Strategies needed for success in high-stakes reading comprehension tests are well established.

An abundance of research supports the importance of the following: (1) Using background knowledge, (2) Searching to locate information, (3) Summarizing, (4) Self-monitoring, (5) Self-questioning, (6) Concept mapping, and (7) Self-explanation. Good readers are known to use these strategies when necessary, but poor readers rarely use them. Furthermore, these strategies can be taught and instruction in them will improve high-stakes reading comprehension test performance. For example, Blanton and Wood (1984) suggested that direct instruction in these strategies would improve test performance. The direct instruction recommended included: (1) teacher modeling of the strategies, (2) explanation of when and how to use them, (3) repeated opportunities for guided practice, and (4) extended independent reading. Furthermore, primary children have been shown to benefit from direct instruction on reading comprehension strategies (Schwartz, 1988).
Resource 28. Test Prep Tip Sheet
Some teachers bristle at the suggestion of teaching test-taking strategies, but test prep does not always have to be about finding shortcuts. It is a way to make students savvy test-takers who will know what to expect and what they should do. If your teachers don't conduct any kind of test preparation, then they are sending their students onto the battlefield without arming them as best as possible. 1. Practice. Practice tests can help teachers and students identify areas for improvement. Let students take full-length versions of released tests or tests similar to the one they will need to take. A month before the test, students might complete sample problems as warm-ups. Discuss correct answers, or pair students together and have them write explanations for correct (or incorrect) answers. Know the format. Students also should take practice tests because they need to be exposed to the format of the testhow it is structured, how questions and answers are organized, and so on. You might even set up your own tests and midterms to resemble the format of the high-stakes test. In addition, you should explain how the test is scored (whether points are taken off for skipped questions, what is considered passing, etc.). Read the directions carefully. Although this might seem obvious, some students ignore directions, gloss over them, or don't fully listen while they are being read. Break your students of this habit. Reread the question. Students should be trained to read the question carefully and even to mark it up. If students are stuck after reading all answer choices, they should go back to the question because there is a good chance that they misread it. Many students will simply continue reading answer choices instead of going back to the question itself. Write on the test. Students should be active test-takers: they should always have a pencil in hand so that they can underline key phrases in a question, cross out answers, and make notes on a reading passage, chart, or graph. Instruct students to look for key words or terms. Anticipate answers. Train students to anticipate the answer to a question, to compare their gut answer to the answer choices, and to eliminate incongruous choices. During practice, you might even encourage students to cover up the answers while they read the question. Eliminate similar or synonymous answers. Show students the value of narrowing down their answer choices. If there are three very similar answers dealing with aerobic respiration and only one that deals with anaerobic respiration, students can sometimes make an educated guess that the single answer is the correct choice. Be completely right. As with a true/false question, if any part of the answer is incorrect, then the answer choice must be crossed off. Some students struggle here and pick the incorrect answer because they recognize a piece of correct information in the answer choice. Look for turn words. Show students how to pay careful attention to the wording of a question, because words and phrases such as except, not, least, and all of the following can signal that the correct answer will be antithetical to what is stated in the beginning of the question.

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Skip questions. Students should skip questions if they are stuck and return to them later with a clearer mind and a fresh outlook. A faint mark in the margin can help remind them of where to come back to. But show students how these marks, or any stray ones, can be picked up by the scanner as a response, which can cause the answer to be wrong. Apply proper bubbling. This is important because if a student skips one question but continues to bubble in the normal answer slots, every answer could potentially be wrong. Similarly, students need to know where to bubble in answers to sample questions; sometimes students record them into actual answer slots, thereby throwing off the scoring of their entire test. Silently read aloud. For some students, high-stakes tests are as much stamina tests as they are tests of knowledge. Encourage students to silently mouth out what they read, especially for reading passages. This can help them concentrate and focus, because their minds are less likely to wander when they do this.

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