<p>I am a freshman at Penn State University. I know the material well before each test but when I read the questions, the wording on the test confuses me and I end up putting the wrong answer. Is there any advice, test-studying skills you can offer? This is very frustrating because I feel that I know it and then I am disappointed by the test results!</p>
<p>I have a feeling you might not know the material as well as you think. In college classes the professors often use wording that can confuse a student that doesn’t have total mastery of the material. Are you taking good notes in class? Make sure you are going over those in depth (many times high school student rely on just studying their text and in college this won’t be enough). After you thoroughly understand your notes make sure you do all the assigned reading and take good notes on that. A good approach after you have done these two things is to try to make a graphic organizer of the material. Try to figure out the big picture and all the supporting details. Determine how things are interrelated.</p>
<p>If this doesn’t help go talk with the professor. Maybe he/she can go over a few questions and they can point out the type of mistakes you are making and this will give you further insight into how to prepare.</p>
<p>Keep working diligently and you will have success. You might need to alter your approach a little but that is what you’re supposed to be doing in college, challenging what you know, how you approach things and readjusting. It will be a little uncomfortable at first but that is just a sign that you are pushing yourself.</p>
<p>Go to your college’s Writing Center or tutoring center or whatever it is that they call this office - every school has one. It’s designed to help you not only master the subjects, but learn how to study (college studying is different than high school studying) and how to take tests.</p>
<p>Are you reading the textbook? Here’s why I ask. Professors might cover everything in lecture and it’s easy for a student to skip the reading. Now, if the professor happens to be using a test bank, the language will mirror the language of the book, not the lecture.</p>
<p>Second recommendations to seek a tutor who can help you learn to study the subject and to study more. First semester freshman year has a pretty steep learning curve. It’s very common for students to think they’re prepared, but still have more work to do.</p>
<p>Did your professor provide any kind of study guide prior to your test? If not, you may want to ask for one next time, either in class or during office hours. If he/she doesn’t do “study guides” ask what specifically you should be prepared to be tested on (the worst kind of profs are the ones that say “everything” in answer to this). </p>
<p>I find it’s helpful too to study with a partner who can help quiz you on the material. One technique that was successful for me in college was to have a partner ask a question or ask me to describe something and then I had to give a complete answer out loud without looking at my notes (you can do this alone too). I found that the test of whether I really knew the material was if I could talk about it out loud, covering all the points in my text or ntoes. If I couldn’t talk for a couple of minutes about the thing, or if I didn’t cover everything in my notes, then I didn’t really know it yet.</p>
<p>It sounds like you may have memorized well, but may not have full understanding of the concepts or understand how they relate to other concepts. Memorization only works well in a handful of college courses, otherwise most profs are looking for a level of mastery of the concepts on tests. </p>
<p>If your prof provides, or you can get your hands on, any old tests then practicing with those will give you insight into how he’s asking for information and why certain choices are incorrect (pay close attention to the incorrect answers!). Also, when you’re studying every week (and I hope you are studying for each class), try to formulate questions he might ask about that concept in a test situation. Incorporate material from both the book and the lecture. Write them down on a sheet of paper and write the reference/possible answers on another. When you’re reviewing for tests that will help you get into question and answer mode. If you realize you can’t apply the particular concept then that’s your cue to go to the prof or your TA for further explanation.</p>
<p>How are you doing on tests compared to the class average? One of the most difficult “concepts” for freshmen to understand is that, unlike high school, C truly means average and B really is superior (at least at colleges without rampant grade inflation!). Make sure you read the syllabus and understand how the course grading works. Since tests usually only account for 70% or so of the final grade, staying around 10 points ahead of the average on tests and getting good grades on the homework/quizzes can often result in a B for the course. Or even an A if the prof decides to apply a curve…my kids often don’t really know where they stand until final grades come in but have a “stay ahead of the pack and don’t worry” philosophy and it’s been a successful strategy. If you’re hovering around the average mark or below, take any and all opportunities offered for extra credit. That said, try not to get too caught up in grades on individual tests, or even individual courses. It’s a long road and really understanding the material is what counts.</p>
