Do you know children who struggle on standardized tests? Do you want to help them?
Becoming Test Savvy is an insider's guide for parents and teachers who want to improve their children's standardized test performance. Combining his experience as a standardized test question writer and over 30 years' experience working with students, training teachers, and publishing books on improving test scores, Bob Alexander is making his highly effective strategies accessible for everyone. In addition to individual students, K-12 public and private schools have documented exceptional results using his copyrighted approaches to improve scores.
This ground-breaking book provides a unique, insider's perspective on how test writers develop those "tricky" questions and answers while explaining proven test-taking strategies that can conquer them. This engaging, motivating approach describes how standardized tests are surprisingly like games. The parallels to sports, video games, and board games will astound you and encourage your child to keep working. You and your children will learn the opponent's (test writer's) game plans for developing questions. More importantly, the book explains proven strategies that tens of thousands of students have used to beat test writers at the testing game. Dozens of specific activities are provided to use with your children/students to level the playing field for test day.
Becoming Test Savvy is designed to help parents and teachers: - Transform children's attitudes toward standardized tests.
- Explain these tests and how to approach them.
- Reveal rules that test writers must follow.
- Understand how teacher-made tests and standardized tests are different.
- Recognize that standardized tests require critical thinking skills.
- Teach powerful analytical and reasoning skills that are used by successful test takers.
- Provide concrete strategies to attack test questions.
- Engage students in exercises to practice these strategies.
Reviewing content and teaching test format has gotten test takers their current scores. Learning how to approach the test analytically improves students' performance even more. Educators who have used this program have reported a bonus--students who employ these strategies for attacking word problems and reading passages boost their classroom performance as well.
As you and your child/students get into the test writer's head, you will discover this test-taking system does not simply apply to any particular test. It has been highly effective for elementary, middle, and high school students. The techniques have helped test takers conquer state tests as well as national tests like the ACT, SAT, Stanford (SAT10), SSAT, GRE, GMAT, and even licensure exams. The additional payoff is that students report learning their new skills is both motivating and fun.
Unquestionably, by the end of the book, you will be asking yourself what a CBS reporter exclaimed on his television news program, "Where was this guy when I took the test?"
