Improving Your Score: 7 Habits of Highly Effective Test Takers [Teen Article] BY VANESSA VAN PETTEN | Becca is a 16 year-old from West Palm Beach, FL. She loves to cook and travel, and she would like to study International Business in the future. May is the month of AP and IB testing and is consequently many students’ least favorite time of year. We all want to maximize our results, so here are the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Test Takers: 1. Start studying BEFORE the night before For some students, cramming is both helpful and essential, but you shouldn’t depend on it as your only study habit. If you start reviewing earlier, you’ll increase your chances of remembering a larger amount of information for the exam. 2. Repeat Creating a studying routine will get you in the habit of preparing well. To retain data in your long term memory, you have to practice what psychologists call “memory maintenance and rehearsal.” Repetition and routine will make it easier for your brain to recall information when you see a question on the test. 3. Study with friends If you know that you’ll be able to stay focused, group studying can be extremely helpful. You should try to engage as many senses as possible when you study, and group settings will help you use senses such as sound more often than individual study will. 4. Sleep Getting sleep the night before the big exam is a balancing act. Obviously, you want to be well rested for the test. However, many students will try to go to sleep significantly earlier than they normally do on school nights. Their bodies are simply not used to this and, consequently, will actually keep them up long past when they first climb into bed. Try to go to sleep a little earlier than your normal bedtime, but also keep in mind that a normal REM sleep cycle lasts about eight hours and is essential for finalizing memories. 5. Come prepared on test day You never know if your test room is going to be boiling or freezing, whether they’ll have pens and pencils, or if you’ll be able to see the clock. Wear layers so that you can be comfortable during the test regardless of the temperature; bring at least three sharpened pencils and three pens with black or blue ink; and wear a watch. 6. Gum or mints Chewing gum or mints during the exam can actually help increase concentration and focus. This is especially true for kinesthetic learners (types of people that “learn by doing”). 7. Make plans Having plans for after the test is actually a helpful way to relieve test anxiety. Ask your friends if they want to go to the mall or a movie or catch a bite to eat after you finally finish the test. This will allow your brain and body to de-stress after the exam. Remember- there’s nothing you can do once the test is over! I would be a hypocrite if I say that I haven’t been overjoyed and ecstatic about the academic success that my two kids have achieved. No, they were not honor students in their respective high schools. Neither were they quiz bee champions. Rather, both of them recently passed the UPCAT (2009 and 2010).
It’s not that I was not confident that they would, but because it was proven that despite their average academic standing in school, given the chance to go for the goal and to do their very best to achieve it, they were able to hurdle the toughest college entrance exam in the Philippines. I would like to share with you some secrets how my children qualified in UP. I call it the A-B-C-D way of passing the UPCAT: 1.
Attitude not just Aptitude It is a fact that my kids were somewhat pressured to pass the UPCAT since their father is a UP graduate and a former UP Math faculty. Now they couldn’t be overconfident either because they also knew that genes don’t matter. According to Dr. Dolores Ramirez, the Philippines foremost geneticist, among the genetically transmitted aptitudes, Science (34%) and Math (12%) ranked among the lowest. So you see, Chinese people aren’t good in Math just because they are Chinese. They are good in Math because they have a positive attitude towards Math. My children, as they were reviewing for the UPCAT, kept that positive mental attitude so that they wouldn’t feel the stress. Instead, they were challenged enough to work hard and so focused to meet their goal.
2.
Belief not just Brains Majority of UPCAT passers definitely got the brains. It takes a smart (I did not say “intelligent”) student to really qualify for the UPCAT. I can say that my kids are smart enough to attain UPCAT success but without a belief system, they have a lower chance of making it through. You see, UPCAT is highly competitive. You will be competing against 70,000 other UPCAT aspirants. First you need to believe in the Infinite Intelligence who is the source of all the knowledge and wisdom that you acquire. Second, you need to believe in yourself. You must make it a point to always say that you are already an UPCAT passer. And third, you must belong to a community of believers. Join the network of like-minded students that help one another to achieve the common goal of passing the UPCAT.
3.
Courage not just Confidence I still remember the saying, “If you lose money, you lose much. If you lose a friend, you lose more. But if you lose courage, you lose all!” Anxiety is the number one killer in any written test. Many intelligent students fail in a major exam because of too much test anxiety. You need not only develop your self-confidence in taking the UPCAT but also your bravery to face and undergo the rigid preparation. I was a bit concerned when my kids showed confidence because a thin line between confidence and overconfidence separates the two. If they would have been overconfident, they might have lost the courage to go through the process of systematic preparation. Pride might have made them cowards to undertake the review program wherein they were enrolled to. It takes a brave student to discipline himself for the hard work that is called the “UPCAT Review”. Fortunately, my kids had overgrown their confidence and showed a lot of courage and determination to really go for the goal.
4.
Discipline not just Desire I’m pretty sure that anyone who is dreaming to pass the UPCAT has the desire to make it realized. And I would agree that you need that necessary desire to keep you motivated. But don’t be a Juan Tamad who’d just waited for the guava to fall from the branch. You cannot win the UPCAT game by not having the discipline of a champion athlete. My kids had shown not only a burning desire to pass the UPCAT, but also a “forced” habit to execute a thorough preparation for the UPCAT day. They had been answering and reanswering all the UPCAT review materials until they fully believe that they could handle any question that they would encounter in the actual test. Also, they religiously attended their review classes, both virtual and real.
