Help Yourself AND Your Teen Prove What You Know
Defined by Cambridge Dictionary as “a way of discovering, by questions, or practical activities, what someone knows, or what someone or something can do or is like,” testing is an activity that teens and really everyone is subject to throughout their lives.
Tests start early in your child’s life. Do you remember the first time your child let go of your fingers and was able to stand alone? It was a test.
How many times did your child let go and fall before he took his first steps?
Seeing what a person can do while learning is often called a formative assessment. Formative assessments can be very casual like that finger release to see if your child can stand alone, or it could be in the classroom when your child is doing work at the board. The teacher wants to see what your teen can do before an actual test with a grade.
Testing can be a challenging topic.
Many teachers are frustrated by the number of days taken from learning by state and federal testing. While it can chip away at classroom time, those tests can affect a school’s funding and in some cases the school’s future.
Your teen may see little value in the testing. Unfortunately, some schools use scores from the testing for class placement. More than one student has found himself in an unnecessary remedial class because he tapped the same letter answer for every question without reading a single one. He assumed his performance didn’t matter because it wasn’t worth any points.
Encourage your teen to do well on these tests to get an accurate record of his knowledge. While these state and federal tests can be frustrating, there is an opportunity for your teen that she may not realize, starting with maybe testing into a class your child DOES want to take like an upper level class not accessible to everyone.
Another opportunity is to practice testing, to become comfortable in a testing atmosphere, and to use test taking strategies that can benefit her the rest of her life. Practice now on these tests without a grade to be prepared for the tests that matter more.
When I talk with homeschoolers, I am often told they do not “test.” While I appreciate this information, I know many homeschoolers who eventually want to attend university. For those students, a placement test is often required.
Those tests are standardized. The purpose is that all students will be compared using the same measuring stick. In the US, many colleges were turning away from the SAT and ACT. It seemed that the tests were not a fair assessment of the teen as a whole student. There may be truth to that, but how does a college know your teen is ready academically?
The standardized tests are designed to ask your teen questions that let your teen show his knowledge of core subjects like reading, writing, science, and mathematics.
Placement tests can be a part of this standardized testing.
Is your teen at the level she needs to be to write college-level papers? Does he have the math skills to successfully navigate statistics and other college-level math courses?
When I did a quick web search for tests for teens in education, there were results indicating 4 types of testing, 10 types of testing, and even an article about 20 types of testing!
Knowing there are so many tests out there, it becomes even more important that your teen knows HOW to test. Because it’s so important to your teen’s success, I include a module on test taking in my Love to Learn study skills program and offer test taking workshops.
With test taking skills, teens know what to do to take a test confidently.
With test taking skills, your teen can walk into a test with a plan. A teen with a plan is ahead of the young woman who looks like a deer in headlights. The teen with a plan is also ahead of the young man who never studied because this stuff seemed so easy.
While studying for a test, does your teen know when to take breaks, how long to study, what studying actually means (and looks like), and how often to study?
That’s part of the plan before the test.
During the test, which questions should be answered first and why? Where should your teen start? For some teens, starting with question number 1 and continuing down the row is the answer…
But there are some students who starting with the essay would help them score higher.
Every teen is different and how they learn and test is different as well. This goes for you, too.
That is why having a plan is critical.
The thing about testing that you need to remember is that it doesn’t go away. I’ve worked with adult students who were preparing for nursing exams, electrical technician exams, real estate exams, and insurance exams among others.
In a recent article by LinkedIn News, “the number of students attending U.S. colleges and universities grew for the third straight year, the National Student Clearinghouse reported, with community colleges and certificate programs recording the biggest gains.”
It’s great that people are going to college! I believe in the power of education, and yet it is the second part of the sentence that has caught my eye.
Degree candidates at many community colleges and certificate programs are required to take tests in order to benefit from their new degree or certificate.
Going to cosmetology school is a great opportunity. The vast majority of us get our hair cut. However, finishing the course is NOT complete without successfully passing the state licensure test. That license is what lets a person get a better job (or a job, period.)
Does your teen have what it takes to pass the test?
The same goes for medical assistants, dental assistants, and even welders. Each of these programs is followed by a written exam.
Learning the material and having the knowledge to do the job well is imperative. And that’s only possible with study skills. But, knowing the material and proving you know the material are two different things. Don’t forget that having a plan with test taking strategies is what can make passing the exam even more likely.
If you want help with that plan, reach out to me. Making a winning plan is what I do for tweens, teens, young adults, and even adults.
Forever Learning,
Jessyka Coulter
CEO and Founder of Ace Cookie Tutoring