Topic: secret to good school test results
started by: Malcolm
Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 24 2014,11:15
< Sugar and caffeine >.QUOTE
Irwin says Principal Kathryn Eward started serving soda and trail mix about 10 years ago after reading about its positive effect on students taking tests.
I hear that students whose schools send me ten thousand dollars in cash tend to do better on tests. Why don't they investigate that premise?
Posted by GORDON on Apr. 24 2014,13:55
Cuppa coffee during tests always had my neurons firing fast and hot.
Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 24 2014,14:32
I do not deny the stimulating effects of caffeine. But in the midst of the "child obesity" and "sugar = the devil" crusades currently going on, this is amusing. That, and this probably happened because someone read a random article in a random dentist's waiting room instead of basing it on, like, real proof, man.
Posted by TPRJones on Apr. 24 2014,19:17
When I was teaching for The Princeton Review, it was very common to have students use various substances to tweak their performance. For some that would be caffeine to help them increase focus. For others that would be alcohol to decrease anxiety. It's a legitimate element of testing strategy.
Posted by GORDON on Apr. 24 2014,19:30
I did a thing in the Marines for my permanent anxiety reduction. It stuck for about 20 years. I don't even understand "test anxiety." A test is a challenge. Challenges are fun, it is a chance to crush your opponents. The only time there should be fear is if you aren't adequately prepared. If you aren't adequately prepared it's your own fault and you failed as a student and maybe you should be doing something easier that doesn't involve taking out student loans.
Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 25 2014,07:50
QUOTE
A test is a challenge. Challenges are fun, it is a chance to crush your opponents.
You've got 2 assertions there. To refute the first one, the most challenging thing about the standardized tests nowadays is keeping the pencil lead inside the circle when filling in the answer. Secondly, there are a) opponent-less challenges and b) challenges that plain suck balls.
Posted by GORDON on Apr. 25 2014,10:29
Ok whatever. Not sure what your point is. A "test" by definition is a challenge. But I'm not going to argue.
Posted by TheCatt on Apr. 25 2014,11:00
Every time the two of you get together, I just picture this
Posted by GORDON on Apr. 25 2014,11:22
Yah, that is exactly how I feel about it sometimes, too.I probably shouldn't even bite and make myself look like a bitch but I feel like I should respond, somehow. That's probably the problem.
Posted by TPRJones on Apr. 25 2014,19:40
(GORDON @ Apr. 24 2014,21:30)
QUOTE
A test is a challenge. Challenges are fun, it is a chance to crush your opponents.
I agree. While working at TPR I took all the main standardized tests out there and scored in the top 2% on all of them. It was fun.
But some of my students didn't think like that. The test is the thing that could completely derail their entire life's plans and they felt intimidated. But I found I had a knack for turning that fear into anger, and getting them so pissed off at the test makers for trying to trick them (which they are, those tests are tricksy as hell) that often that would be enough to conquer their anxiety.
Posted by GORDON on Apr. 25 2014,20:28
A test looks at you and says, "You don't know shit, bitch. Here, I'll prove it." Then you get all up in that test's grill and say something about it's momma, then you proceed to crush it.That's how I always looked at it.
Posted by TheCatt on Apr. 26 2014,04:46
I've usually looked at them as stupid exercises of rote memorization, and why would I waste brain power on memorizing things I don't really need to know?
Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 26 2014,09:35
(TheCatt @ Apr. 26 2014,06:46)
QUOTE
I've usually looked at them as stupid exercises of rote memorization, and why would I waste brain power on memorizing things I don't really need to know?
Yeah. 95% of all the "tests" I've taken could be aced if I handed in a book and pointed to the appropriate sections of text. Useful, significant tests are few and far between.
Posted by GORDON on Apr. 26 2014,10:50
(TheCatt @ Apr. 26 2014,07:46)
QUOTE
I've usually looked at them as stupid exercises of rote memorization, and why would I waste brain power on memorizing things I don't really need to know?
Most challenging tests I've ever had was my econ 141 (or something) class. Questions were all essay and the came out of some text book that he wasn't teaching. Actually had to think and understand shit, not just read the textbook subheadings. Most satisfying A I ever earned.
Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 26 2014,11:13
Essay questions were easy as shit for me. Hit on the key points (again, usually accomplished by copying words verbatim from the text). The closest thing I had to tests that made me think probably would've come from the automata, algorithms/data structures courses. You got presented with math/programming problems, open books. Anything goes as long as you can get the correct answer and prove how you got there.If you want to talk real tests, < this > included some brutal problems.
Posted by GORDON on Apr. 26 2014,11:16
I can't remember any actual questions.... but I remember even at that time realizing that I'd never had a test like this, where one has to know not just the "what" of the question, but the "why." I got an 87 on the first test and realized I couldn't screw around after that, I had to learn that shit. I was unaccustomed to getting B's when I went back to school after the Marines.
Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 26 2014,11:21
The difference between Cs and As was negligible enough for me not to care. It's not like I got discounted classes if I maintained a 4.0. And all the IT dudes I know that pulled the 3.5-4.0 range were either social freaks or had no life because they did nothing but study.
Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 26 2014,11:24
But if we're talking the amount of time I've dumped into preparing for an exam, nothing even comes close to how much I spent trying to learn ear-training and melodic dictation.
Posted by GORDON on Apr. 26 2014,11:51
Most boringest, tedious studying was college Spanish. Just gots to memorize that shit, which I hate.Class which made me angriest was Eng111. Wouldn't have been so bad but the prof had us peer-review papers for a couple drafts before final turn-in. You know what I have said before.... those kids were DUMBFUCKS. 90% of them wrote in ebonics.
I never had a single correction on any of my peer reviewed papers. Thanks for the input, peers.
Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 26 2014,15:52
I never had to take one English course in either undergrad or grad.
Posted by TPRJones on Apr. 26 2014,21:52
(TheCatt @ Apr. 26 2014,06:46)
QUOTE
I've usually looked at them as stupid exercises of rote memorization, and why would I waste brain power on memorizing things I don't really need to know?
Different sort of tests. The SAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, etc don't require knowledge or information. Oh, it helps to know some big vocabulary words with one small part of the SAT and GRE, but it isn't necessary to know the words to get the questions right. All the rest of the questions on the test give you all the information you need in the question.
Even then it's not about doing it straightforwardly. The way they vet the test questions means they all come in easy, medium, and hard variety. Easy ones most people get right, so the quick gut answer is right. Hard ones most people get wrong, so for all but the brightest test-takers, the quick gut answer is wrong. So is the second-best gut response. With no other thought that gets you down to 50/50 for those and you've quickly done 2/3 of the test and gotten 75% of that right. That leaves enough time on the medium questions to go slow and get them all correct. And now you know the secret of standardized test taking.
The one exception to all that is the MCAT - the one for med school - which expects you to know a variety of sciences. But even that one I almost aced without having taken the sciences in question with easy/medium/hard strategy and using info gleaned from some questions to answer others in the same field. But I didn't teach that one, because MCAT students are way too damn uptight, and telling them I did that well without the right background would have crushed their fragile spirits.