So you must raise the bar a notch higher when you really aspire to be a genuine Iskolar Para sa Bayan. Remember the A-B-C-D way to your UPCAT success!
A lot of people say that the UPCAT is one of the most difficult entrance test. But here are 10 ways on how you can outsmart the UPCAT. 1. Prepare early. The UPCAT is not a test you want to cram for. Although it might sound overwhelming, tiresome, or even boring to some, if you prepare as early as possible and commit to doing it right, then you will get excited when the UPCAT result is released. Do you see why? Always remember, “daig ng maagap ang masipag”. 2. Study your weak areas. Take an assessment or diagnostic test on the subjects covered in the UPCAT (Mathematics, Science, Reading Comprehension and Language Proficiency). You need to know where you need help the most. Once you identify the areas that need improvement, it is time to review. Get help from your textbooks, classmates, teachers, as well as from online resources. Be brave to admit that you need help in those areas. Also, you need to allot a study time for this. Remember, you cannot buy a high score in the UPCAT, you must earn it! So review, review, review! 3. Practice using the UPCAT vocabulary in daily conversation. The principle behind this is “learning by using (or doing)”. Make a deal with your friends or classmates to use new words in your conversation with them. It would be uncomfortable or difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be surprised how enriched your vocabulary has become! Continue doing this until you take the UPCAT. 4. Avoid using the calculator. In the UPCAT, you are not allowed to use calculator in the computation parts. Too much dependence on the calculator might be detrimental in your preparation especially for the Math subtest of the UPCAT. Try doing the manual computations even in your school assignments. Practice your estimation and mental calculation. Aside from the fact that the UPCAT involves simple computations, you need to focus more on the analysis of worded problems. So please keep your calculator out of sight. 5. You read well? Good! But you need to study how the test maker in reading comprehension arrived at the correct answer. This is about getting the BEST answer in the reading comprehension part. When answering this portion of the UPCAT, you need to eliminate your bias, your belief, or your opinion. What matters most is how the test maker sees it. The test maker would include three wrong answers among the four choices, each of which has at least one word that is obviously wrong, or at least, can be proven wrong. So make it a habit of eliminating those three answers no matter how plausible they are. The best answer is the correct answer. 6. Do not underestimate the grammar part of the UPCAT. Nowadays, students are accustomed to writing and reading (or even speaking) in the popular abbreviated text messages. The problem with this is they no longer recognize what is right or wrong in their grammar usage. That is the reason why most students now perform poorly in grammar and spelling tests. You can still avoid this grammar trap by not going with the flow. Write your text messages in complete sentences, correct spelling, and proper subject-verb agreement. Encourage your friends and text-mates to do the same. You can even correct them if they commit grammatical errors in their messages. Take this seriously because the rewards are enormous.
7. Assess your guessing abilities when you review. You should know how the UPCAT is scored. The Review Masters League is a believer of “Guess, even if it is right minus wrong.” In the UPCAT, there is no penalty for leaving a question blank, but an incorrect answer costs you ¼ of a point. Some students guess really well. But you need to understand that these students have mastered the art of smart guessing as compared to those who guess poorly and used to “wild guessing”. It is better if you know whether you are a good strategist in guessing the correct answer or not. So while reviewing for the UPCAT, assess your guessing skill so that you will be more confident when you need to guess in the actual test. 8. Pick the review materials written by authentic UPCAT experts. I have written a lot of test questions (in Geometry, by the way) for my own materials as well as for Review Masters League. My colleagues in Review Masters are also expert test constructors in their respective fields. Our being alumni (so, we had taken the UPCAT a few years back) and former faculty members of the University made us more aware on the style and the coverage of the UPCAT questions. We also get feedbacks from previous UPCAT takers so more or less we get to construct questions close to the real thing. If you happen to purchase an UPCAT reviewer from a bookstore, then consider who the authors are. 9. Review relentlessly. Diligence, persistence, determination. They all mean one thing – “If you want it, then get it… by all means!” It is not the number of review materials you have on your study table. It is not your academic ranking in your batch. It is not the school where you study. It is not the review center where you attend review classes. It is not the online resources you bookmarked. It is all about you – how you discipline yourself to achieve your goal of passing the UPCAT. You should not compromise your study time for anything else less important – like watching movies, playing online games, chatting, malling, or even checking your Facebook account. These things should be put aside every time you are scheduled to study for the UPCAT. Do this consistently and you know that you are inching your way to the target. Go for goal! 10. Shake, rattle and roll in the UPCAT by applying what you’ve learned. Taking the UPCAT is much like a one-on-one basketball do-or-die championship match – exhausting, nerve-racking, and requiring your extreme focus until the final buzzer sounds. The test proper is close to three and a half hours. So you need to endure the pressure, you need to be confident and overcome test anxiety, and you need to enjoy the gruesome mental exercise. Remember, in a competition, those who desire the most usually win. So you just apply whatever you learned in the review – not only the subject content but also the techniques and strategies in taking the UPCAT. If you follow numbers 1 to 9 above, then you are ready to rock!
