FCAT ( Comprehension Assessment Test)

[Halima]

Salaam.

This FCAT exam stands for (Florida Comprehension Assessment test) this is the exam I have to pass in order to get my high-school diploma. Unfortunately, I get test anxiety all the time. There are some very determined people out there that would really really really like to go on to college. So what I'm going to post are some test anxiety tips/ strategies to help fellow students.


Effective studying gives you confidence

Set the right atmosphere
Study where there are no interruptions (no tv, phone or friends)
Study in the same place each day
Sit at a well-lit desk or table. Stay away from easy chairs.
Don’t study when you are overtired. Take a nap and then study.
Make the most of your notes



Take notes efficiently in a notebook.
Spend a couple of minutes reading your notes right after class.
Set aside some time each week to review your notes.
Develop a schedule


Mark deadlines and exam dates for the semester/quarter on a calendar.
Schedule several short review sessions rather than one or two longer ones.
Be realistic about how much material you can cover in one session.
Schedule some free time too.
Create learning aids


Match the study material to the aid.
For example, use flashcards to learn technical terms and foreign language vocabulary.
Make charts and timelines for historical events.
Use outlines to help break information into smaller units that are easy to remember.
Prepare yourself


Attend all classes.
Skipping classes may add to your anxiety at test time.
Ask questions and try to pick out the important information.
Look for key phrases (i.e. “The main idea is…” or "What is the author's point of view?")
Get help if you have a particular problem with the material.
Be kind to yourself


Eat and sleep well before the test.
Don’t try to cram or stay up all night, you’re likely to be tired, irritable, and distracted by test time.

You Can Control Your Test Anxiety!

 

[Batoota]

Jazak Allah koli khair! I also experience test anxiety, but Alhamdillah I do most of the above (especially the "schedule many short lessons instead of one or two long ones"...) This is great advice!

During the school year, our English project was to make a magazine. I got stuck with "How to Survive School", so i wrote a lot of the same advice....only i just took a longer way of writing it....if you're interested I could send it to you



:sister:

 

[Halima]

Please send it. I'm in dire need of it ;D May Allah (swt) reward you inshallah

 

[Batoota]

Well i was trying to send it to you by e-mail, but you chose the option of not letting people send you e-mail...then i tried sending it as a pM but it was too long, so i thought i'd just post it and hope nobody else reads it. :-[


Coping With Work, Pressure, School, Work, Pressure, and More Work



Frantically, you race over to your friend. You have only five minutes before disaster walks in. Your heart is beating louder and louder and your stomach has suddenly decided to take a gymnastics course and show off its kart-wheels. Alas, you can no longer postpone it. In walks the teacher.

She hands out the paper that can either mean your success or your failure. You shiver uncontrollably. You had stayed up all of last night studying; only sleeping for two hours. Your whole body is tired, and to top that off, all of a sudden you feel like all of the material has been erased out of your mind. It is as if the material had walked in, and then decided it didn’t like it there, and just walked out again, without even leaving you a souvenir or a memory. You stare at the test paper…

Is this some kind of sick joke?! Is this the right chapter? Did you sign up for a German class or something? What language is this test in? Your stomach lurches. You don’t know any of the answers. You feel sick. Your palms are sweaty and your mouth is dry. A? B? C? D? Which is it? You look to the right of you…your friend is busily answering all the questions. You look to the left of you. Your other friend is gripping the paper and answering the questions as if she’s in some war. “Oh, man, I’m going to be killed,” you think to yourself. You choose letter A and then decide to cross that out and pick D. However, no sooner are you choosing choice D, then you’re crossing that out and selecting A again. Pretty soon, choice C is looking better and better. You give up. You don’t know whether to laugh or cry…all you know, is that you don’t know any of this….



If you’re like anyone of us, you have been in this situation before. It seems like there was all this pressure, you had all this work, you didn’t have time to study, and then suddenly…. the test arrives, almost unexpectedly.

I say “almost unexpectedly” for a distinct reason. Chances are you did know about this test, if not a week ago, maybe three days before. But how were you supposed to get ready in such a short time? How are you supposed to cope with all the homework, quizzes, projects, and tests? How are you supposed to survive in school?

Well, there are many short steps you can take to help you survive in school. I should know. I have unfortuantely been in school for twelve years (thirteen, if you count pre-K).It’s true, I’m a survivor! Over the years, I have picked up a few tips that have armed me well, to cope with school and to even face…the enemy (exams!)





