Predict test questions or read them all?
March 29, 2012 10:14 AM Subscribe
Is it better to predict a test answer then look for the choice that matches or read through each answer choice on middle school standardized tests?
I've worked as an SAT coach in the past. The test prep outfits strongly advise high school students to predict their own correct answer and only then search for the choice that most closely matches their predicted answer. This saves a ton of time once the kids get the hang of it. Only when kids can't come up with a prediction are they advised to read through all the choices.
Right now, however, I'm working on a project to provide study tips for middle school standardized test takers. Much of the online advice for elementary school and middle grades test takers tells kids to carefully read through each of the answer choices. There's no mention of the predict-and-match strategy, which works so well. I'm just starting my research, so anyone who can direct me to evidence-based information on this particular test taking strategy vis à vis middle school testing will be remembered in my will.
Feel free to weigh in middle school teachers. Thank you.
I've worked as an SAT coach in the past. The test prep outfits strongly advise high school students to predict their own correct answer and only then search for the choice that most closely matches their predicted answer. This saves a ton of time once the kids get the hang of it. Only when kids can't come up with a prediction are they advised to read through all the choices.
Right now, however, I'm working on a project to provide study tips for middle school standardized test takers. Much of the online advice for elementary school and middle grades test takers tells kids to carefully read through each of the answer choices. There's no mention of the predict-and-match strategy, which works so well. I'm just starting my research, so anyone who can direct me to evidence-based information on this particular test taking strategy vis à vis middle school testing will be remembered in my will.
Feel free to weigh in middle school teachers. Thank you.
I am a middle-school teacher. I tell my kids to answer the question, then look for the best choice. If none of the choices match, it prompts them to realize they made a mistake and redo their work. Reading the answer choices without thinking about the question prompts them to be lazy and choose an easy distractor, usually choice A.
Only if they are stuck, I tell them to try to eliminate and guess. I think it's not too much for middle schoolers to know more than one strategy.
posted by mai at 10:51 AM on March 29, 2012 [1 favorite]
Only if they are stuck, I tell them to try to eliminate and guess. I think it's not too much for middle schoolers to know more than one strategy.
posted by mai at 10:51 AM on March 29, 2012 [1 favorite]
Reading the answer choices without thinking about the question prompts them to be lazy and choose an easy distractor, usually choice A
I'm not so sure about that. Reading the answers first saves a ton of time, and if you have any clue about the subject at all, it's pretty easy to eliminate the obviously wrong ones. Test taking is a specialized skill, not a way to learn the actual subject.
posted by Ideefixe at 10:59 AM on March 29, 2012
I'm not so sure about that. Reading the answers first saves a ton of time, and if you have any clue about the subject at all, it's pretty easy to eliminate the obviously wrong ones. Test taking is a specialized skill, not a way to learn the actual subject.
posted by Ideefixe at 10:59 AM on March 29, 2012
By "predict" it sounds like you mean "work out".
In that case, I'd say the best strategy is to consider both as a way of sense-checking each other.
In other words you not only work out that the answer is X, you also look at all the options and ask yourself, "Could the actual answer be Y? Might I have made a mistake when I calculated X?"
Also, the best strategy in a test can vary with the circumstances. For example, in some cases it is easy and quick to eliminate all the wrong answers, and relatively time consuming to calculate the correct answer. If you have plenty of time, you can do both as I suggested before, but if time is very tight, and you are confident in your elimination process, you could just do that. (And maybe come back later if there is time left over.)
Actually a really valuable skill to have in life, not just for taking tests, is being able to assess how much confidence you can have in your own thinking. One of the qualities of people who are very good at math for example is that they are always sense-checking everything, looking for counter-examples to refute their own conclusions, working things out two different ways to cross-check, etc.
posted by philipy at 11:12 AM on March 29, 2012 [2 favorites]
In that case, I'd say the best strategy is to consider both as a way of sense-checking each other.
In other words you not only work out that the answer is X, you also look at all the options and ask yourself, "Could the actual answer be Y? Might I have made a mistake when I calculated X?"
Also, the best strategy in a test can vary with the circumstances. For example, in some cases it is easy and quick to eliminate all the wrong answers, and relatively time consuming to calculate the correct answer. If you have plenty of time, you can do both as I suggested before, but if time is very tight, and you are confident in your elimination process, you could just do that. (And maybe come back later if there is time left over.)
Actually a really valuable skill to have in life, not just for taking tests, is being able to assess how much confidence you can have in your own thinking. One of the qualities of people who are very good at math for example is that they are always sense-checking everything, looking for counter-examples to refute their own conclusions, working things out two different ways to cross-check, etc.
posted by philipy at 11:12 AM on March 29, 2012 [2 favorites]
philipy is spot on in my view.
