're in school, ask one of your teachers for advice. If you're not in school, you can probably find help at a local college or from someone who has already taken the test. Well, I know it's embarrassing sometimes to go and admit that you don't know something. But it's important that if you come across information that's going to be on the test that you haven't learned yet, that you go to a teacher, go to a counselor, explain what your problem is, and get them to help you by just asking. Many problems can be cleared up quite easily now before the test. But reading through the sample questions usually isn't enough. Most tests have strict time limits, and the questions seem a little harder under that kind of pressure. So, you'll need to prepare yourself for the time limits of the real thing. And you can do that right in your own home. The bulletins for many standardized tests offer sample tests complete with instructions and time limits. If your bulletin does not have a sample test, it should have a form telling you where to send away for one. Taking a sample test is one of the essential steps in proper test preparation. Ever since coming to this country from Colombia, South America, Tony Hernandez has loved working with and for people. That's what drew him to insurance. But before becoming an insurance agent, Tony had to pass a licensing exam. Besides studying and reviewing the material that would be on his test, Tony took an athome sample test. Tony chose a quiet Saturday morning and took the test right in his own kitchen. He set a timer to the time limits for each section of the test so he could simulate the actual test conditions as closely as possible. At the beginning, I was not as comfortable as I thought I would be. I just wasn't used to the ticking of the clock and the feeling that I had to make up my mind right away for each question. But after 10 or 15 minutes, I got used to the feeling and I discovered that I could beat the clock. Later, when I took the test for real, I just pretended that it was another practice test, which really took a lot of pressure off and calm me down. Tony Hernandez passed his licensing exam in his first attempt, and today he is a certified insurance agent. Tony credits his success in part to learning important test taking skills from his sample test. Well, I think a crucial thing to do on a test is pace yourself on that test. Most tests have time limits and most test each question is of an equal value. Therefore, you need to answer as many questions as possible within the time. You spend too much time on any one question, you can hurt yourself by not getting to other questions later on that you could have answered. Here's the best way to pace yourself. Your first time through each section, work through the problems you understand completely. Even if a problem takes an extra 30 seconds, you'll probably get it right, so it's worth the effort. But when you come to a problem you don't understand, for example, if you don't know the meaning to a key word in an analogy, don't let yourself get stuck. Mark it in your book and go on to the next question. Then when you reach the end of the section, if there's still time left, go back to the questions you skipped and try again. Spend a little longer on each one than you did before, especially when you know enough about it to make an educated guess. Careful guessing is recommended for some tests, but when you guess depends on how your test is scored, and you can learn that from your bulletin. Some standardized tests have no penalty for wrong answers. If yours is one of these, you should feel free to guess any question you can't answer. Your correct guesses will earn you points, and your wrong guesses will not be subtracted from your right ones. But other tests do subtract a fraction of a point for each wrong answer. So, if yours is scored like this, you should guess only when you know enough about a question to rule out several possible answers. For example, suppose you skip this sentence completion question because it seemed too difficult at first, but later coming back to it, you realize that it must describe something peaceful. Ominous, which sounds threatening, and intolerable, which means unbearable, are not peaceful words at all. So, you cross them off. Now, having eliminated two choices, it's worth it to take a guess. But if you can narrow it down more, that's even better. Looking at erosive, you may notice that it has the same root as erosion, which isn't a peaceful process either. This leaves two words, and there's a good chance that one of them is the right answer. So, don't hesitate. Choose the one that looks best to you and go on to the next question. One of the things that people forget is that some of the items can be solved with common sense. I'm thinking of a of an item that asked, "How far will a car travel in 1 second going 30 miles an hour?" The possible choices for answers included uh 2 feet and 900 ft. Now, these are obviously not reasonable. We've watched cars traveling 30 mph. You certainly can eliminate these two responses. When you take your sample test, work on your test taking skills. For example, make sure you read all the choices for each question before you pick an answer. You may find several choices that are almost right or partly right. So, you don't want to mark the first choice that looks good when one of the others may be better. Use your test book for scratchwork. Many questions seem hard at first, but with a little figuring, they may turn out to be easier than you thought. Make sure you use a sample answer sheet. And each time you mark an answer, check to see that you're in the right place. Press firmly and avoid making stray marks. Mistakes on the answer sheet can hurt your score. If you develop careful habits while taking your sample test, you'll avoid problems later. After you finish a practice test, it's important to sit down and look at it. Figure out what kinds of questions you had problems with, identify your weaknesses, and then come up with a plan to help you focus on those weaknesses. Now, prior to the test, when the time comes to take your test, you may feel nervous. Don't worry about it. A little anxiety is perfectly natural. During the test, you'll probably feel more pressure than when you took your sample test. And if yours is an aptitude or achievement test, you may be surprised by the number of questions that you can't answer. But don't let this discourage you. You don't need to answer all the questions correctly to score well. In fact, on many standardized tests, you only need to get about half the questions right for an average score. So, stay calm. Pace yourself. Use the test taking skills you developed by taking your sample test. Raise your hand if you find you have a serious problem. For instance, if you've marked a group of answers in the wrong spaces and there's no time to fix them, remember the test supervisor is there to help you solve such problems. the right number. Now, [Music] what happens to your answer sheet once you leave the test center? Well, it's returned to the test company where it's graded by high-speed computers. The computers are backed up by quality control that's done by hand. Then, a few weeks later, your score report will be sent to you. This brings us to the third and final step. Understand what your score means. If you have any questions about your score, simply refer to the interpretation booklet that is enclosed in your score report. A licensing or certification score is easy to understand. Protise Woodford is director of testing programs for ETSS's international office. The results of these tests are usually reported on a pass fail basis. If you answer enough of the questions correctly, you get the license or the certificate that you're after. But even if you don't pass, in most cases, your score report will tell you what your score was and will indicate which subjects gave you the most trouble. And then you can use this information to prepare yourself to take the test again. Aptitude and achievement tests, on the other hand, are reported as a number on a scale. 200 to 800, for example, or 1 to 36. Your score on an aptitude or achievement test doesn't tell you how many questions you got right. It only tells you how well you performed in comparison to others who took the test. If you're a person of average ability, you're likely to get a test score that places you somewhere in the middle of a test score scale. Your score is just a number. Its value depends on where you apply and it's important to remember test scores are just one part of the admissions process. Louise Wise is the director of admissions at Skidmore College. But we're looking to gather every bit of information we possibly can about a young person and we go to the sources for that information. We go to the high school transcript that tells us what kinds of courses a student has studied in high school. and uh uh the level of achievement. Um we go directly to teachers for reports. They're the ones who have had the student in the classroom and they can tell us something about uh initiative and motivation. Those are all extremely important factors if a student is going to go to college. I will now collect a test book and answer sheet from each of you. Ideally, you'll pass your licensing exam or score as well as you'd like on your achievement or aptitude test. But if you feel you can do better, then you should take the test again. And while you prepare for your second try, you should learn from your experience with the first. Remember, use your bulletin and the sample test. They tell you what to expect. [Music] Know the material that will be on your test. [Music] know the test and the types of questions you will be facing. And finally, understand what your score means. We hope that what you've learned in this film will be helpful the next time you take a standardized test. Of course, we can't guarantee that following our advice will help you raise your score, but we do believe that by the time you take your test, you'll be prepared, you'll feel confident, and the score you get will accurately reflect your own knowledge, skills, and abilities. I'm Bill Paul. And I'm Shirley Brown. Good luck. Heat. Heat. [Music]