Today I’m going to let you in on a little secret about both psychology and education. Are you ready to for it?
Okay, here it is: test scores mainly tell you how good someone is at taking that test.
That isn’t to say that knowledge isn’t important! And of course, if you would like to know why standardized tests are important, we have a link to that too . But at the end of the day, these numbers don’t explicitly tell you how “smart” your child is. Not only are there many different types of intelligence, but performance on a test is just as demonstrative of emotional/physiological preparedness as it is expertise.
No one is going to perform as well on a test when they can’t see straight, or hear their heart pounding in their ears, or have a hard time breathing, or feel like they are in the process of fighting a bear composed of words and algebraic complexity. And yet, this is what a lot of students go through when they struggle with test anxiety, and it is a tough obstacle to overcome in order to achieve a score that more closely reflects their academic expertise.
In both our classes and our one-on-one tutoring sessions, we always emphasize practice simply because it works. Anxiety is treated in professional contexts by having an anxious person acclimate to the stressful situation until their body doesn’t react in a negative way anymore. Test anxiety can be coped with by confronting the test by practicing as much as possible.
So if you (or your child) feel that a score isn’t truly representing the abilities of the test-taker, take a moment to consider whether the best way to improve is by addressing whether or not test anxiety is part of the picture, so you can practice not just studying, but practice in acclimating to the test anxiety itself.
For more information, you can visit: Mayo Clinic article
Victory Step Education Team
