CHAPTER 15
HOW TO DO WELL ON TESTS
One important caution. If you’ve skipped the rest of the book and just jumped directly to this chapter, you’re not going to benefit nearly as much as if you read the full book.
You are reading this chapter because tests matter. That’s a fact of life. In an ideal world we would all learn things just because they’re interesting and we really want to know about them. There’s so much more to education than just passing official tests. But tests are an important part of showing yourself (and other people) that you have learned something well. They can be important stepping-stones in life as you move from school to college, or from college into a profession.
Tests can even be fun. Honestly!
Research shows that tests are one of the best ways to help you learn. You can learn more in one hour of taking a test than in one hour of studying.1 (During a test, we try hard to recall whatever little bit we can about the topic. When we’re just studying, not so much.)
Remember how we talked about the importance of recall? Pulling on those brain-links when you’re dragging something up from long-term memory? We know that recall strengthens your learning. It turns out that recall is just a little test that you’re giving yourself.
When I was a young professor, I learned a lot from a great engineering educator named Richard Felder. Dr. Felder taught me a lot about how to teach well. He wants to help students to be successful.
Here is a test preparation checklist like one Dr. Felder developed to enable students to be successful on tests.2 How do you use this checklist? Simply do whatever it takes to be able to answer “Yes” to most of the questions.
Test Preparation Checklist*
Answer “Yes” only if you usually do these things:
______Yes ______No
1. Did you get a reasonable night’s sleep before the test? (If your answer is “No,” then your answers to the rest of the questions may not matter.)
______Yes ______No
2. Did you review your notes from class not long after you took them? Did you use active recall during your review to see if you could easily pull to mind the key ideas?
______Yes ______No
3. Did you study a little bit on most days instead of waiting until the last minute and cramming right before the test?
______Yes ______No
4. Did you focus carefully during your study sessions, doing your best to avoid distractions except when you were taking a break?
______Yes ______No
5. Did you study in different locations?
______Yes ______No
6. Did you read your textbook or class worksheets carefully? (Just fishing around for the answer to what you’re working on doesn’t count.) While you were reading, did you avoid too much underlining and highlighting your textbook? Did you make brief notes about the book’s key ideas and then look away to see if you could recall them?
______Yes ______No
7. If your studies involved working problems, did you actively work and rework key examples by yourself, so you turned them into sets of brain-links and could rapidly call the solution to mind?
______Yes ______No
8. Did you discuss homework problems with classmates, or at least check your solutions with others?
______Yes ______No
9. Did you actively work every homework problem yourself?
______Yes ______No
10. Did you talk to your teachers, or to other students who could help, when you were having trouble with your understanding?
______Yes ______No
11. Did you spend most of your study time focusing on the material you found harder? That is, did you do deliberate practice?
______Yes ______No
12. Did you interleave your studies? In other words, did you practice when to use different techniques?
______Yes ______No
13. Did you explain key ideas to yourself, and perhaps to others, using funny metaphors and images?
______Yes ______No
14. Did you take occasional breaks from your studies that included some physical activity?
______Yes ______No
TOTAL:
The more “Yes” responses you recorded, the better your preparation for the test. If you recorded three or more “No” responses, think seriously about making some changes in how you prepare for the next test.
The Hard-Start Technique: Learning When to Disconnect
For years, students have been told to start a test with the easiest problems first.
Neuroscience says this is not a good idea. (Unless you haven’t studied at all. Then you should take whatever easy points you can get!)
When you begin your test, here’s what you should do. Start by quickly looking it over. Make a little checkmark beside what you think are the hardest problems. Then pick one of the hard problems and start working on it. Yes, that’s right—a hard problem. (Eat your frogs first!)
Just work on this problem a minute or two—however long it takes until you feel like you’re stuck.
As soon as you feel yourself getting stuck, leave it. Look for an easier problem to boost your confidence. Do that next. And then maybe another one.
Then go back to the hard problem. You may now be able to make some progress.
How come?
Doing the “hard-start” technique allows you to use your brain as a sort of double processor. Your diffuse mode can take over on the hard problem as soon as you drop your focus on it. While the focused mode is tackling the easier problem, the diffuse mode works in the background on the other, harder problem. If you wait until the end of your test session to focus on the hardest problems, your focus prevents the diffuse mode from going to work.
You can use this hard-start technique in your homework, also. A common mistake on homework is to start a hard problem and then keep working on it too long without making progress. Some work, even a little frustration, is okay. But if the frustration goes on too long, you need to disconnect! How long is too long to work on a problem? Maybe five or ten minutes—it depends on the subject and your age.
The hard-start technique is a good one for both tests and homework because it allows you to use your brain’s two modes more effectively. It also gives you valuable practice in disconnecting and moving on to problems you can solve. Disconnecting can be one of a student’s biggest challenges on a test—you can run out of time even though there were other, easier problems that you could have solved.
On a test, you may want to disconnect more quickly when you find yourself stuck than when you’re doing homework. A general rule is, if you’re stuck for more than a minute or two on a test, move on!
The Best Stress? Test Stress!
Research has shown that the more you practice active recall in the weeks before a test, the less that stress will bother you when you take the test.3 So if tests stress you out, it’s especially important for you to practice recall in your studies.
Let’s face it, though: It’s easy to get stressed when you sit down to take a test. Your palms get sweaty, your heart races, and you get an anxious feeling in the stomach. This happens because your body releases chemicals when you are under stress. Surprisingly, these stressful feelings can help you do better on the test.4 When you might notice anxious feelings, try to shift your perspective. Instead of thinking, “This test makes me nervous,” try to think, “This test has got me excited to do my best!”5
When you get nervous, you tend to breathe from the top of your chest.*6 This “shallow” breathing doesn’t give you enough oxygen. You begin to feel panic that has nothing to do with the test. You just aren’t getting enough oxygen! If you tend to get nervous before a test, it can help for you to practice deep breathing.
To do deep breathing, put one hand on your belly. It should move out when you breathe in, just like the picture shows. Try to imagine your breath also expanding your back, as if you had sails. Practice deep breathing in the days before a test, so you get used to it. Just stand sideways in front of a mirror to try it out for thirty seconds or so.
Shallow breathing is at the top of your chest. Deep breathing is in the lower part of your chest. Deep breathing helps reduce feelings of panic.
A Few Final Suggestions for Test Success
Watch out for “rut think.” Once you’ve written a solution to a problem, it’s easy to think it must be right.
When you’ve already gone through the test once (if you have time), try to trick your mind into looking at the test again with fresh eyes. Blink and look away to try to take yourself briefly into diffuse mode. Check the problems in a different order from the way you did them. If possible, ask yourself, “Does this answer make sense?” If you’ve just calculated that you need ten billion gallons of water to fill your classroom’s aquarium, something’s wrong!
Sometimes you can study hard, but the examination just doesn’t go your way. If you have prepared carefully, however, Lady Luck tends to smile.