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kungfusi
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| Posted: Dec 07 2012 at 9:23am | IP Logged
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Hello all,
My name is Patty, and I'm new here. I've posted an intro, and now am ready to jump right in. 
My daughter had her first ever standardized test (PSAT) in October, and her scores left much to be desired. I figured it would be hit or miss, as all of the practice tests she did at home were like that. It was like how well she did was directly related to how confident she felt that day. But even when her score was decent, she was still having the same problem. Time. She runs on her own time. She always has. She "gets" her assignments, but I suppose it takes her longer to digest things, and complete her work. When I got her PSAT results, I noticed that sure, on a few sections, she didn't do so well, but then on other sections, that I know she can do better on, she just never finished enough of the questions/problems to help up her score. I asked her what happened, and she just says that it's like before she knows it, the time is up. Um, she is her mother's daughter. I didn't test well either, and I remember feeling this way as well. In fact, my SAT scores were so poor, that I wasn't accepted into either of the two colleges to which I had applied. It wasn't until my sister advocated for me that I was admitted based on my high school record. I went on to college and made the dean's list every semester, graduating cum laude. Obviously, I'm not a fan of standardized tests for that reason, but they're a fact of life, and now I have to figure out how to get my dd to wade through them successfully. I know they're not necessarily an indicator of future academic success, but a lot of weight is placed on them.
I'm kind of kicking myself for not having done more timed drills with her when she was younger, or even for not having tested her before...like with those CAT tests that Seton offers. I started to do some timed drilling for math facts when she was much younger, then felt guilt over doing the whole "drill & kill" thing with her. Um, I think that 2nd guessing myself is part and parcel of my whole homeschooling experience with her.  Either way, I'm finding it imperative to just figure out a way to help her get faster. The first thing I did was order some SAT tip books. She can figure out even the hardest SAT math problem, but she'll likely spend 10 minutes on it, even after reaching an answer, because she's always wondering if there is a trick. She's super analytical. Just think the Sicilian (Vizzini) in Princess Bride. She's forever deliberating! 
Anyway, does anyone here have any experience with this...a child that is a decent enough student not performing up to par when tested? What sorts of things helped improve their speed and their performance?
So far, these are the books I have or am using with her:
Dr. John Chung's SAT Math
The College Board SAT Book
Gruber's Complete SAT Guide (mostly for more practice tests)
Khan Academy videos
Grammar Workbook for the SAT
A variety of vocabulary books (Hot Words for the SAT, Gruber's vocab list, Greek & Latin Roots review, Vocabulary Cartoon books)
How to Write a Killer SAT Essay
That sounds like a lot, doesn't it? (See what I mean about the second guessing? lol)
And like I said, it's not so much the content, but the speed, that I'm concerned about. She's highly distractible, and the slightest things draw away her attention. I could tell this is part of what happened, because she was able to share more about what was going on in the testing room, than what was on the actual test. Oy!
Anyway, thanks for wading through my jumbled thoughts on this. I'd appreciate any ideas!
TIA!
+AMDG+
Patty
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SallyT
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| Posted: Dec 07 2012 at 11:18am | IP Logged
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Your daughter sounds very like my oldest daughter, who has never tested nearly as well as her high-school work would have indicated. Time was always an issue for her, too, as were her emotions. She was the kind of student who would look at the math section, particularly, and just shut down. Her scores ultimately were okay if not stellar (though her math scores were far less respectable than her verbal ones), and she did get into all the colleges to which she applied. Her college work, even in the one math class she had to take, has far surpassed the expectations her test scores might have suggested.
I would try not to let worries over testing take over your homeschooling experience, first of all! From what I've read, the best preparation is to do practice tests, maybe weekly, and to time them, especially if timing is a particular issue. We also did have our daughter do some tutorial sessions with a college-professor colleague of my husband's who does SAT language tutoring on the side. He helped her to strategize and pre-write what was ultimately a very successful essay for the written part of that test. That was frankly quite helpful, and although he tutored her for free, I would happily have paid money for that preparation, because it did give her a serious confidence boost.
Anyway, I know what you mean about second-guessing! You could be describing my own experience with that daughter. I'm a lot less guilty about the drill-and-kill thing with my younger children, let's just put it that way . . . the poor guinea pig, meanwhile, has been fine, but her testing experience did not make me sanguine about that whole "homeschoolers outscoring everyone else" thing.
We do do the CAT here yearly, because our state mandates it, and that I think is helpful from the standpoint of acclimating people to that kind of testing format. Some kids can just breeze in and deal with the bubbly thing without ever having seen it before, but for some kids, the format is a real stumbling block, so I do think that the practice is useful.
I've also had my 9th grader take the ACT, mostly because he wanted to try it and it does count as our yearly testing, but also because I figured that just getting out there and being familiar with the whole testing scenario would be a bonus. He is not the same kind of animal as his sister, and looks on all of this as a kind of game, which he plays well; she might really have benefited from my having her do some preliminary "runs" with the different tests, because even things like being at a high-school in a room full of strangers had an effect on her emotions and confidence level, and thus her performance.
Again, she has been a very successful college student thus far, in a challenging program, though even now she has to learn to master her emotions in order to power herself through difficult tasks. I truly do appreciate the particular challenges of preparing certain personalities for jumping through these hoops . . .
What grade is your daughter, by the way -- how much time do you have before these things really start to matter? Also, you might bear in mind that some students do far better on the SAT/PSAT, while others find the ACT to be a better fit.
Prayers and best wishes!
Sally
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Castle in the Sea
Abandon Hopefully
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Dec 07 2012 at 12:03pm | IP Logged
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No experience with this with my kids yet..
BUT I did want to say as well.. check out the ACT it may be a better fit for your daughter.
Also just pointing out that wasting time on one question worrying about a trick will mean she won't answer several.. and see if you can't help her see that answering more questions as best in a very short time frame as she can would give her more right answers than not being able to get to all the questions.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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kungfusi
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| Posted: Dec 07 2012 at 4:19pm | IP Logged
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Hello Sally,
Thank you for your response! I had to chuckle when you referred to your daughter as your guinea pig, as I often think that's what my daughter was (and continues to be) for me. I've made every mistake in the book, and she was the poor soul directly effected by all of them. Thankfully for me, she is very forgiving, and the sweetest, most delightful child on the planet. As you can imagine, that only makes me about the guiltiest parent on earth. lol
I kind of feel like Mr. Bennett after the Lydia-Wickham debacle, tightening the reins on the younger kids going forward. I will absolutely learn from this, and start testing them going forward.
Oh, and my dd is 16. I think of her as a junior, and she works on level.
+AMDG+
Patty
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kungfusi
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| Posted: Dec 07 2012 at 4:28pm | IP Logged
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Hello Jodie,
I don't know why I had never considered the ACT. The SAT is all I was familiar with, and it's what our local schools use, so that was the only test I was considering. Are the tests that different? Now I'm curious. Will have to study up on that!
My advice to her for the Critical Reading section only, was to work slowly, or rather, diligently, and at a normal speed. In my experience with her practice tests, speeding up during that particularly section was disastrous. That said, for the other sections, I urged her to do as many questions/problems as possible. I should definitely sell her on the idea that answering more questions would surely improve her score. I figure that we have at least 5 months until her next test, so I hope I have enough time to get her speed up to par, and hope that she's able to do keep good time when she's in an unfamiliar place. As mentioned, she's so distractible. Sigh.
Thank you so much for weighing in on this! I appreciate everything that has been said.
+AMDG+
Patty
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: Standardized Tests & Timed Drills
