How to Help Children Do Their Best on Tests

Students are being tested more today than ever before. And the stakes have never been higher. Test scores may determine your child’s placement in school or whether he will be promoted to the next grade, graduate from high school, be admitted to college or trade school, or receive scholarship assistance.

This Parent Guide details many of the things you can do to help your child do her best on tests—from ways to deal with pretest stress, to study techniques, to test-taking strategies, to preparation approaches depending on the type of test (teacher-created or standardized), to helpful hints on answering different types of questions (true/false, multiple choice or essay) and the importance of reviewing, and learning from, the results.

If the learning foundation is in place, the specific test-taking skills detailed in this Parent Guide will help you make sure the tests actually measure what your child knows and have learned to do.