Ace Any Test by Ron Fry, 6th Edition

Ace Any Test by Ron Fry, 6th Edition

Many of you reading this are adults. Some of you are returning to school, and some of you are long out of school, but if you can learn now the study skills your teachers never taught you, you will do better in your careers.
All too many of you are parents with the same lament: “How do I get Jill to do better in school? She just doesn’t test well.”
If you’re a high school student, you should be particularly comfortable with both the language and format of this book—its relatively short sentences and paragraphs, occasionally humorous (hopefully) headings and subheadings, and a reasonable but certainly not outrageous vocabulary. I wrote it with you in mind!
If you’re a junior high school student, you are trying to learn how to study at precisely the right time. If you’re serious enough about studying to be reading this book, I doubt you’ll have trouble with the concepts or the language.
If you’re a “traditional” college student, who went right on to college from high school, how’d you manage that leap without mastering test-taking techniques? Well, here you are, facing more and tougher tests than ever before.
If you’re the parent of a student of any age, your child’s school is probably doing little if anything to teach him how to study. Which means he is not learning how to learn and that means he is not learning how to succeed?
Okay, here they are, the rules for parents of students of any age:
1. Set up a homework area. Free of distraction, well lit, with all necessary supplies handy.
2. Set up a homework routine. When and where it gets done. Studies have clearly shown that
students who establish a regular routine are better organized and, as a result, more successful.
3. Set homework priorities. Actually, just make the point that homework is the priority—before a date, before TV, before going out to play, whatever.
4. Make reading a habit—for them, certainly, but also for yourselves. Kids will inevitably do
what you do, not what you say (even if you say not to do what you do).
5. Turn off the TV. Or at the very least, severely limit when and how much TV watching is
appropriate. This may be the toughest suggestion to enforce. I know. I was the parent of a
teenager.
6. Talk to the teachers. Find out what your kids are supposed to be learning. If you don’t know
the books they’re supposed to be reading, what’s expected of them in class, and how much
homework they should be scheduling, you can’t really give them the help they need.
7. Encourage and motivate, but don’t nag them to do their homework. It doesn’t work. The more you insist, the quicker they will tune you out.
8. Supervise their work, but don’t fall into the trap of doing their homework. Checking (i.e.,
proofreading) a paper, for example, is a positive way to help your child in school. But if you
simply put in corrections without your child learning from her mistakes, you’re not helping her at
all…except in the belief that she is not responsible for her own work.
9. Praise them when they succeed, but don’t over praise them for mediocre work. Kids know
when you’re being insincere and, again, will quickly tune you out.
10. Convince them of reality. (This is for older students.) Okay, I’ll admit it’s almost as much of a stretch as turning off the TV, but learning and believing that the real world will not care about their grades, but will measure them by what they know and what they can do, is a lesson that will save many tears (probably yours). It’s probably never too early to (carefully) let your boy or girl genius get the message that life is not fair.
11. If you can afford it, get your kid(s) a computer and all the software they can handle. There
really is no avoiding it: Your kids, whatever their ages, absolutely must be computer savvy in
order to survive in and after school.
12. Turn off the TV already!
13. Get wired. The Internet is the greatest invention of our age and an unbelievable tool for students of any age. It is impossible for a student to succeed without the ability to surf online. They’ve got to be connected.
14. But turn off IM (Instant Messaging) while doing homework. They will attempt to convince you that they can write a term paper, do their geometry homework, and IM their friends at the same time. Parents who believe this have also been persuaded that the best study area is in front of the TV.

Dos and Don’ts About Tests and Testing
1. Don’t get overanxious about your child’s test scores. Too much emphasis solely on grades can
upset a child, especially one already chafing under too much pressure.
2. Children who are afraid of failing are more likely to make mistakes on tests. Help them feel
confident about everything they do.
3. Don’t judge your child by a single test score, no matter how important the test. No test is a
perfect measure of what a child can do or what she has actually learned.
4. Talk to your child’s teacher as often as possible. Her assessment will be a far better measure of
how your child is doing than any test, or even any series of tests.
5. Make sure your child attends school regularly. You can’t do well on tests if you are rarely in
class.
6. Make sure your child gets enough sleep, especially before a big test. Tired eyes lead to tired
grades.
7. Review test results with your child and show them what they can learn from a graded exam
paper. This is especially crucial in math and the sciences, where a new concept builds upon the
previous ones.
8. Look at the wrong answers. Find out why she answered as she did. This will identify times when your child knew the right answer but didn’t fully understand the question.
9. Read and discuss any teacher comments on the test, especially if your child received a poor
grade.