<p>I’m assuming this are multiple choice questions, and a few aspects befuddle you. First of all, you are faced with one correct answer amidst 3 or 4 other like-worded incorrect choices. How do you eliminate those incorrect answers?</p>
<p>You already have experience with certain basic words that you know to “treat cautiously” like “not, never, always”. But, eliminating one choice can move you from getting it 25% right to getting it 33% right, up to 50% right. But, the difference between those SAT/ACT tests you took to get into college to now is being able to more precisely read (and know) those answers (concepts) 100% of the time. That’s where studying and “manipulating the language” become critical. They don’t call it “higher level language” for nothing. This conceptual thinking can take time to grapple with. It tales a lot of effort. And often those answers are not just from one source, like a text. It takes much more than that, even if the professor assigned only one text to read.</p>
<p>One very helpful process towards success, aside from putting in the effort in the first place, is forming a study group. At first, this may seem too social, but there’s a real positive to it. The study group should help in two ways: 1) First, you should decide how to split the load. By splitting up the work, you’ll become a master of one specific area in such a way that you couldn’t dedicate this time in one area before. You’ll reread the chapter, and take in-depth notes. You’ll research one specific area. Then you share this work with others and everyone benefits.</p>
<p>2) Another important aspect to having a group of “experts” is that you’ll discuss the material in-depth. This allows you to manipulate the play with the language in a way that you’ll really understand it at a new level. This part is absolutely important and should not be taken lightly. This is probably where you had most difficulty. Playing with the ideas in your head so you truly understand them.</p>
<p>The one aspect to forming study groups, I should caution you, is that it is a group effort and everyone should agree to pitch in equally. In truth, (and I know I sound sexist when I say this), but some guys don’t take the work so seriously. You all want to succeed, and you all have to put in the effort equally to do it right.</p>
<p>I hope this helps.</p>
<p>There was a lot of good information on a thread I started quite a while ago. Hope some might be helpful: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/323010-test-anxiety.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/323010-test-anxiety.html</a></p>
<p>From Daniel Willingham’s book, Why Students Don’t Like School:</p>
<p>"Here’s one way to think about it. Suppose you plan to introduce the idea of government to a first-grade class. The main point you want students to understand is that people living or working together set up rules to make things easier for everyone. You will use familiar examples - home and school - and then introduce the idea that there are rules that larger groups of people agree to live by. Your plan is to ask your students to some of the rules in the classroom and consider why each rule exists. Then, you’ll ask them to list family rules and consider why those exist. Finally, you’ll ask them to name rules that exist outside the family and classroom. You hope your students will see that the rules for each group of people serve similar functions.</p>
<p>A student with rote knowledge might later report, “Government is like a classroom because both have rules.” The student has no understanding of what properties the two groups have in common. The student with shallow knowledge understands that a government is like a classroom because both groups are a community of people who need to agree on and set rules in order for things to run smoothly and to be safe. The student understands the parallel, but can’t go beyond it. So, for example, if asked, “How is government different from schools?” the student would be stumped. A student with deep understanding would be able to answer that question, and might successfully extend the analogy to consider other groups of people who might need to form rules, for example, his group of friends playing kickball."</p>
<p>In college, your professor is asking you to grasp the material to the level where you have a deep understanding.</p>
<p>Here are a few ideas…
Check to see whether your textbook has a companion Web site. Sometimes there are quizzes and sample tests that come with the book. To find the Web site (if one exists) do a Google search for the publisher and textbook author. Pearson and Prentice Hall have particularly good Web sites, so you might even find one that goes along with your subject. Most of them do not have passwords.</p>
<p>When you read your text, write down vocabulary words that you do not know(not the terms specific to the subject) and learn their definitions as well. Your text books are written by people with much larger vocabularies and sometimes you don’t understand a word, so you don’t know what is being asked. I also encourage my students to ask what a word in a question means if they don’t know it–the professor may tell you if it doesn’t give away the answer.</p>
<p>There are many test taking sites on line. Just do a search and look around. Virginia Tech has a good one, but there are many good ones. Good luck.</p>