Test Prep Presentation- for use in conjunction with guided notes

1. How To:
Take a Test
Your guide to doing your very best on
multiple choice exams!

2. Do Now: In what year did the United States send
a man to the moon?
A. 2009
B. 1776
C. 1969
D. Man has never been to the moon.
-Why did you choose your answer?
-Why are the other answers incorrect?
-How did you work through this?

3. Why use Test Taking Strategies?
• Good test taking strategies follow you through life: from your
Regents to your SAT’s, from your college finals to your
LSAT’s…Everyone needs to know how to take a test!
• People pay hundreds and thousands to learn these strategies
because they are VALUABLE.

4. Our Strategies….
• Preview the Test Questions
• Make sure to Read all Directions in full
• Read with Interest
• Read all the Answers
• Skip it and Come Back to It
• Process of Elimination
• Match Questions to Answer Grid
• Refer to the passage
• Actively take notes while you are reading

5. Preview the Test Questions
Look at the questions ____________________ you
start reading the passage, so that you have an idea
of what you’re looking for as you read.

6. Preview the Test Questions
Look at the questions __Before___ you start
reading the passage, so that you have an idea of
what you’re looking for as you read.

7. Make Sure to Read ALL Directions in
Full …
Read the directions at the start of each
passage. Directions often contain
_________________________ about the
passage, and you will miss out if you skip over
them

8. Make sure to Read all Directions in
Full…
Read the directions at the start of each
passage. Directions often contain
____Important Information___ about the
passage, and you will miss out if you skip over
them

9. Read with Interest
Look for useful information, try to draw
________________, and make sure you know
what is going on in the passage. If possible,
figure out the 5 __________ as you read.

10. Read with Interest
Look for useful information, try to draw
___connections__________, and make sure
you know what is going on in the passage. If
possible, figure out the 5 ___W’s_______ as
you read.

11. Read all the Answers
Always read all ______________. Some
answer choices might be almost correct or
partially correct. We want to find an answer
that is all the way correct, and we can’t find
that unless we look deeply at all the options
we’re given.

12. Read all the Answers
Always read all ___answer choices__. Some
answer choices might be almost correct or
partially correct. We want to find an answer
that is all the way correct, and we can’t find
that unless we look deeply at all the options
we’re given.

13. Skip it and Come Back to It
Whenever you are answering a question and
are not sure of the answer
_________________ and come
___________________. You want to make
good use of your time, so you give yourself
ample opportunity to answer all the questions
on the test.

14. Skip it and Come Back to It
Whenever you are answering a question and
are not sure of the answer ___skip it________
and come ___back to it__________. You want
to make good use of your time, so you give
yourself ample opportunity to answer all the
questions on the test.

15. Process of Elimination
After you’ve read all of the
___________________ use your knowledge to
eliminate ________________________
answers.

16. Process of Elimination
After you’ve read all of the __Answer
choices________ use your knowledge to
eliminate ____obviously wrong_______
answers.
In what year did the United States
send a man to the moon?
A. 2009
B. 1776
C. 1969
D. Man has never been to the
moon.
In what year did the United States send a
man to the moon?
A. 2009 (I would remember this, so NOT
CORRECT.)
B. 1776 (this was way too long ago for
space travel…there wasn’t even electricity!)
C. 1969 (maybe…)
D. Man has never been to the moon. (I
know that we went to the moon at some
point…)

17. Match question to answer sheet
• Avoid mis-griding!
• When taking a test it is very important to
_________________ your answers to the
questions in your test booklet to the answers
on your answer grid.

18. Match question to answer sheet
• When taking a test it is very important to
_____match______ your answers to the
questions in your test booklet to the answers
on your answer grid.
Questions:
1.What color is the sky?
A. Purple
B. Yellow
C. Blue
2.What is 2+2?
A. 5
B. 4
C. 3
Answers
1.A B C
O O O
2. A B C
O O O
Be careful! If you accidentally
skipped the first set of bubbles and
started going through from there,
you’d be filling in the wrong bubble
for EVERY question. Match the
question number to the answer
sheet number EVERY TIME.

19. Refer to the Passage
• When you are presented with questions that
ask about specifics from the reading, like
vocabulary, sequence, or details, you always
want to __________________ to the passage.

20. Refer to the Passage
• When you are presented with questions that
ask about specifics from the reading, like
vocabulary, sequence, or details, you always
want to ___refer/look back at_______ to the
passage.

21. Actively take notes while you are
reading
• Always _______________________ in your
test booklet. If you come across important
information underline it. Circle important
dates, or names etc. Summarize paragraphs
and identify the main idea. This can save you
time when you need to
______________________________ to
answer questions.

22. Actively take notes while you are
reading
• Always _____take notes_________ in your
test booklet. If you come across important
information underline it. Circle important
dates, or names etc. Summarize paragraphs
and identify the main idea. This can save you
time when you need to _______look back at
the passage____ to answer questions.

23. Group Activity
• Using Test Taking Strategies on the RCT’s
• If you are called on to give the answer to
the question…
1. Say the correct answer
2. Explain HOW you got to that answer,
identifying specific strategies you
used and how you used them.

24. Independent Work
• Answer: #’s 1-11, “Questions on
Regents Practice” pg. 207-208