Review of three research studies shows that some African Americans have negative perceptions of cognitive ability tests, including concerns that they may substantiate stereotypes. These attitudes may influence motivation, anxiety, and test performance. Training in test-taking skills and use of alternative testing formats are possible solutions.…

This study examined learned helplessness and its effect on test taking. Students were given one of two tests; the first began with extremely difficult questions and the other started with easy questions. The researchers hypothesized that those who took the test beginning with difficult questions would become easily frustrated and possibly doubt…

"Naturalization Test Redesign Project: Civics Item Selection Analysis" provides an overview of the development of content items for the U.S. history and government (civics) portion of the redesigned naturalization test. This document also reviews the process used to gather and analyze data from multiple studies to determine which civics…

Generally, teachers are good students. Most know how to successfully address a variety of academic tasks demands. Many know how to compensate for any personal weaknesses they have with specific skills. Sometimes teachers are such good students that they forgot what it was like to struggle to learn something. Unfortunately, students with emotional…

This booklet is intended to help students do their best on the ACT. It summarizes general test-taking strategies, describes the content of each test, provides specific tips for each, and lets students know what they can expect on test day. Included in this booklet are complete practice tests--"retired" ACT questions that were administered to…

Students in an undergraduate human development course (N = 215) participated in a brief assessment of their reading (comprehension level, reading speed, comprehension rate) and multiple-choice test-taking skills on the second day of class. Students first read a one-page, 400-word passage unrelated to the course and then answered 10…

This study describes the reading and test-taking strategies that test takers used on the "Reading" section of the "LanguEdge Courseware" (2002) materials developed to familiarize prospective respondents with the new TOEFL. The investigation focused on strategies used to respond to more traditional "single selection"…

Implementing the action steps from ASCD's best-seller "The Art and Science of Teaching" is much easier when you use this in-depth resource for workshops, professional learning communities, teacher training, and self-help. Hundreds of samples, guidelines, checklists, and activities help teachers in all grades and subjects become instant experts on…

This paper gives an account of a project exploring 12- and 13-year-old children's uses of strategies while solving reading and writing test tasks in English as a foreign language EFL. The study was conducted to provide insights into how learners go about solving tasks and what they think and rely on while doing them. The first part provides an…

Not aimed at beginning or elementary spellers, this book contains more than 100 tests interspersed with various informative items, pertinent quotations, amusing anecdotes, and lightly historical discourses relating to the orthography of English. The tests in the book represent a rather extensive vocabulary (a person who takes all of the tests is…

Discusses the conflicts between the way teachers try to teach children and the way they measure what children have learned. Reprint from January 1960 "Elementary School Journal." (JMB)

Specific and detailed instructions to implement an environmental engineering approach to the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) Subject Test for Psychology are outlined. Focus is on helping students prepare for this test. Some universities use the GRE as a measure of achievement and aptitude and as a criterion test. In truth, such a test does not…

This paper reviews the differences between two interpretations accounting for the poor test performance of high anxious students: (1) that anxiety interferes with retrieval of prior learning; or (2) that, due to study skills deficits, the initial acquisition by anxious students is less thorough than by those lower in anxiety. Research results…

Investigates the effects of personality types on the effectiveness of various treatment procedures in reducing test anxiety. Fails to support previous studies in which group application of counseling techniques reduced anxiety more than did a study skills group. (Author/PC)

The use of Guttman weights in scoring tests is discussed. Scores of 2,500 men on one subtest of the CEED-SAT-Verbal Test were examined using cross-validated Guttman weights. Several scores were compared, as follows: Scores obtained from cross-validated Guttman weights; Scores obtained by rounding the Guttman weights to one digit, ranging from 0 to…