4 Ways to Build Student Confidence and Prepare them for Tests

Building Student Confidence around Test taking Preparation

May 7, 2023

Let’s be honest, tests can be a source of stress and anxiety for students of all ages. But with the right strategies and mindset, anyone can become a successful test taker. Whether you’re an educator looking for new ways to support your students or a parent who’s trying to help your child succeed, this article will be beneficial for you. (My aim is to boost test prep confidence for every learner with these simple strategies.) End-of-semester assessments are still a few weeks away, but I wanted to offer actionable, step-by-step strategies to help your child and learners to build their confidence.

These skills are designed to help students to understand how they can approach a test. While we do know that some kids get very anxious, there are ways that they can monitor both their timing and mindset (for example, when they see the test, asking themselves: what does my body do? what does my mind do? how do I feel?) We want to help students to be calm and to be able to focus on the task at hand.

1. How to read and interpret test questions

Students need to know how to read and not only read, but to understand the questions that are being asked of them. Teachers can provide students with strategies for understanding question types, such as identifying keywords/finding the main idea and determining what the question is asking.

Encourage students to read the question and all the answer choices carefully before selecting an answer. Students can be very confident and when they see an answer, they think, “Oh, that’s it!” However, we need to remind them to go through all of the answer choices carefully before they make that choice. Even if it is B, you still want to train them to read over C & D and to explain why those are not the answer before settling on answer B.

** Next week I will publish an example of an excellent reading analogy that I use with students. Follow us on Facebook where you will be able to print a copy for your classroom and at home.

https://www.facebook.com/literacyforkidsaustralia/

https://www.facebook.com/literacyforboys/

2. How to manage their time

Students need to know how to pace themselves during a test to ensure that they have enough time to complete all the questions and that they’re not feeling anxious. We want to avoid feelings of anxiety and overwhelm when they look at the clock and often rush (leading to errors). Here are some strategies for managing their time:

a) allocating a certain amount of time to answer each question

b) moving on to the next question if they are unsure of an answer

c) set parameters about missing answers and inform them that they shouldn’t be skipping more than x amount of questions

Timed exercises throughout the term can be helpful in order to help students build their time management skills and stamina to complete work within a time frame.

3. Process of elimination

Students need to know how to eliminate incorrect answers to improve their chances of selecting the correct answer. Here are some ideas:

crossing out clearly incorrect answers like those obvious, misleading answers that just can’t be it
eliminating answers that do not fit with the context of the question. For example, if a question asks: Which of the following is not a mammal? and one of the answer choices is zebra, students should eliminate that because zebras are mammals, so that one clearly cannot fit.
use their knowledge of the subject matter to eliminate incorrect choices

Give your learners practice questions that are going to require them to use the process of elimination and provide feedback on their strategies. Ask them, “How did you get to this elimination?” “What’s your thinking behind eliminating this answer?”

When you are practicing this elimination strategy, I suggest that you include easier examples to build their confidence. Confidence and belief in oneself are so important. We want to avoid issuing students with those hard hitting questions that we know are going to actually shut them down and make them feel like they cannot get to the right answer.

4. Positive self-talk and feedback

Literacy For Kids now available for schools

Teach students the power of positive self-talk. Encourage them to replace negative thoughts or self-doubt with positive affirmations. Provide students with strategies for staying calm such as taking deep breaths to visualising success, reminding themselves that they are well prepared and that they can do it. Also, we are human and make mistakes but take the time to do their very best.

Providing positive feedback and encouragement to students to help boost their confidence if you see them working really hard. Whether they get it right or not, offer feedback such as “Great job tackling that, even though we got the wrong answer.” “I love how you showed your work and you went back to the text.” “Well done on moving through those paragraphs and annotating – that’s going to really help when you get to tricky questions.” “You are going to save yourself time by organising your test that way – great work!”

Our programs ~ Literacy for Boys and Literacy for Kids ~ have had a huge uptake with schools and homeschoolers this year. It reflects two things:

a) the need for quality reading material that engages students

b) a decline in reading skills over the past three years (COVID’s impact largely)

We are incredibly passionate about improving kids’ literacy – research consistently supports the fact that confident readers achieve more highly than disengaged learners.

If we can get our children to enjoy reading they will grow into a reader, and that reader has more doors open to them in this world.

If you are wanting a resource that can boost your child’s or class’ literacy in 2023, please visit Literacy for Boys or Literacy for Kids

Check out our recent appearance on Channel 7 News ~

Parents ~ sign up for a free 30-day trial and improve your son’s literacy for the upcoming school year!

As an educator, do you want more from your literacy program? Contact us for a 30-day free trial in your school or classroom. Sign up for our newsletter and get FREE Comprehension Worksheets for Years 3 to 9.