Ways for Students to Improve Test Scores and Get Help

How Can I Help My Students Raise Test Scores?

Although standardized test results don't determine the true intelligence of a student, modern society and culture tell us that higher scores often lead to greater opportunities. Ways to help your students boost their scores vary from student to student and class to class. Here are a few tips to improve test scores in students who are falling behind.

Create a Positive Classroom Environment

Create a learning environment in which your students are instilled with a sense of self worth and accomplishment. Extrinsic motivation is a technique in which you inspire students through a system of external punishment and reward. A flaw with this method is that the same students who would have succeeded anyway tend to be the ones to always gather the rewards. The students who are struggling end up feeling even worse and will sometimes eventually give up.

Give positive encouragement to students in order to develop a more lasting system of intrinsic motivation. This means that your students aren't driven by outside forces, but by an inner drive to succeed. By determining the learning style of each individual in your class, it becomes easier to relate to your students as people and help them realize their capabilities.

Vary Class Activities

If your teaching style is always the same, your students may lose interest. Intersperse lectures and worksheets with games and fun projects related to the subject matter at hand. If at all possible, organize supplementary activities, such as field trips, educational vacations, book clubs and math clubs. When introducing new material, make it relatable to the interests and lives of your students. Don't be afraid to be creative when building your lesson plans.

Promote Good Study and Testing Habits

Taking thoughtful, accurate, organized notes and studying them in order to retain information is a learned behavior. Test taking is a skill to be learned, honed and eventually mastered. If your students are struggling to score well on tests, make time during the school day to review and practice these fundamentals. For example, have your students check each others notes at the end of class and quiz them on the material.

Helping Outside of the Classroom

Communicate regularly with the parents and legal guardians of your students. Keep them in the loop so that they can reinforce lessons at home. Recommend that caretakers sit down with their children and help them when it's needed. It's also helpful if parents provide their children with regular studying schedules.

Consider providing extra help to students before or after school. Your school may employ tutors or teacher's aides to serve this purpose. You also may recommend that certain parents seek tutors to help out in specific areas.