Test Taking

Advice
By Samantha R. Selman
April 26, 2012

Almost everyone comes face to face with a test at some point in their lives. They dread it for weeks, even months, until test day comes and they finally get the chance to test their wits against the test makers. I myself have taken pencil in hand, sat down at a table, and worked through countless problems, countless times. I have succeeded at some and failed at others. However, after a certain number of exams your mind changes. You may begin to think of these tests as games. Tests are basically that games that build your confidence, test your abilities and reward your patience. They can also have negative effects (loss of sleep comes to mind), but in most cases the reward outweighs the struggle. Exams give you the opportunity to get better paying jobs, get accepted into better schools and colleges and become recognized for your efforts. This essay is designed to rid you of the fears leading up to test day, as well as give helpful advice on the methods you could use to tackle the tests easily and effectively. There are four important elements of good test mentality: test awareness, practice, confidence and a relaxed attitude. Know what youll be studying in the test not what questions they will be asking (there is no way to know that) but what subjects you will be working with. I remember the first time I took W3Schools HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) exam. I had not prepared as much as I could have, I had not read their lessons more than once, and I failed. Luckily, their website gives test-takers two tries, and the second time I succeeded. What had I done the second time that I failed to do the first time? I practiced. I re-read their lessons, worked out the examples and coded some independent projects. With any subject, be it mathematics or HTML, practice helps you comprehend the subject. Also, be sure to focus on areas with which you have the most trouble. Confidence helps keep the test-taker from losing his or her nerve. I know from experience that being nervous makes a person more likely to fail. Keep in mind that if you have studied, re-read and practiced the material, there is nothing that should keep you from succeeding. However, the over-confident test-taker is just as likely to fail as the nervous one. Be confident, but dont think every one of your answers are going to be correct; this rarely, if ever, happens. Finally, while taking the test it is important to keep a relaxed attitude. Do not lose your nerve. Look at every test as a challenge and an opportunity to expand your horizons. There are several tricks that the test makers use to confuse test takers. The first are the wrong answer traps. For example, in the PCAT exam there are four possible answers, only one of which is correct. There are usually two that are logical twists on the right answer, one that the test-taker knows is wrong immediately and the one which is correct. Average test-takers usually become torn between two answers. One way to prevent this is by calculating the correct answer before looking at the possible answers. Read the information provided in the equation or passage, cover the answers with your hand, work out the problem if needed and then pick the one from the provided answers that matches or is closest to your answer. Another trick is the confusing question. This is aimed towards test takers who do not take the time to completely analyze the question and instead jump to conclusions. If you are not sure about what the passage or equation is asking you to do, take it apart one instruction at a time until you are certain. Another strategy test makers use is making the questions increasingly more difficult as you go along. This allows you to get comfortable with the test; however, some find that this makes the test more difficult. Feel free to tackle the difficult questions first if that helps, but do not leave a blank space on the grid. Often, the questions you leave unanswered are counted as incorrect and in effect takes away from your score. If you skip around on tests, be careful when transferring answers to the grid. Make sure that if the answer to question 23 is A you are not marking question 22 as A. The PCAT, GED and SAT tests contain sections for mathematical reasoning, reading comprehension, grammar skills (or writing skills) and science. Each one will test your ability to use reasoning despite the titles of the sections. First, let us look at mathematical reasoning. These tests often include many word problems as well as equations and simplification problems. In my experience, the most difficult things to work with in mathematical reasoning are the word problems. Throughout school we are presented with text books containing problems for us to solve and simplify; as long as we know the procedures used to simplify them, these are simple. Word problems, on the other hand, present us with several pieces of information, ask us to put them into mathematical form and then deduct a solution. For example, look at the question on the next page:

One Saint Bernard eats four pounds of food each week. There are fifty-two weeks in a year. How much do ten Saint Bernards eat in a week? (A) 40 lbs. (B) 520 lbs. (C) 208 lbs. (D) 20 lbs. In this problem we have three pieces of information: one Saint Bernard eats four pounds of food each week, there are fifty-two weeks in a year and we need to know how much food ten Saint Bernards consume in a week. One of these facts is unneeded and is only used to distract you. The problem is asking us to find the amount of food consumed by ten dogs who eat four pounds of food each within a week. Since there are ten dogs, you simply multiply four times ten to come to the conclusion that the answer is (A). If you allowed the superfluous data sidetrack you, you may have mistakenly answered (B) or (C). When you first look at the answers, (D) sticks out because it automatically seems too small an amount; if each dog ate four pounds a week, and we only fed them a total of twenty pounds of food, we would be starving them! Always think realistically; five-hundred and twenty pounds of food would be too much, as would two-hundred and eight. Twenty pounds would be too little. Therefore, the answer must be forty. In the PCAT exam, a majority of the problems are word problems. Be sure to practice them and develop your own strategies of solving them before taking this test. Reading comprehension is used to test your critical thinking abilities. The reading comprehension section often includes passages that you must read and answer questions about. These passages usually consist of excerpts from magazines such as National Geographic and Scientific American. However, the questions in the reading comprehension section do not require you to know anything about science. It merely asks you to read something and answer questions about the content. Despite this, do not think this section is easy even if you love reading. You will have to develop ideas about what you read and these ideas must also be factitious and relevant to the questions following the passage. Often you will be asked to distinguish between fact and opinion. In these cases you must look for keywords signaling a biased observation. For example Global warming is a myth is a biased opinion. However, There are several signs that signal the existence of global warming is an irrefutable fact. When confused about this type of question, ask yourself, Is it possible that someone could disagree with this? or Are there any facts provided in the text that indicate this statement is unbiased and irrefutable? The grammar and writing section requires you to either read a sentence and indicate if there are any grammatical errors or write an essay (or both). When writing an essay, be sure to re-read what you write. If there are any errors, fix them immediately. Write in your neatest handwriting and make logical connections to the subject you are writing about. When correcting grammatical errors, the suspected error will often be underlined or placed in italics. You will be asked what the underlined word or phrase should be changed to. In some cases you will be asked what word should be used in place of a blank space in the sentence. This is, in my experience, one of the easier sections of the test but should still be treated with utmost consideration. Finally, the science section. When using critical thinking as in the reading comprehension section this section can be easily passed. You are not (in most cases) required to know every element, its abbreviation and its location in the periodic table. If asked a questions about the periodic table, for example, there will usually be an image of the periodic table somewhere in the section that you may draw from. You may be provided an example of the rate at which a certain type of bacteria multiplies, then asked at what time it will reach a certain number. In my experience with GED practice books such as Contemporarys GED, the science section combines reading comprehension with mathematical reasoning and places it in a Chemistry or Biology example. Do not worry about the appearance of most science problems; you will have multiple-choice questions and there will always be only one correct answer. Usually there will be a passage or diagram to read. If you are not sure of the answer, even after re-reading the information given several times, do not be afraid to answer with an educated guess. Simplify the problem as much as you can but do not be held up by one question. Remember to use critical thinking, take the problems apart one piece at a time and do your best.