Why 1/5 Americans can't Find the US on a Map: Miss South Carolina Reveals All

Practice Tests need to include practice with oral answers, as well as filling in paper and pencil bubble sheets.

And, math, geography and current events should be a part of every Practice Test session.

Other Practice Test should include practical skills, such as reading a map.

Recent Geography Polls

Recent polls indicate that 1/5 of Americans can't locate the US on a map.

This demonstrates Practice Test at it's worst.

No Joke

No, this is not a "Blonde Joke."

Listen to Miss South Carolina's response to this statement.

Miss South Carolina's Answer to Flagging US Geography Skills…

And, listen to the applause.

How well do you think that Miss South Carolina answered the question? What university does she attend? Is she legally blonde?

Positive Spin

On the positive side, 4/5 Americans were able to find the US on the map. This gives our schools and our Practice Test a "B" which isn't so bad.

Of course, we can do better, and our Practice Test efforts might pay off with better publicity for the success of our school systems.

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Test Practice

Practice Test Joins BlogRush for Greater Blog Exposure

The Practice Test Blog has joined the Blog Rush™ free service.

Here is the link if you want to join, too.

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And, BlogRush™ is completely free, i.e., without cost.

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Practice Tests require Written Content

Test Practice requires written content as fuel to keep the engines of your students' curiosity and excitement going. But, do you have time to write all this Test Practice content yourself?

Maybe you do, or maybe you don't. But, wouldn't your time be better spent interacting with your students in guiding and coaching them in building test sophistication? One thing is sure, Test Practice is an interpersonal skill, not just a pencil and paper exercise.

What if you could find lots of free electronic resources, eBooks, to drive your Test Practice?

Well, you can.

Besides the well known Project Gutenberg, there are lots of great sources of electronic content on the Web.

And, one thing about Project Gutenberg is that lots of the materials are "classics." This means that the books are old, out of copyright.

But, here is another source for modern, highly applicable to daily life content to support your Test Practice efforts.

The site is Free EBooks. But, don't buy all the "for sale" books when you can get over 1,000 eBooks for free.

But, there is a catch. You will have to create a link to their site from your site.

However, that is no big deal because you can do the same by creating a free Blogger Blog, like this one. Set up is easy to do. All you need is a Google Account.

You add a new page component, make that component HTML, and paste in the code that you received from Free eBooks.

Then, you return to the Free eBooks site, give them your Blogger Site address (URL).

Finally, download the list of eBooks. You can download all the books at once (a 30 MB file), or you can download them individually.

The quality of these free eBooks ranges from average to poor, but, you can use them in your Test Practice for either adding them to a test creation template, or, by using them as the basis for Test Practice writing classes and editorial conferences.

Don't overlook the power of free eBooks in your Test Practice

Tell your friends about our Test Practice Blog.

Test Practice

Practice Tests require Written Content

Practice Test requires written content as fuel to keep the engines of your students' curiosity and excitement going. But, do you have time to write all this Practice Test content yourself?

Maybe you do, or maybe you don't. But, wouldn't your time be better spent interacting with your students in guiding and coaching them in building test sophistication? One thing is sure, Practice Test is an interpersonal skill, not just a pencil and paper exercise.

What if you could find lots of free electronic resources, eBooks, to drive your Practice Test?

Well, you can.

Besides the well known Project Gutenberg, there are lots of great sources of electronic content on the Web.

And, one thing about Project Gutenberg is that lots of the materials are "classics." This means that the books are old, out of copyright.

But, here is another source for modern, highly applicable to daily life content to support your Practice Test efforts.

The site is Free EBooks. But, don't buy all the "for sale" books when you can get over 1,000 eBooks for free.

But, there is a catch. You will have to create a link to their site from your site.

However, that is no big deal because you can do the same by creating a free Blogger Blog, like this one. Set up is easy to do. All you need is a Google Account.

You add a new page component, make that component HTML, and paste in the code that you received from Free eBooks.

Then, you return to the Free eBooks site, give them your Blogger Site address (URL).

Finally, download the list of eBooks. You can download all the books at once (a 30 MB file), or you can download them individually.

