DR RONALD L. RUBENZER, EdD, MA, MPh, MSE.
Certified as School Psychologist 111, Principal, Gifted Education (Doctoral);
Licensed Psychological Associate, Health Services Provider.
The “Testing Triathlon”: Being Fact Smart; Test Smart; Stress Smart.
Using Parts of the Brain
Top test performance requires developing three different types of smartness, tapping into different “brain-domains”: Students must be - Fact-Smart (left-brain); Test-Smart (Left & Right-Brain) and Stress-Smart (Right-Brain). If one thinks of testing today as a Triathlon, success is assured. Test-Triathlon training could begin three months before the big event so that you have the facts, test taking skills, and stress management skills that you need to succeed. Build skills with several short sessions weekly so that you can manage the stress of taking the test so that you can perform better. To help you build these skills and develop them as habits, The Midwest Center's Attacking Anxiety & Depression Program can assist you in developing stress management plans and realizing your test-taking potential.Of course, you use many parts of your brain when thinking, but different parts are used to varying degrees based on the task at hand. This is like the fact that you use much of your body just to drink a glass of water, but different parts of your body are more or less involved (eyes, hand, arm, shoulder, back muscles and hopefully your mouth).
TOP TEN TEST-TAKING TIPS (THREE MONTHS PRIOR TO TEST)
Left-Brain Training to Become Fact-Smart:
1) Teach Positively: Students learn more when they like the teacher (William James-Harvard, 1899).2) Teach memory mechanics. The basic rule is repetition, repetition, repetition to train your brain to remember facts.
3) Require students to develop their own flashcards and stack the deck with only the memorized facts to study for tests.
4) Answer the core question, without being tripped up by “word traps” (irrelevant details) or generalizations (always, never, everywhere).
Both-Brain Training to Become Test-Smart:
5) Be Clerically Correct: For the young, when in doubt, check their skills out (attention, handwriting, reading skills).
6) Provide “Test Rehearsals” (if approved). All great performances start with rehearsal.
Right-Brain Training to Become Stress-Smart:
7) Test for Test-Anxiety. “Stress is sand in the machinery of thought.” All classes will have “test-anxious” students. “Test-anxious” or “math-anxious” students underachieve on tests, even when they know how to answer the questions correctly. As adults they avoid rewarding jobs requiring many tests or using complex math because of their high levels of anxiety. “Computer-phobics” short-circuit their own growth by just plain refusing to acquire 21st century skills because they pathologically fear using computers. The “anxious” resist change. With help combating this type of stress & anxiety, many people turn to self-help programs like the Attacking Anxiety & Depression Program and experience positive results.8) Consume “Food for thought” just before the test session. Eat fruit, followed by a drink of water.
9) Relax: See your mental health professional on test-anxiety reduction tips. Use humor to relax. See a movie the night before the “big event.” Make healthy choices to help you relax and reduce anxiety leading up to the day of the test, and remember...breathe.
10) Learn from those who do best on tests. Test-Prep can boost test scores by 10%! (Scruggs & Mastropieri, Purdue University, 1992).
*Warren Publishing
CLOAKING
October 2002.
Call 1-704-907-0143 for book orders.
Dr. Rubenzer has tested well over 2,500 individual students from preschoolers through college age.
Columbia University (New York City) graduate Dr. Ron Rubenzer holds a doctorate and three master’s degrees and has consulted in Switzerland, London and extensively in the US. He now does private testing in Greensboro NC, writes, does SAT prep and conducts workshops on “enjoying wellness while improving performance and quality of life at home, work and school.”
