NAPLAN exam score stands for National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy. You may have seen it on the news or read about it in the papers, as there is much debate whether or not the data obtained from this assessment is effective enough when it comes to adjusting government policies and curriculum planning. But, regardless of whether you like it or not, NAPLAN is here to stay. They may get rid of it, but it’ll just be renamed something else as it was called the ‘Basic Skills’ two decades ago.
These tests are single-day tests and are additional tests. A student can opt out of these tests only if the parents of the students feel so.
Every year millions of students do the NAPLAN exam score preparation and appear for the exams, and most of these students are simply nervous and end up with a bad score.
Here are some tips for NAPLAN exam score preparation that can be shared with students that will help them score better:
No Pressure
Make sure not to pressure the students. Be it a parent or a teacher, the students appearing for these exams need to feel that this is just some other test.
If the student feels pressured by their teachers and students to get the best grades here, they may do badly in the exams. However, if you help the students feel that these are just tests, and the students can easily get good grades.
Encourage the students to remain calm.
A calm mind allows the students to concentrate better on their NAPLAN exam score exam preparation and help them get a better score. Furthermore, calm minds help students remember the matter they have already studied, and even the harder to remember concepts are easily remembered.
Once the student masters the art of remaining calm even during the exams, you can be sure that your student will automatically perform better.
Practice Tests
One of the main problems with students who appear for NAPLAN exam score, tests is that the students are completely clueless about the exams. In addition, these tests have a different pattern and a different flow of questions than the normal term papers, which is why the students become nervous and mess up.
To avoid this, you can help students with NAPLAN practice tests that can be found easily on the internet, which will ultimately help in exam preparation. In addition, these tests will help the students get accustomed to the nature of the test papers and allow them to feel at ease when they see the test.
Explain to students to make use of Time
Timing is an essential part. However, make sure that students know how to use time. The students should be advised to mark out the answers they know are correct.
Other than this, help the students to understand that they should not hurry. Hurrying will only make them get wrong answers and lose whatever they could have gained.
When students are about to appear for the NAPLAN tests score, make sure that others help them by giving them their space and help them by calming their minds.
Unnecessary pressure to perform better will make the students anxious and will lead to negative results.
Focus on the process and not the results
Shift the conversation from the results of NAPLAN exam score to the process.
Instead of focusing on results, which can make students feel anxious and impact their exam performance, discuss with the student about the exam preparation and what they can learn from the experience.
NAPLAN exam score represents an opportunity to learn how to get better at taking tests, how to deal with and overcome test anxiety, and identify their strengths and where they can work to get better.
Remember that NAPLAN exam score is just one assessment and that teachers and the school use this information in conjunction with numerous other data to determine a students’ academic level. Therefore, the student needs to understand that this one test does not determine their success.