One of the most difficult parts about tests, in maths specifically, is knowing what a question requires of you. In a classroom, you work through one piece of content at a time, master it, and move on. You know all the exercises from a chapter are going to be asking you about a similar topic and all you need to do is work out how to apply it. Of course, this is a crucial way to learn this specific content, however, this methodology can limit individuals when it comes to a test. This is because each question will come from different content areas. As a result, student often don’t know where to start.
To try to improve this, I have been asking students questions that they have learnt in previous terms randomly throughout sessions to help them practice their recall of various topics.Something that I have been working on improving recently is to allow the students to attempt the question on their own as far as they can, even if they start off wrong to see if they can correct themselves and to understand their way of thinking. I have found that this will help students to feel more confident in a test when they don’t have someone to guide them when they go wrong.

Riva Burkett