I teach middle school math test prep, and I advocate doing both approaches, depending on the circumstances. The approach you're talking about is definitely a "hammer," I just don't think it's the only tool in the box.
For example, today I had a word problem where the correct approach was to do 261 / 9, and a bunch of distractor answers that resulted from multiplying, adding, or subtracting the numbers, and I had "none of the above." The brightest students were able to use number sense to choose "none of the above," clearly favoring the "look through all the answer choices first" approach in that case, though I also thought it was great that other students were able to work out the division, get 29, and solve the problem that way. (Though admittedly that question was sort of right down the middle of the plate.)
Also, today I had a preposterous problem with my eighth graders where they had to multiply a decimal by something in scientific notation. All of the answer choices were in scientific notation, which guided the approach somewhat, because it made sense to convert the decimal to scientific notation rather than vice versa. So in that case, it was worth a shot to at least look the answers over first.
There are also times when there turns out to be "more than one right answer," which really means the student misread the question and missed the "NOT," which means it makes sense to check over all of the answers, not just to make sure that one of them is right, but to make sure that no more than one of them are "right," whether you're making a prediction and then scanning, or scanning first and then number crunching.
Something I try to work on with my students is describing the common mistakes that lead to the wrong answers being there as choices. I think this is probably a good thing to keep in mind while taking the actual test, because occasionally one of these other lines of thought will actually turn out to be the right one, and the line of thought the student was on will turn out to be a really tempting wrong one. So I'd try to work that into the "make a prediction and search for it" approach- see if you can figure out why someone might be tempted to pick one or more of the wrong answers.
posted by alphanerd at 12:47 PM on March 29, 2012
I teach middle school math test prep, and I advocate doing both approaches, depending on the circumstances. The approach you're talking about is definitely a "hammer," I just don't think it's the only tool in the box.
For example, today I had a word problem where the correct approach was to do 261 / 9, and a bunch of distractor answers that resulted from multiplying, adding, or subtracting the numbers, and I had "none of the above." The brightest students were able to use number sense to choose "none of the above," clearly favoring the "look through all the answer choices first" approach in that case, though I also thought it was great that other students were able to work out the division, get 29, and solve the problem that way. (Though admittedly that question was sort of right down the middle of the plate.)
Also, today I had a preposterous problem with my eighth graders where they had to multiply a decimal by something in scientific notation. All of the answer choices were in scientific notation, which guided the approach somewhat, because it made sense to convert the decimal to scientific notation rather than vice versa. So in that case, it was worth a shot to at least look the answers over first.
There are also times when there turns out to be "more than one right answer," which really means the student misread the question and missed the "NOT," which means it makes sense to check over all of the answers, not just to make sure that one of them is right, but to make sure that no more than one of them are "right," whether you're making a prediction and then scanning, or scanning first and then number crunching.
Something I try to work on with my students is describing the common mistakes that lead to the wrong answers being there as choices. I think this is probably a good thing to keep in mind while taking the actual test, because occasionally one of these other lines of thought will actually turn out to be the right one, and the line of thought the student was on will turn out to be a really tempting wrong one. So I'd try to work that into the "make a prediction and search for it" approach- see if you can figure out why someone might be tempted to pick one or more of the wrong answers.
posted by alphanerd at 12:47 PM on March 29, 2012
The correct approach should be for them to work the problem and get the solution, and then it will be one of the answers. Teaching them how to game the test muddies the results. Instead of learning what academic weaknesses and strengths the students have, all you learn is who is better at the game of test taking.
Besides just this test, learning that approach is going to mess them up for future tests, which will surely have far fewer opportunities to just predict answers based on matching orders of magnitude or units. I am struggling like hell with an industry cert test that does just this. Lots of "choose all of the correct answers" where it could be none, one or all of the answers. Since I DO tend to game tests, it is killing me. It also turns out to take more time than just being conversant with the information.
Quibble: "Test taking is a specialized skill, not a way to learn the actual subject."
Correct, test taking is a skill that needs to be practiced, but is easily mastered. But tests are administered to determine whether someone has already learned the subject. All the learning should theoretically have already been done.
posted by gjc at 3:21 PM on March 29, 2012
Besides just this test, learning that approach is going to mess them up for future tests, which will surely have far fewer opportunities to just predict answers based on matching orders of magnitude or units. I am struggling like hell with an industry cert test that does just this. Lots of "choose all of the correct answers" where it could be none, one or all of the answers. Since I DO tend to game tests, it is killing me. It also turns out to take more time than just being conversant with the information.
Quibble: "Test taking is a specialized skill, not a way to learn the actual subject."
