Test-Taking Strategies

Book excerpt: THE STUDY SMART SERIES, designed for students from junior high school through lifelong learning programs, teaches skills for research and note-taking, provides exercises to improve grammar, and reveals secrets for putting these skills together in great essays. Test taking is a skill apart from learning course material, a skill every student must acquire in order to survive. Test-Taking Strategies is the book for anyone who has ever dreaded an exam. Strategies for taking every kind of test are dealt with—objective tests (multiple choice, true/false, matching), essay tests, and oral exams. The authors also offer help for handling anxiety, explaining relaxation and desensitization techniques that help students control nervousness and keep it from detracting from performance. There are tips for managing time during the test, knowing when to guess, and for pulling answers out of your memory even when the question drew a blank at first glance. Essay tests and oral exams are particularly gruesome for most students, and until now there has been very little advice for handling such tests. Test-Taking Strategies includes plenty of advice for developing ideas while under pressure.