“Familiarity fools our minds into thinking we know more than we do.” If you have ever been surprised by a poor test result, you are not alone. “Very often, students will think they understand a body of material. Believing that they know it, they stop trying to learn more. But, come test time, it turns [...]

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It’s that time of the year when high school and college students are asked to demonstrate what they have absorbed since the beginning of the semester. Midterms and finals test cumulative knowledge. And, since information from months earlier may be a bit hazy, the key to success lies in solid preparation. Our 5 Steps to [...]

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When State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell released results for the 2008-09 high school exit exam on September 2, he was “pleased to see that these results show that California’s high school students are continuing to meet the challenge of higher expectations.” This despite the fact that nearly 1 in 10 of California’s class [...]

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Average SAT scores and ACT scores for the high school class of 2009 have remained close to flat according to data released by the College Board. While girls performed better by 13 points on the writing test, they scored 35 points lower in math and 5 points lower in critical reading than boys. The full [...]

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Students who attend California public schools recently received their STAR test results in the mail. The report explains how to interpret scores and reminds parents that STAR tests are only one indicator of their student’s overall academic prowess. But did you know that every California public school also receives a test score? The Academic Performance [...]

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You know they’re coming, but when someone asks, you reply that the teacher hasn’t mentioned anything about finals yet. With the school year quickly coming to an end, any student who waits for the teacher to say it’s time to start studying is already falling behind. There’s someone in every class who easily masters the [...]

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For high-school students, final exams are just around the corner. And, like it or not, third- through eighth-graders are getting ready to take federally mandated standardized tests. Following are some best practices to help your student get the most out of testing: Prepare in advance Help students continue to build and maintain good homework and [...]

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If you’re getting ready for the SAT, then you know there’s a lot to learn. In addition to the material — the math, the vocabulary, and the writing — there’s the vagaries of the test itself. Taking the SAT is not like taking a test at school. The SAT lasts over three hours On the [...]

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The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, outscored Earnest Hemingway (& others) on the writing portion of the SAT, as reported by the Atlantic Monthly in 2004. Now, hundreds of universities, including several top schools, ignore students’ scores on the writing section of the SAT in admissions decisions, according to a story in the Boston Globe. The College [...]

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At TeamUP! Tutors, we get a lot of calls from parents whose children suffer from test anxiety. Dr. Peters, Today Contributor, writes that: True test anxiety is really quite rare. For this condition, psychologists generally suggest relaxation techniques, getting enough sleep the night before and not cramming for the test, among other remedies. Most of [...]

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