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