ISTEP+ will take place on March 5th-9th

How to Help your child with Testing

Do not plan activities that will take your child away from school on testing days. Reschedule doctor’s and/or dentist’s appointments.

Make sure that your child arrives to school on time.

Early to bed. A good night’s sleep is very important the night before a big test. Most children need at least 10 hours of sleep to perform their best.

Prepare a good breakfast. Test morning is not the time for a high-sugar snack—or no breakfast at all. A nu-tritious and filling breakfast is a must. Studies have shown that students who have a healthy breakfast do much better on tests.

Review good test-taking strategies with your child including:

Read and listen to the directions carefully and make sure that they ask questions if they do not under-stand the directions.

Avoid spending too much time on one question—if they get stuck on a question, move on and finish the test and come back to the unanswered questions

Work at their own pace and ignore students around them who seem to be working faster or who may finish the test early

Go back and really check their work.

Let you child know that all standardized tests are designed where some questions are very easy and some questions are very difficult. Students are not expected to know all of the answers. Remind them to al-ways do their best.

Help your child manage any stress they may feel about the test. This includes thinking positively about the test, taking deep breaths before the test starts, and visualizing positive results.