In fact, if you follow these tips, tests and exams will no longer haunt you as much. Remember, here at S.A.I.S.( my school :zip: ) , teachers are extremely understanding. Not only are they not allowed bombarding you with more than two tests a day, we can often convince teachers to delay the tests! Postponing the tests may seem like a brilliant solution, but at the end of the day, school is preparing us for university and we certainly can not count on such leniency there. If we can not handle school tests, how will we handle university mid-terms? If we can not face the pressure of quizzes, how will we handle the pressure at university? That is why, it is important to start learning now!



Tip Number 1: Pay attention to the teacher



“….and because x to the power of 2 equals 36, to solve this equation, you need to use radicals,” Mrs. Math explained.

Ten minutes later, after solving the question, one of her students’ raised her hands. “Miss, why did you use radicals? How are we going to know when to use that?” the confused student asked.

Mrs. Math sighed. She had explained this part ten minutes ago, three times. The class also sighed. They were bored and here was Mrs. Math repeating the lesson all over again.



The first tip in order to survive in school is to stay awake in class. Though certain individuals I know, study better when “sleeping”, the majority of us are not so blessed. We must stay awake in order to understand the concept the teacher is talking about and remember it. Staying awake ensures that we hear all the details the teacher is saying, understand the material, and prevents us from having a panic attack the day before the test.





However, staying awake in class does not mean talking to one’s friend, listening to music and staring at your teacher while he/she talks. The truth is, there is a reason why your teacher is talking and it is not to lull you to sleep. You teacher might be explaining a new idea, or a new lesson. She/he might be giving you important information for the exam. They could also be answering the question you’re about to ask. Staying awake means staying focused, and keeping your attention centered on the teacher. In fact, if you stay focused, you’ll probably soon realize that your teacher isn’t actually speaking in slow-motion as you had previously imagined! It can also save you from the embarrassment of snoring at school.



Tip Number 2: Take Notes:



It’s the last minutes of the period, and Miss English asks, “Anybody have any questions concerning the material that will be on the test tomorrow?”

You search your literature book quickly, anxiously flipping the pages, trying to find that part of the story you didn’t understand. You can’t seem to find it. You’re sure you had marked it, but all that you can see, are little doodles all around the sides of the story. “Where is it? Where is that part?!” “Is that it? Nope, that’s a little heart I was drawing…how about that little thing? Oh dear, where is it? By the time you find it, your teacher is walking out the door, and you have a new period.



Although it might seem cruel for me to tell you to stop developing your art skills (a.k.a: doodling), the truth is, the sides of your paper can be used in a much more useful way. Take notes while the teacher is talking! After all, staying awake in class is great, however, what can guarantee you that you will remember everything the teacher said today, tomorrow? After tomorrow?

Good notes can help you remember all the important parts your teacher went over during class. Also, good notes will help you study at home because they will (or should) contain clarifications and explanations of certain points. Instead of having to rush to your friend the day of the test and ask her why the teacher did this or that, you’ll already know because you would have jotted down the reason when your teacher said it in class. (However, remember that some teachers prefer that you do not write while they are speaking. If this is the case, only write notes after they are done talking, if you have time.)

(continued)

 

[Batoota]

Tip Number 3: Do Your Own Homework



“Man, what the heck was that test? Where did he get those problems from? Seriously, that was so unfair,” moaned Lisa.

“Actually, a lot of the problems were almost identical to the problems we had for homework,” Anna mumbled.

“What? It was in the homework? Well, who has time to do homework,” Lisa grumbled.



Who can believe that after we come home from a drilling, grilling, demanding seven hour school day, teachers still assign us even more work to do at home? Don’t they understand? Are they trying to torture us? We already barely have any free time for ourselves, and now they want to give us even more work?!

Although this might be many people’s sentiment, the reality of the matter is homework is just another way of reviewing the lesson you took today. It also helps you know what parts you have difficulty with and what parts you need more practice with, before the exam comes and everything seems to be in frenzy.

Remember, this tip is not effective when you simply copy somebody else’s homework.



Tip Number 4: Stay Organized!



“Miss, I can’t find my book,” Fatima whined.

“Neither can I,” Mariam answered.

“Somebody took my book too!” Reem cried.

Fatimah got up and started checking everybody’s book. “Hey, this is Mariam’s,” she told Natalie. Then Natalie stood up and checked her neighbor’s book. “Hey, this is Aisha’s book,” she told Alia. “Then, where is my book?” Alia asked.



It seems like books are always disappearing, notebooks are stolen, and homework is lost. You know you had your book right there only one minute ago! Where did it disappear? Who took it?

