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Improving Your T.Q. (Test-Taking Quotient) Types of Tests

游客2024-03-01  18
问题                    Improving Your T.Q. (Test-Taking Quotient)
    Types of Tests
    You will have one hour to complete this test. All answers must be marked on the answer sheet. Make no marks on the test booklet. Using a No. 2 pencil, place your name... Ready? Begin.
    They are off! Each test-taker working at a different pace; each using a different technique and strategy; all wishing they were somewhere else.
    Ours is a test-taking culture. And whether you are an adult job-hunter, license applicant or student, tests always provoke uncertainty, especially if life decisions are attached to them.
    In 12 years of your elementary and secondary education, you completed a conservative estimate of 2,600 weekly quizzes. College mid-term and final examinations over a four-year period account for another 100, and each year of advanced professional training adds another 25 major exams.
    People do not realize that classroom examinations represent only a small segment of testing experience. School systems administer approximately 2 million standardized tests in addition to regular classroom tests.
    The total number administered by business, government, industry and clinics, however, is astronomical (庞大的), dwarfing the total number of school tests.
    People tend to take tests without really understanding them. One sure way to improve your performance is to familiarize yourself with the different types of examinations. Simply understanding the test format promotes self-confidence.
    Can familiarity with test taking boost your test scores? Yes, along with 15 other "tricks". Read on.
    All tests--whether simple classroom quizzes, tests for a driver’s license, or statistically oriented aptitude tests--have one major point in common: A test is a measure of a person’s behavior at one point in time.
    A long held myth has led most people to conclude that test scores are forever. This is simply not true.
    Scores change from one test taking to the next. In fact, there are numerous reported cases of intelligence quotients (IQs)fluctuating (变动) as much as 30 or 40 points between test administrations.
    Another source of score fluctuation is a result of the test-taker’s uncertainty with different types of tests.
    Overall there are two specific types: maximal and typical performance tests. Maximal tests attempt to measure an individual’s best possible performance accurately. Included in this type are intelligence tests, academic or classroom (achievement) tests and aptitude tests. Of these, IQ tests are the most widely known and the least understood.
    It’s amazing how so much confusion over those two little letters IQ, has proliferated (扩散) since the testing movement began in the early 1900s. The first intelligence tests were conceived by Alfred Billet, a French psychologist, who was asked to develop a procedure to predict which children were unable to learn in a classroom setting. Today there are approximately 350 intelligence tests on the market.
    Myths surrounding the IQ test have grossly contaminated the public’ s understanding; people want the IQ test to do more than it is capable of doing. It is best used to predict school success: to assess mental skills and the ability to adapt in new situations and learn academically.
    Another maximal performance test is an admission test (technically a form of aptitude testing). These tests are designed to measure the degree of skill of people when they are attempting to perform to the limit of their ability. But people allow these tests to intimidate (胁迫) them, and that puts them under a great deal of tension. If you’ve taken one of these exams previously, chances are your score will increase in subsequent testing.
    Two important points here: First, put the practice rule to work for you (familiarity, again). Second, ask friends who have taken the test what they remember about it, and then check your local bookstore for manuals that will prepare you for the test. Books currently on the market that raise scores do so not by divulging (泄漏) information, but by giving you familiarity with the items and test formats.
    Typical performance tests do not promote as much anxiety as maximal performance tests, for they are designed to assess interests, personality traits, attitudes and other similar characteristics. There is little preparation needed and no "right" or "wrong" answers.
Tricks for Taking a Test
    1. When it is possible to prepare for a test, do so! In fact, "over-learn" the material. Research consistently shows that over-learning the material reduces anxiety and raises test scores. Also, it has been found that consistent studying over a period of time is more effective than cramming just before a test. Going to the movies the night before an exam can be therapeutic (有效果的). How do you know when over-learning takes place? When you feel you have mastered the subject, study one or two hours more.
    2. Show up on time, but not early. If you must get there early, stand alone, away from the crowd. If you pay attention to other’s worries, your anxiety level will increase, too.
    3. Know in advance if the test has a correction formula. For example, for every four items you answer incorrectly, one right one might be deducted from your total score. If you answer 50 items correctly, but miss 20, after the correction formula, your score would be 45. This is an attempt to correct for guessing.
    4. Eliminate alternatives. If the item is a four-choice, multiple-choice format, the odds are one in four you could guess the right one. If you can eliminate any two of the four, your odds are 50-50. If you cannot eliminate any of the alternatives, you have no idea which one is correct, and if there is no correction for guessing, then pick the longest answer and proceed to the next test question. Test authors tend to make the correct answer the longest.
    5. Test authors also tend to make one of two parallel statements the correct answer. For instance, if two of the four choices have major differences in wording; and if the other two are almost identical in structure and wording, chances are one of the parallel statements is right. Probably the longer statement will get you points.
    6. Read directions carefully. Many points are lost because people don’t understand what they are supposed to do.
    7. If the test is multiple-choice, requiring you to read a "stem" and then select one correct response from four alternatives, attempt to answer the question before you read the possible choices. After you formulate your answer, match your ideas to the possibilities and pick the one most similar. By doing this, you are using not only recognition but recall.
    8. Pace yourself so you complete as many items as possible. Sometimes the items at the end of a test are weighted more because fewer people answer them.
    9. If the test requires you to read long passages and then answer questions about the reading, read the questions first. By doing this, you will know what you are looking for as you read, and you’ll be in a much better position, to answer. If the test is timed, this technique also increases your speed and efficiency.
    10. Skip items you are unsure of, items about material you’ve seen before but can’t remember the answer immediately. Chances are your brain will be searching for and retrieving (重新得到) the information while you are working on other items. When the answer comes to you, go back and mark it.
    11. Do not change your answers on multiple-choice tests unless you are very uncertain about your initial answer. Research has shown that only when you have strong doubts is your second answer more likely to be correct.
    12. Read the questions carefully. On essay tests, note such key words as compare, contrast, discuss, evaluate, analyze, define and describe. If you are unsure about an essay question, your response will come across as wordiness. Do what the question asks, be direct, make your point and support it. On multiple-choice tests, look out for such negative disclaimers as, "Which of the following could not be...?" As you read the test questions, underline the key words. This will recheck your thinking.
    13. There is some evidence that if you are slightly cool you will do better on a test. Informal observations certainly support this point. For instance, if you are too warm, you may become sleepy and lose your focus.
    14. Recheck your work. Make clerical corrections only.
    15. Finally, ask to see your corrected test and scores. By reviewing a test, you become test wise.
    Tests are necessary to determine levels of knowledge and to help make placement decisions. They are capable of motivating via feedback. So it is important to develop a healthy, positive attitude toward examinations.
    As tests are mastered, they serve as "trial runs" for other more difficult life tests. [br] The IQ testing movement began in______.
选项
答案 the early 1900s
解析
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