LP 5 Testing Tips
Pacific Coast Academy
Testing is a Life Skill
Process of Elimination
On a multiple-choice test, if you eliminate one or two of the answer choices, your odds of "guessing" the correct answer go up. Let's say you have 4 options to choose from, but you know 2 of the options are incorrect. You just helped yourself go from a 25% chance of being correct to a 50% chance of being correct.
One of my favorite ways to practice the process of elimination is by doing fun critical thinking games! Sudoku, Logic Problems, and Word Searches all use the process of elimination to help find the solution.
Reading Question and Answer Options First
In our daily lives, it's always helpful to "know before you go". Think of this like preparing for an interview. Before you go in, you should research the company, review your own resume and qualifications you put down on your application, review the job description, and practice common interview questions for the potential job.
Reading the questions and answer options gives the student a chance to "know before they go" into reading the passage. It allows the student to orient themselves on what to focus on while reading.
Using the Highlight and Notepad Universal Tools within the CAASPP testing interface goes hand-in-hand with this testing strategy!
Resources to Practice Testing Strategies
The IXL Challenge continues through the end of LP 6. There is still time to catch up and be entered into our raffle! The IXL Challenge is a great tool to practice using the Process of Elimination and reading the questions and answer choices first.
Other great tools that PCA recommends include Ellevation Math, i-Ready, Khan Academy, and, of course, the CAASPP practice portal!
Look out for some other recommendations from your HST later this LP.