Chances are nobody took it, but that as we like to say, it has simply wandered or, “has gone astray” (a.k.a you lost it!). Losing your books and personal school belongings happens to all of us, but to some more frequently than others. This needs to be treated right away because losing one’s books is the real cause of many problems. You can’t do your homework, teachers get angry, you can’t study for a test, you can’t pay attention in class, you can’t read the lesson, you can’t participate unless you share your book with someone (which can lead to distracting the friend and disturbing the class), etc. Sometimes, you solve this problem by borrowing somebody else’s book in a different class. The only problem with this solution is that occasionally, your friend’s books magically disappear too!

“You know you had your book right there only one minute ago!”
​

This is why you need to be organized. Not only should your desk be (at least slightly) organized, your notebook should be organized too. You have to remember that although you can understand your work while you’re writing it, three hours later when you’re done writing it, you might not. That’s why the writing in your notebook should be as legible as can be, rather than a cryptic message. If you can’t read what you wrote, if the work is completely scattered all over the notebook (some questions on one page, the answers somewhere else), there is no use of your notebook. You have to organize it. Also, you should put a title to all the pages in your notebook. For example, “Homework, page 213, questions: #1-#9. This way when you’re flipping through your pages, you know exactly what you’re looking at, and you can find whatever you’re looking for within minutes.


“I’m so tired. I can’t keep my eyes awake at all. I stayed up the whole night studying for this test.”

The tip of staying organized actually encompasses many things. Your entire life should be somewhat organized. The sad reality is you will be stressed if you don’t have some sort of balance in your life. You can not be “Wonder Woman” and juggle a million things at once. This is why you need to manage your time and set priorities. What is your goal? Is it to get an average of A+ in school? If so, how are you planning on reaching this goal? What steps are you willing to take? How are you organizing your schedule to fit in extra studying?



Tip Number Five: Break up the Workload



“So, are you busy today? Have any homework or any tests?”

Wrong Answer: “Nah, I have nothing today. I have a test after tomorrow though. But today, I can go out!”

Right Answer: “Well, I have a test after tomorrow, so I’m just going to review some of the material today and finish studying tomorrow. We can still go out, after I finish studying. Call you later!”



Cramming all the material you need to study in a few hours never (or at least rarely) works. Even if you do know all the material, when it’s time for the test, you feel like you aren’t prepared enough. You are unsure of the material and unsure of your own understanding. Is there something you left out? Something you didn’t study?



Well, you can spare all of this anxiety by simply breaking down the workload. If you know that you have a test on two chapters in five days, you can start studying in two days (rather than in four). That way you study one chapter the first day, the second chapter the second day, and then review both chapters the last day. This technique ensures that you understand both chapters equally and that you know all the concepts connected to them. It is also very effective, because you don’t feel pressured to finish both chapters in only six or seven hours. Instead, you are able to relax and take it “easy.”





Finally, these tips are all just tips of icebergs, because each tip includes many others (for example, breaking the workload encompasses “Have a good night’s sleep”.) However, they are the most basic tips that you need in order to successfully survive the workload at school!



:thumbs_up I'll pray for you insha Allah that you pass the test!

 

[Batoota]

I'm back! Forgot to add:

What to do When You Get a Bad Grade:


To some people, facing their parents after getting a horrible mark on a test is the equivalent to jumping into an ocean of sharks. Yes, it is scary, but you have to remember your parents are concerned for you. They want you to get good marks so that you have the best future possible. If you go and talk to them, it might not turn out as bad as you had imagined. However, before you go talk to your parents you might want to go over the test with your teacher or a friend. Make sure you understand all your mistakes and high light your weaknesses- what did bring you down- and how will you change it to your strength? That way your parents will be more understanding (hopefully!)


Also, maybe, together with your parents, you can come up with a better way of studying. They might be able to help teach you whatever difficult concept you are trying to study. Talk to them; it’s worth a shot.


Another idea is cry. Go up to your parents and hand them your test paper, while you are “crying.” You can even let the tears stream down your test paper and smudge it. However, be sure not to “over do it.” (Because if you do, they probably will figure out that you are acting.)

 

[Halima]

Wow that's some great information.

Nowadays there's alot of stress. You know especailly worrying about tests. Sometimes I feel hopeless but to worry about it.

 

[Batoota]

Sometimes I feel hopeless but to worry about it

Aww sis!! Don't be hopeless! Worrying puts you down- before you take a test, write down things like "I'm smart. I know I can do it. I have studied all the material. I am prepared." <-- I haven't tried that, but recently on a documentary they were discussing "positive thinking" and how it really makes you feel happier, even if you just read a few "happy words."

Another interesting thing scientists have been trying to prove is that if you just visualize success you increase your chance of becoming successful! However, you need to imagine it in detail: see yourself studying, working hard, then imagine urself answering all the questions, and getting them right. See the 100%. Feel the 100%. Be the 100%

:sister: