I’ve written several posts about how we consciously do little explicit test-preparation at our school and, instead, feel that focusing every day on helping our students become lifelong learners is the best test prep we can do. In those posts, I do share, however, that we do whatever we can to help make our students feel comfortable and positive on the test days themselves (see Display The Letter “A” On Test Days & Your Students Will Do Better? and Getting Into A “Smart” Frame Of Mind on Test-Days). Earlier this month, several of implemented the ideas reflected in those recent posts during the California State High School Exit Exams.

One of those posts talked about some reporting by Malcolm Gladwell on studies that showed students did better on standardized tests if they either had to do some “sentence scrambles” that had positive messages or if they just wrote what they thought a scientist did in his/her life.

Another study has just come-out with similar findings
. In this study, though, test-takers just had to write about a “successful personal experience” before taking the test. Those that did so scored higher than those in the control group.

Another idea that falls into the “can’t hurt” category when state tests come in May….