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April 29, 2005
Discovering test success
New course makes students well-prepared for exams.
KYLE BERGER
Other than the conundrum of matching their hair style with the
right outfit, the toughest challenges for most high school students
come at the end of each semester, when exams begin.
Most students spend days – even weeks – cramming for exams
each year, panicking over how their performance could affect their
chances for a happy, successful life. And when the going gets tough
and the answers become hazy, students all know the age-old secret
to multiple choice testing success: when in doubt, choose C.
Shawna Faber and her business partner, John Tyler Binfet, believe
that there's a lot more students can learn about how to study and
take a test than simply hazarding a guess. They've dedicated their
lives to the research and now they've created a five-session course
to share it.
Faber, a lecturer in the education department of the University
of British Columbia (UBC), said that few students know how to make
the best of their knowledge when it comes to taking tests.
"One of the first things I do in the first year of the education
program [at UBC] is I ask the students how many of them have been
taught any studying or test-taking skills and maybe five of them
put up their hands," she said. "We teach kids and then
we test them. But we don't teach them how to study or take the tests."
The course, titled Being Test Wise, is broken up into two-hour sessions
that focus on different parts of studying or understanding and analyzing
tests.
When it comes to the art of study, Faber explained that one of the
most notable components to retaining information is breaking up
study time into 20-minute increments.
"We tend to remember things at the beginning and the end so
if you take a break every 20 minutes you will have a lot of beginnings
and ends and you will actually retain a lot more," she said.
"It is a simple strategy that has been shown to be very effective,
but very few people know about it."
Faber explained that when she was studying for her PhD, she would
focus for 20 minutes, then do some sit-ups to keep her blood flowing.
When it's time to sit down and engage in what Faber called high
stakes testing, like provincial exams, there are all sorts of tools
that students can use to best access the knowledge that they have
gained in their studies.
One lesson Faber teaches is the simple concept of reading the questions
before reading the story that the quiz is based on.
"If there is a story, read the questions first, then read the
story," she said. "The way your brain is set up for information,
once you read the questions, you'll start thinking, 'Oh, I wonder
what the answer to that is?' Then when you read it, you'll take
note of it and you won't get distracted by all the other stuff that
may be irrelevant."
The course also focuses on how teachers think when they create these
tests, giving students the ability to understand what their teacher
may be looking for in the answers.
"Rather than just repeating information over and over, getting
the students to be able to think like the teacher is one of the
keys to studying," she explained. "Put yourself in the
place of the teacher and ask yourself what kind of questions you
would ask. And then when you take the test, see that there are at
least a couple of the questions that you came up with – you
feel really smart. And that feeling helps you understand the rest
of the questions."
Confidence, she explained, can go a long way in helping all kinds
of students excel during crunch time.
"This program can help kids who are not very good at studying
by helping them avoid procrastinating," she said. "It
can also help the kids who normally do well do even better if they
learn to understand how to read their tests."
Faber will teach the course at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater
Vancouver, beginning Wednesday, May 4, and continuing for the next
three Wednesdays in May. Students will then take a two-week break
and get back together for the final class on June 8. The break will
give them the chance to practise their studying techniques and review
everything just before their final exams begin.
More information on the course can be found online at www.advantageplustesttaking.com
or by calling 604-782-TEST (8378).
Kyle Berger is a freelance journalist and graphic designer
living in Richmond.
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