Do you have a child that seems to do well on homework assignments but then seems to "bomb out" on a test? Sometimes these students claim to have test anxiety. This is probably true as test anxiety comes from a lack of preparation. Now, before you get upset, I realize that these same students may have studied for hours-- which is why they are so frustrated. However, when we ask these same kiddos what they did when they were studying, their answers are almost always the same. They say things like, "I looked over my notes and the chapters in the book." When students tell me this I say, "Perfect! You did a great job of 'inputting' information. You took the information from the page, and inputted it into your short-term memory. Unfortunately, test-taking is an 'outputting' activity. On a test, you have to take what is in your mind, and output it back onto the paper. This requires the use of your long-term memory. In order to output most effectively, you will need to practice outputting before the test." How can you do this? Below I have listed a variety of ways to output information. Have your child choose 2 or 3 of these to practice while studying for a test, and you will see amazing results!
Outputting Strategies:
--Draw pictures explaining the concept
--Teach the information to someone (If you can't teach it, you don't know it!)
--Create quizzes for yourself
--Make a song or rhyme
--Use clay or other building materials to "build the concept"
--Make a game and play it using vocabulary
--Ask yourself questions about confusing concepts, find the answer, and then paraphrase it in your own words
--Write about the concepts
