Back when I was a high school student and taking my first standardized test, the SAT, everyone said “you can’t study for it.”  Supposedly this test was going to accurately predict our ability to succeed in college and there was simply nothing we could do to improve our performances other than eat a good breakfast.  You knew what you knew and that was that.  I wish I had known then what I know now – that you can and should study for a standardized test. 

This is not the impossible task you might think it is.  I am not suggesting sitting down with a dictionary and memorizing words, or trying to absorb four years worth of math lessons in a month.  You really may not be able to master the subject in the amount of time you have before the test.  But what you can master is the test itself.  Below are some ways to do that.  I have successfully taught these to many TOEFL students as well as public school students engaged in the high stakes testing of No Child Left Behind.  I have even used them myself on tests such as the GRE and the Praxis.  In fact, by following these steps I obtained nearly perfect scores on the math and logic sections of those tests, two subjects for which I have never had any aptitude. 

Here are the basic steps to successfully studying for a standardized test:

1.  Gather as many sample and practice tests as you can.  Usually the testing agency (i.e. ETS) will make available – probably for a price – some sample tests.  Go the agency’s website and order these tests.  Keep some for your own timed practice tests, where you test yourself with a timer as in the real test, and use the others to practice practice practice.  Take your time going through those – if you have to spend thirty minutes on one question, then do it.  This is your analysis of the test.  By taking the time to really examine every question and find the right answer, you develop an understanding of how the test works and what correct answers look like.

2. Buy the right test prep book.  If the agency that issues the test makes a test prep book for the test, then buy it.  It is the only book that is guaranteed to contain questions and answer choices that really reflect those on the actual test.  Other test prep books (i.e. the Cambridge, Princeton, etc.) may not do so.  In some cases test prep books have questions and answers that bear no resemblance to those on the actual test, and occasionally they even give bad advice to test takers.  The test maker’s own book will provide the most accurate information and will often give advice and information about how to take their test.  Read this advice very carefully and make sure you are following it.  Use other test prep books to supplement, but the test maker’s book should be your primary source of information about the test.

3.  Study the wrong answers.  Test makers don’t just put down random wrong answer choices – they usually have some kind of system for creating wrong answers.  For example, on an English language test you may be asked to identify which of several choices restates the information from the passage.  If the correct answer is “The boy bought a big dog,” wrong answer choices may include “The big dog bought a boy,”  “The big boy bought a dog,” and “The boy did not buy a dog.”  You can see a pattern – subject/object switch, modifier applied to wrong noun, and positive made negative.  Often test makers create wrong answers using predictable patterns.  Once you identify the patterns, you can more easily avoid wrong answers by checking for these “tricks.”

4.  Understand how test questions are created.  Get inside the test maker’s head and try to create your own test questions that mimic those on the test.  Test writers have methods for creating questions, and if you understand how a question is created, then you have a better chance of choosing a correct answer.  For example, the TOEFL test contains a question which asks you to find the correct location for a sentence within a paragraph.  If you study this question, you will see that often it tests your knowledge of references within a paragraph – i.e. do you know that if the sentence reads “this doctor” then there must have already been a doctor mentioned, and the sentence must come after the first mention of the doctor.  If you pretend you are a test maker and try to make your own question, then you will see that you must first read the passage and find places where there are such references so that you can create your question.  Once you understand how this process works, you can look at the sentence and see right away that there is some kind of reference in it and that you must be sure to place the sentence after the first mention of the subject.  (Likewise you will find this type of TOEFL questions also tests your knowledge of words like “likewise,” “consequently,” etc.)  Once you understand how these questions were created, you have a great advantage in finding the correct answer. 

5.  Remember that tests are created by normal, imperfect human beings.  They are not all-knowing, but are using specific information from specific sources to create their questions.  They can make mistakes, and the test itself might not reflect a deep understanding of the subject matter.  Know where the test makers are coming from and give the answer they expect.  For example, I know of one standardized reading test that asks the test taker to identify the purpose of different genres of literature, such as “to persuade the reader to do something,” or “to inform the reader about something,” or “to entertain.”  On this particular test, if the genre is poetry, then the answer is always, without exception, “to entertain.”  Any literature major would balk at this, but in the test makers’ limited experience (their knowledge of poetry might not extend beyond Dr. Seuss), this is the only possible function of a poem.  Likewise, if you are a linguistics major, you might take exception to a test maker’s insistence that only older forms of grammar are legitimate, even if native speakers rarely use them (i.e. whom), but you must choose their version of the correct answer in order to be awarded the point.  So make sure you know what their version is.

6.  Practice your test at least once under “real” test conditions.  This means don’t get up for coffee, don’t answer the phone, obey the timer.  If you are planning to take a computerized version of the test, you can do most of your practice on paper but you should experience the computer version at least once.  Try to find a test prep book that offers a computer version where the software functions the same way it will on the real test.  If you are not familiar with how the computer works, you may find yourself spending the first thirty minutes of your test going through a tutorial.  By the time you begin the test, you’re already tired!  Being familiar with the computer program will enable you to zip through the tutorial and begin your test fresh.  It will also make sure that you are aware of things that might change your overall test-taking strategy, like whether or not you can return to a question after answering it.

7.  Answer every question.  Most standardized tests are scored by awarding credit for correctly answered questions, but not deducting anything for incorrectly answered questions (double check how yours is scored to make sure).  This means that you have nothing to lose by guessing if you don’t know the answer or don’t have time to read all the questions.  If you leave the questions blank, you will certainly not receive any points for them, but if you guess you are likely to guess at least a few correctly.  Make sure to give yourself a few minutes at the end of the test to guess the answers to any questions you didn’t have time to get to.

Yvonne Brandon, Ph.D.