ABMP Student Success Curriculum

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ABMP Student Success Curriculum

• Topic 10
• Test Taking and Exams

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2. Goals of This Lecture

• Teach students how to better prepare for exams.
• Learn how to answer questions strategically.
• Decrease the occurrence of test anxiety.

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3. Test Preparation

• Find out about the test.
• Schools testing philosophy?
• Sources of questions?
• How many questions?
• What form(s)?
• What chapters does the material cover?
• What are the core topics that are covered?

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4. Break Material into Chunks

• Quizzes 3 hours of dedicated study
• Longer Exams 810 hours
• Plan one-hour study sessions for adequate
  repetition.
• Work on the oldest chapter first.
• Study related material together.

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5. Study Actively

• Write a quiz and take it.
• Make flash cards recite the answers out loud.
• Explain concepts to yourself out loud.

• Rewrite and reorganize your text and lecture
  notes.
• Color in and label diagrams.
• Make mind maps.
• Record the material and listen to it while you
  drive.

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6. Use a Variety of Methods

• Use a variety of methods to learn information.
• Day one use flash cards.
• Day two make a mock quiz.
• Day three make mind maps.
• Day four rewrite and organize notes.

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7. Plan Ahead

• Review the Exam Preparation Form (worksheet 10-1)
  on page 110.

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8. Study Sheet

• Defined
• A one-page condensed version of the most
  important information on a single topic.
• One topic per study sheet
• Review the sample Single Topic Study Sheet
  (worksheet 10-2) on page 112.

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9. Flash Cards

• Question Cards, page 113
• Word Cards, page 113
• Visual Cue Cards, page 114

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10. Preparation for Exams and Skill Checks on
Muscles

• How does the school test on muscles?
• Review pages 115-116 and discuss the types of
  information you will need to know about muscles
• Muscle Graphic Organizer, pages 8990

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11. Strategies for Test Taking

• Arrive early.
• Read the directions carefully.
• Finish high-point questions first if test is
  timed.
• Answer what you know first.
• Work through unknown questions strategically.
• Answer everything, even if you guess.

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12. Strategic Guessing

1. Answer everything you know first.
2. Know the instructors patterns.
3. Look over the pattern of answers.
4. Understand commonalities about certain types of
   questions (see next slide).

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13. Multiple-Choice Questions

• Stem
• A question or unfinished sentence
• Distracters
• Multiple answers
• Must pick the best answer

• Read all the answers.
• Look for wrong answers and cross them out.
• Underline keywords.
• Read the stem and use the answers to finish the
  stem
• Understand all of the above and none of the
  above.

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14. According to studies on the growth of
massage,

1. More young people than ever before are getting
   massage.
2. Massage has grown at an annual rate of 4 over
   the last 4 years.
3. Elderly people get more massage than they used
   to.
4. Housewives are ignoring massage to get pedicures
   instead.

• Distracters tend to have less specific
  information than the correct answer
• Which answer is most specific?

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15. Effleurage is best described as

1. A kneading stroke.
2. Short muscle tissue.
3. A gliding stroke used to apply lubricants and
   warm the tissue.
4. Lengthened muscle tissue.

• The correct answer will often have more words in
  it than the incorrect answer

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16. A stroke commonly used in Swedish massage is

• Another red flag is an answer that contains a
  completely unfamiliar term, like myoation in
  answer C.

1. Effleurage.
2. Deep Tissue.
3. Myoation.
4. All of the above.

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17. Understanding True/False Questions

• Absolutes are a red flag
• Always
• None
• Never
• Only
• Every
• All

• 50/50 chance
• For a statement to be true, the entire statement
  must be true. No part of the statement can be
  untrue.
• Instructors tend to include more true than false
  if you cant decide, mark it true.

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18. Understanding Matching Questions

• Two columns of information
• An item on the question side matches an item on
  the answer side
• Cross off completed items on the answer side

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19. Graded Exams

• Identify where each question came from
• Text
• Lecture
• Compare your notes to the questions on the test
• Any areas missing?
• Why?

• Review incorrect questions and determine why you
  missed them
• Look for instructors test writing patterns.
• This analysis prepares you for future tests

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20. Strategies to Reduce Test Anxiety

• Defined
• When a student experiences physical, emotional
  and mental symptoms directly before a test.
• Usually due to poor preparation for the test.
• Sometimes caused by bad past educational
  experiences.

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21. Support for Test Anxiety

• School policy on testing anxiety
• School resources for help with material
• School resources for help with anxiety

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22. Dealing with Test Anxiety

• Symptoms
• Nausea
• Increased heart rate
• Light-headedness
• Diarrhea
• Vomiting
• Shaking
• Tearfulness
• Headache

• Solutions
• Over-prepare
• Prepare every day
• Use positive affirmations
• Breathe
• Warm up
• Take the power back
• Get help early

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23. Review Process

• Plan ahead.
• Repetition is key.
• Use a variety of study methods.
• Arrive early.
• Guess strategically when needed.

• How has your attitude to testing changed since
  this lecture?
• What will you do to improve your test scores and
  reduce anxiety?

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ABMP Student Success Curriculum

• Find additional resources at ABMP.com.