5 Tips to Help Prepare for Your Student's Next Test

For many students, test taking can be very emotional and difficult. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be! By being a supportive and involved parent, you can help your student prepare to ace their next test. Many creative methods, many of them involving quality family time, can help your student be better prepared and less anxious as test day approaches. The private schools in Polk County want to make sure that your student is as prepared as possible. 

• Study a little at a time: Cramming at the last minute is not going to work well. If your student does not perform well while cramming, which is likely, it could stress them out even more. If you and your son or daughter know a test is coming up, cover a little material each night.

• Engage with your student regularly: For many students, simply repeating what they covered in class can help them retain more information. It also gives you, the parent, an idea of what is going on in class and when exams may be coming. During car rides or free time, simply ask your child what they’ve been learning!

• Alleviate pressure: Students are stressed as it is. It is a great idea to try to motivate your student to do well for themselves. Avoid adding extra pressure which is caused by motivating students with a potential punishment if they don’t do well or a reward if they perform well. Allow your child to focus on the exam and don’t distract them with exterior motivations.

• Get your student’s senses involved. Students are much more likely to retain information if they do more than just read it. For example, math problems can be completed with physical elements, like a pizza for fractions. Hearing a section of their book, rather than reading it themselves, may help retain the information. Get creative with the way your student studies.

• Be thorough. Benjamin Franklin said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Make sure your student is fully-prepared by skimming through the study guide, checking out the questions at the end of each chapter, and gauging your student’s overall comfort with the material. Preparing thoroughly will help students feel more comfortable when they see the same material on their test.

 Instilling these study strategies in your student now won’t only help them prepare for tests. It will help to establish a strong work ethic, an appreciation of proper preparation, and it will serve as quality time between you and the student. Exams can be stressful, but they don’t have to be. Tests are meant to communicate to a teacher what students are truly learning. With these simple study tips, a test can be just that. Hopefully, enacting these tips can enable your child to perform even better in their private school in Polk County. Read our blog to learn more about our Catholic schools, education, and how parents can help their children succeed on standardized tests and in school.