Correct, test taking is a skill that needs to be practiced, but is easily mastered. But tests are administered to determine whether someone has already learned the subject. All the learning should theoretically have already been done.
posted by gjc at 3:21 PM on March 29, 2012
Seconding philipy and alphanerd in that there's not one answer. I'd say it's going to depend on a) the student and b) the test. Sorry to be squishy, but here's my logic:
a) A student's speed at reading and/or math-figgering is going to be the deciding factor in how I advise them to approach the relevant test section(s). Speedy McFast needs to be looking at all the answer choices because s/he is likely to fall for trick answer choices (like 7x7 versus 7+7, above). Slowpoke McDawdle is going to run out of time if s/he doesn't use tricks like yours.
b) Some tests will be more trick-question-heavy than others: I definitely see more of that kind of stuff on the SAT, while the ACT allows less time per question but tends to be more straightforward.
I'd hope a middle-school test is not relying on trick questions to shape the curve - but that's something to think about when you evaluate this particular test.
posted by snoe at 8:03 PM on March 29, 2012
a) A student's speed at reading and/or math-figgering is going to be the deciding factor in how I advise them to approach the relevant test section(s). Speedy McFast needs to be looking at all the answer choices because s/he is likely to fall for trick answer choices (like 7x7 versus 7+7, above). Slowpoke McDawdle is going to run out of time if s/he doesn't use tricks like yours.
b) Some tests will be more trick-question-heavy than others: I definitely see more of that kind of stuff on the SAT, while the ACT allows less time per question but tends to be more straightforward.
I'd hope a middle-school test is not relying on trick questions to shape the curve - but that's something to think about when you evaluate this particular test.
posted by snoe at 8:03 PM on March 29, 2012
In most fields, beginners get taught simple rules to help them get started, but those simple rules are only a crude approximation of what people who are fluent in the field really do. (The "field" in this case being both the subject X, and taking-tests-on-subject-X.)
What people who are adept do doesn't lend itself to simple rules, because it is rather fuzzy, based on recognizing lots of different patterns and special cases, and applying "shortcuts" and techniques particular to those patterns.
One major pitfall of teaching people the simple rules as if they are the one best way of doing things is that the less confident of them might never be able to get to the mastery stage because of always trying to do things that one "best" way.
This means whether you want to emphasize simple strategies might depend on the capabilities or confidence of the learner. If they are hopelessly floundering, some simple strategies might well help them raise their game to some degree.
On the other hand if they are both good at the subject and understand their own capabilities and limitations, the best approach could be pretty nuanced. Recognizing for example: "On this particular problem, it will be hard (for me) to do the calculations without making a mistake, but looking at the options available, it is very easy (for me) to eliminate all the wrong answers with complete confidence."
Btw, such skills are not just for testing-taking. If you are trying to solve a problem in real-life, it is important to be able to tell "If I use method X, that will be time-consuming and error prone". Which doesn't mean you never use method X, it means maybe it's one of the sledgehammers in your toolbox that you bring out only when you can't see a simpler way.
For the most part, if you find yourself believing that there is one true way that all people should do something in every possible circumstance, that is usually a warning sign that you've still got a lot to learn about that field.
In real life the "rules" are seldom like "It's always I before E" and more often like "It's generally I before E, except after C, and not forgetting this long list of exceptions....".
posted by philipy at 11:38 AM on March 30, 2012
What people who are adept do doesn't lend itself to simple rules, because it is rather fuzzy, based on recognizing lots of different patterns and special cases, and applying "shortcuts" and techniques particular to those patterns.
One major pitfall of teaching people the simple rules as if they are the one best way of doing things is that the less confident of them might never be able to get to the mastery stage because of always trying to do things that one "best" way.
This means whether you want to emphasize simple strategies might depend on the capabilities or confidence of the learner. If they are hopelessly floundering, some simple strategies might well help them raise their game to some degree.
On the other hand if they are both good at the subject and understand their own capabilities and limitations, the best approach could be pretty nuanced. Recognizing for example: "On this particular problem, it will be hard (for me) to do the calculations without making a mistake, but looking at the options available, it is very easy (for me) to eliminate all the wrong answers with complete confidence."
Btw, such skills are not just for testing-taking. If you are trying to solve a problem in real-life, it is important to be able to tell "If I use method X, that will be time-consuming and error prone". Which doesn't mean you never use method X, it means maybe it's one of the sledgehammers in your toolbox that you bring out only when you can't see a simpler way.
For the most part, if you find yourself believing that there is one true way that all people should do something in every possible circumstance, that is usually a warning sign that you've still got a lot to learn about that field.
In real life the "rules" are seldom like "It's always I before E" and more often like "It's generally I before E, except after C, and not forgetting this long list of exceptions....".
posted by philipy at 11:38 AM on March 30, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
That would seem to be an argument against your described strategy.
posted by COD at 10:45 AM on March 29, 2012