It’s that time of year. If you haven’t already heard people talking about end-of-the-year standardized tests and math test prep, those conversations will be picking up soon. The most common question I hear is “How can I get my kids ready for the test?”

Today we’ll talk about some effective strategies to make sure your students are set up for success. But first, let’s talk about my beliefs around standardized testing:

1. A test score is not a measure of a child or their capacity to learn.
2. If your students are struggling with concepts in class, they’ll struggle with those same concepts on the test. If they don’t, they won’t.

Which leads me to my third belief:

3. A focus on good mathematical instruction throughout the year is the best test preparation there is.

But I also get that the pressure to review and prep is very real. So let’s talk about some effective ways to “get ready” for the test.

Effective vs. ineffective math test prep strategies

I’m a firm believer that if you engage in effective instructional practices, you are doing everything needed to prepare your students for any assessment measure. However, if your students aren’t used to multiple choice assessments, there are some strategies you might want to consider. It can be helpful to build these in throughout the year so there’s no added pressure toward the end. That being said, it’s never too late to start.

What does effective math test prep look like in practice?

Let’s look at a sample problem from the North Carolina End-of-Grade (EOG) released assessment items.

I love this one because you can show students how they can actually save themselves time and work if they read carefully and are strategic. 

I’m going to break down how I would teach this as a warm up over a few days. If you have more time, you could easily work your way through all these steps at once.

If you’ve been using SoE in your classroom, you might have noticed this example uses questions we can use with any Parts Equal Total (PET) number story. This is an effective way to prepare students for multiple choice questions because they are learning how to:

• Carefully read to find out what the problem is asking
• Using critical thinking skills to analyze errors
• Justifying their reasoning

They are engaging in the practice standards we know students need to use to become proficient mathematicians.

What are other effective ways to prepare students for standardized tests?

• Provide students with a problem and give them the most common incorrect answer. Have them figure out what the mistake was that students made.
• Solve a problem incorrectly and have them find your mistake.
• Read through a problem and ask them to eliminate any answer choices that don’t make sense. They’ll see they usually don’t need to solve in order to do this accurately.

The goal is to engage students in critical thinking and sense-making. And ALWAYS have them explain and justify their thinking. When math is about sense-making, students will be more strategic in their approaches, especially when it comes to number stories. And I can’t think of a better way to prepare your students for success.

Conclusion

Effective teaching practices are all you need to prepare students for success on any assessment. If you review as a part of regular instruction and focus on problem-solving, both you and your students will feel prepared and ready to tackle any challenge that comes their way.

If you found this helpful, you can find more actionable tips in my Facebook group and on my YouTube channel. And I love to give away free resources to my email subscribers!