The quality of these free eBooks ranges from average to poor, but, you can use them in your Practice Test for either adding them to a test creation template, or, by using them as the basis for Practice Test writing classes and editorial conferences.

Don't overlook the power of free eBooks in your Practice Test

And, remember to tell your friends about our Test Practice Blog.

Test Practice

First Day of School: Your Practice Test program is Already Behind!

First Day of School: Your Practice Test program is Already Behind!

You already have a late start for building your Practice Test strategies.

What? How can you be behind on the first day of school?

Easy! Your Practice Test planning should have started weeks ago.

When you were decorating your room, office, or teaching space (some of you don't have real rooms), you spent too much time worrying about how the learning environment would look on the outside.

But it is the "inside the head" space of your students, and the inside the bubble sheet circles or ovals that really count in this modern, media-driven test craze.

Spend more time planning your Practice Test strategies, and less time on decorating. After all, if you have a principal, administrator or supervisor that is "test-scared" for their job; you have to hold a likewise concern for your job.

Start planning your Practice Test strategy by listing the weeks that you have before the high-stakes test. (These schedules are published already.)

Then, develop a weekly plan for exactly what you will do in your Practice Test efforts.

Do not "slack off" on this. Write everything down, put these items on your calendar. Create "tickler files." Do anything to ensure that you spend time each day furthering your students testable abilities.

A Practice Test is not a one shot deal. It is an every day affair.

Think of your Practice Test obligation as something like "doing the dishes."

What happens if you "slack off for a few days" and don't wash the dishes?

Bad smells are bug magnets. And do you want company to visit and see the mess that your kitchen is in? What do the stacks of messy dishes tell about you.

In the same way, failing in your daily Practice Test chores is like sweeping dirt under the rug.

So get your Practice Test program in place.

And, be sure to tell your friends and colleagues about this blog.

Test Practice

NCLB Rachets up Teaching to the Test Pressure

Teaching to the Test is driven by The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), and the is up for renewal.

And while we thing that Teaching to the Test is important, we don't believe that the NCLB has played a beneficial role in educating our children. In fact, the NCLB has created a negative impact on Teaching to the Test efforts.

Here is what really happens:

* Teachers are pressured by principals, so the curriculum focuses upon the high-stakes test

* Students are bored, so the teacher "puts more pressure on the kids"

* Practice Tests are expensive, so teachers buy "Black Line Master" test books at the teacher supply store

* The "Black Line Master" books are not related to the curriculum, but students sit for hours practicing these tests to "get test-taking" skills

* Students are restless, so teachers put more pressure on them

* The pressure that teachers put on students concerning the practice tests causes students to associate "TESTS" with "PAIN."

This cycle is all wrong!

In fact Teaching to the Test should be and can be engaging, fun, exciting, interesting, rewarding and full of solid curricular learning.

What is needed is for teachers to make their own tests for Teaching to the Test. This is easy with your own templates.

We are developing a new template that is based upon state standards, but you can create your own right now with a word processor.

Then, just copy some curriculum materials into the "selection" area, and fill out the questions.

But, there is one other key to Teaching to the Test. That is...

Use all sorts of...

* Engaging

* Hands-on

* Individual or Group

* Learning Projects

* Take Home Assignments

* Debates

* Contests

* Games

to Teach to the Test.

Forcing students to sit quietly and struggle with boring copies of Black Line Master test books is "cruel and unusual punishment," but unfortunately, "business as usual" for an unenlightened Teaching to the Test effort.

Do Teaching to the Test the right way, and your students learn.

And you benefit by building a climate for learning in your classroom.


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Test Practice

Practice Tests are Not Evil

The role of the Practice Test does not have to mean stepping out of the K12 curriculum to practice on unrelated materials.

The Practice Test strategy can be to use teacher-made tests that focus upon exactly what you are teaching.

The process is easy, and the opportunities for creative strategies such as group projects, debates, voting on the answers, take-home test, etc.

All you need is a template.

You can find a sample template at:

Test Practice Template

Employing creative Practice Test strategies means that your principal will commend your lesson planning.


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Teaching to the Test