Test-taking skills are cognitive skills that enable students to undergo any test-taking situation in an appropriate manner. This study is aimed at assessing the relationship between students' test-taking skills and each of the following variables: motivation to learn mathematics; mathematics anxiety; attitudes towards mathematics; and attitudes…

Preparing at-risk youth and students with mild disabilities for state and district tests is important for improving their test performance, and basic instruction in test preparation can significantly improve student test performance. The article defines noncognitive variables that adversely affect test-taker performance. The article also describes…

This article reports a case study of students attending a fee-paying private tutorial school in Hong Kong in 2009-2010. They were retaking the Year 11 English language public examination, attempting to improve grades obtained in 2008-2009. The mainly qualitative study extends an earlier quantitative study (Coniam Recent developments in English…

Delta's Key to the TOEFL iBT: Advanced Skill Practice is a revised and updated edition of Delta's Key to the Next Generation TOEFL Test. Since the introduction of the TOEFL iBT in 2005, there have been significant changes to some of the test questions, particularly the integrated writing and integrated speaking tasks. The new 2011 edition of…

The importance of testing, especially certification and high-stakes testing, has increased substantially over the past decade. Building on the "serious gaming" literature and the psychology "priming" literature, we developed a computer game designed to improve test-taking performance using psychological priming. The game primed…

Although using the five-paragraph formula to teach essay writing is a ubiquitous practice--and many K-12 teachers defend it--Campbell argues that having students write according to this formula does more harm than good. The formula's tight structure stops the very critical thinking students need to do to strengthen their cognition and their…

This research investigated the relationships among test performance, anxiety, and the quality of interaction during collaborative testing of college students. It also explored which students are most likely to benefit from collaborative testing. It was randomly determined whether a student would take each of six examinations alone or with a…

Both community colleges and four-year institutions offer Student Success Courses (SSCs) to promote student engagement (self-regulated learning, SRL) and performance (grades, retention, and graduation). However, little work has been done to examine the holistic impact of SSC interventions or to determine which aspects of course curriculum most…

Although end of course exams remain a key mode of assessment in higher education, little research has focused on international students' experiences of exams. There seems to be a tacit assumption in most literature that exam preparation and strategies are universal, although differences in other areas of learning exist. As an exemplar, this…

Tests of English language mark significantly high thresholds for all college-bound students in the People's Republic of China. Many Chinese students hope to seek their fortunes at universities in the United States, or other English speaking countries. These students spend long hours, year after year, in test-preparation centres in order to develop…

Black middle school students in the United States continue to perform poorly on standardized reading achievement tests in comparison to other racial and ethnic groups. The purpose of this research study was to examine the effectiveness of a vocabulary-focused test preparation program for Black middle school students. The theoretical framework…

Learning Analytics (LA) has been identified as one of the top technology trends in higher education today (Johnson et al., 2013). LA is based on the idea that datasets generated through normal administrative, teaching, or learning activities--such as registrar data or interactions with learning management systems--can be analyzed to enhance…

The purpose of the study was to develop a "Test Preparation and Test Taking Strategies Scale" (TPTTS) to diagnose exam-preparation and exam-taking strategies to be used by students preparing for the university selection examinations at national level. The participants of the study were from different kinds of public high schools and were…

Language testing means taking decisions: about the test taker's results, but also about the test construct and the measures taken in order to ensure quality. This article takes the German test "telc Deutsch C1 Hochschule" as an example to illustrate this decision-making process in an academic context. The test is used for university…

Comprehension of geologic time does not come easily, especially for students who are studying the earth sciences for the first time. This project investigated the potential success of two teaching interventions that were designed to help non-science majors enrolled in an introductory geology class gain a richer conceptual understanding of the…