How to improve test scores?

[chohiad]

My eldest (Y7) generally does well in school; teachers are always hugely complimentary and he's often predicted good grades (our schools does "aspirational" grades so I appreciate they are set to push them) but right since early primary school he has struggled with tests. He gets nervous, he rushes, no amount of telling him to slow down and read questions carefully seems to set in. We always get the feedback that he makes silly mistakes, he often knows the answers when going back through afterwards.

I appreciate he is Y7 so regular testing is still relatively new and hopefully something he will get used to as he's tested every term, but he's been like this since Y2, just wondering if anyone has experienced similar and how they have helped their child handle tests better?

I just want to add that I'm not worried about high grades, I just want to try and help him ensure he gets the grades that best reflect his ability and potential- I'm not expecting him to get straight 9s!

Time and practice. At this stage his teachers know what his real capabilities are so he shouldn’t be too disadvantaged by poor exam performance. He has plenty of time before public exams.

You could ask to speak to the Head of Year about him seeing a school councillor to talk it through - it might help.

What helped us, was when we did an adaptive test on Atom, I said slow down, especially at the start because you get more points later if you do not make silly mistakes at the start. This is true for adaptive tests though, so slightly different to normal written tests. I also explain you do not get more points for finishing first. Also, go back and check work if you finished early. I used to always do this when I did my tests (although I rarely made mistakes :)) I just did not want to get anything wrong, so would basically work out all the problems twice to make sure no mistakes were made.

@chohiad I got mine to underline the important words such as "What year did the famine start?" and got them to underline what they were looking for, the year, tick it when it was done. This is especially helpful when they are asked how and why so they can underline and tick to show themselves that they have answered both parts of the question. This started in primary school. I genuinely thought Ds2 had nailed this until he recently lost 7 marks on one question on a year 12 A level practise maths paper because he did the minimum when it asked for the maximum still got an A star, just.

It is about practise and knowing how much time you have for the paper. Rushing clearly results in mistakes and so he knows that there is room for improvement in this area. If he had missed the last 2 questions because of time but got the other silly mistake ones right would he have got the same mark?

Practise lots and lots at home in a stress free environment. It's getting used to the wording and finding patterns that they need to get used to. It's difficult to learn that when the only time they're faced with a test is when under pressure.

Thanks everyone. I think I'm partly to blame in that it's always been a case of do X homework and then you can do that other thing you wanted, and the same in school if you finish the task you can do something else so I think the emphasis has often been there to get something done rather than done well. Will take a look at these tips, thanks.