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More math test tips
Feb. 6th, 2006 11:27 pmI scored math teacher certification tests again today. This means you get to learn more pointers for taking tests.
Today's number one tip is that if you have a five-part question, you might want to try to answer more than one part. And if the second part looks too hard, at least take a look at parts three, four, and five, just in case.
Also, if you know what shape the graph should be, and you have calculated some points, but you can't figure out how to make that shape fit with those points, maybe you should do some more thinking. Calculating more points may help you see the shape better. Thinking more about what the shape should be may help you realize you were partly mistaken about the shape. Superimposing your notion of the shape near your notion of the points does not do a good job of convincing us that you know your stuff.
If you are graphing a function of a quadratic equation, it is most likely going to look quite different from the same function of plain old x.
And the big heart-breaker. If it says in all caps that you must put your answers on the answer sheet, do not write only this on your answer sheet: "Please see test booklet for graphs and calculations." We do not have any test booklets; we only have answer sheets. They probably have to incinerate the test booklets immediately for security reasons or something. (Thank goodness in the past ten years I've never had to read this until today.) It's bad enough when I have to read "Ran out of time," or "I have no idea how to approach this problem," or "I don't really want to teach math anyway" as the answer. I get very sad.
Today's number one tip is that if you have a five-part question, you might want to try to answer more than one part. And if the second part looks too hard, at least take a look at parts three, four, and five, just in case.
Also, if you know what shape the graph should be, and you have calculated some points, but you can't figure out how to make that shape fit with those points, maybe you should do some more thinking. Calculating more points may help you see the shape better. Thinking more about what the shape should be may help you realize you were partly mistaken about the shape. Superimposing your notion of the shape near your notion of the points does not do a good job of convincing us that you know your stuff.
If you are graphing a function of a quadratic equation, it is most likely going to look quite different from the same function of plain old x.
And the big heart-breaker. If it says in all caps that you must put your answers on the answer sheet, do not write only this on your answer sheet: "Please see test booklet for graphs and calculations." We do not have any test booklets; we only have answer sheets. They probably have to incinerate the test booklets immediately for security reasons or something. (Thank goodness in the past ten years I've never had to read this until today.) It's bad enough when I have to read "Ran out of time," or "I have no idea how to approach this problem," or "I don't really want to teach math anyway" as the answer. I get very sad.