Four Tulane University Students Studying January 2008

Test preparation (abbreviated test prep) or exam preparation is an educational course,

tutoring Tutoring is private academic support, usually provided by an expert teacher; someone with deep knowledge or defined expertise in a particular subject or set of subjects. A tutor, formally also called an academic tutor, is a person who provides ...

service, educational material, or a learning tool designed to increase

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementa ...

s' performance on

standardized test A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or "standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a predete ...

s. Examples of these tests include

entrance examination An entrance examination is an examination that educational institutions conduct to select prospective students for admission. It may be held at any stage of education, from primary to tertiary, even though it is typically held at tertiary stage. ...

s used for admissions to institutions of

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after compl ...

, such as

college A college ( Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

(e.g. the

SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...

and ACT),

business school A business school is a university-level institution that confers degrees in business administration or management. A business school may also be referred to as school of management, management school, school of business administration, o ...

(the

GMAT The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT ( ())) is a computer adaptive test (CAT) intended to assess certain analytical, writing, quantitative, verbal, and reading skills in written English for use in admission to a graduate management ...

law school A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

(the

LSAT The Law School Admission Test (LSAT; ) is a standardized test administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) for prospective law school candidates. It is designed to assess reading comprehension as well as logical and verbal re ...

LNAT The National Admissions Test for Law, or LNAT, is an admissions aptitude test that was adopted in 2004 by eight UK university law programmes as an admissions requirement for home applicants. The test was established at the leading urgency of Oxf ...

medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, MB ...

(the

MCAT The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT; ) is a computer-based standardized examination for prospective medical students (both Allopathic M.D. and Ostepathic D.O.) in the United States, Australia, Canada, and Caribbean Islands. It is desig ...

BMAT The BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT) is an aptitude test used as part of the admissions process for Medicine, Biomedical Sciences and Dentistry in some universities in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Spain, Malaysia, Thailand, Hungary, Croatia a ...

UKCAT The University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) is an admissions test used in the selection process by a consortium of universities in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand for their medical and dental degree programmes. Launched in 2006 as ...

and

GAMSAT The Graduate Medical School Admissions Test (commonly known as the GAMSAT, formerly Graduate Australian Medical School Admissions Test) is a test used to select candidates applying to study medicine, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy and veterinary s ...

and

graduate school Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and st ...

(the GRE) and qualifying examinations for admission to

gifted education Gifted education (also known as gifted and talented education (GATE), talented and gifted programs (TAG), or G/T education) is a broad group of special practices, procedures, and theories used in the education of children who have been identified a ...

programs.

Preparation options

There are many resources and services on which students may draw as they prepare for standardized tests, including: *

Courses Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...

: Many test preparation courses are designed to expose students to the breadth of topics tested on the relevant exam and guide them through the process of studying. *

Flashcard A flashcard or flash card (also known as an index card) is a card bearing information on both sides, which is intended to be used as an aid in memorization. Each flashcard bears a question on one side and an answer on the other. Flashcards are ...

s: Index cards imprinted with information used as a study aid to reinforce memory retention. *

Mind Maps The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various ...

: Mind maps allow students to visually organize relevant concepts and information, showing relationships among pieces of the whole. * Mock exams: Mock exams are practice exams that help students prepare for the real exam. They are intended to give students a clear indication of the structure and content of the actual exam, as well as a snapshot of their current performance. *

Study group A study group is a small group of people who regularly meet to discuss shared fields of study. These groups can be found in a high school or college/university setting, within companies, occasionally Primary school, primary/junior school and somet ...

s: Studying as group facilitates collaboration and exposes students to different perspectives on the material. *

Study Guides Study guides can be broad based to facilitate learning in a number of areas, or be resources that foster comprehension of literature, research topics, history, and other subjects. General topics include study and testing strategies; reading, w ...

: Various organizations and individuals produce published materials that students can incorporate into their preparation. *

Tutor TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in c ...

s: A tutor is a person with whom students work one-on-one to improve academic performance, in this case on an exam.

Resource providers

Most companies and educators that offer test preparation services also offer traditional (hard copy) such as books and printed materials and technology or online-based learning tools, such as content accessible on hand-held devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops. So do most test makers, publishers of self-help, instructional and educational materials, and makers of hardware and software.

Test makers

* ACT, Inc. - publisher of the ACT *

American Council on Education The American Council on Education (ACE) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) U.S. higher education association established in 1918. ACE's members are the leaders of approximately 1,700 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher educatio ...

(ACE) - publisher of the

GED The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a group of four subject tests which, when passed, provide certification that the test taker has United States or Canadian high school-level academic skills. It is an alternative to the US high ...

test * Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) - publisher of the

test * College Board - publisher of the

test * Educational Testing Service (ETS) - publisher of the GRE and

TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL ) is a standardized test to measure the English language ability of non-native speakers wishing to enroll in English-speaking universities. The test is accepted by more than 11,000 universities ...

tests *

Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as '' The Lancet'', '' Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', ...

- publisher of the HESI exam * Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) - publisher of the

Harcourt Assessment Harcourt Assessment was a company that published and distributed educational and psychological assessment tools and therapy resources and provided educational assessment and data management services for national, state, district and local assessme ...

- publisher of the

Miller Analogies Test The Miller Analogies Test (MAT) is a standardized test used both for graduate school admissions in the United States and entrance to high I.Q. societies. Created and still published by Harcourt Assessment (now a division of Pearson Education), t ...

(MAT) *

Law School Admissions Council The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) is a nonprofit organization whose members include more than 200 law schools throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. Its headquarters are in Newtown, Pennsylvania (about 15 miles north of Phila ...

(LSAC) - publisher of the

test *

National Restaurant Association The National Restaurant Association is a restaurant industry business association in the United States, representing more than 380,000 restaurant locations. It also operates the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. The associ ...

- publisher of the

ServSafe ServSafe is a food and beverage safety training and certificate program administered by the U.S. National Restaurant Association. The program is accredited by ANSI and the Conference for Food Protection. It is considered a system that aims to pr ...

* Testing Mom -

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" o ...

test prep for parents of

; testing and skill building

Third parties

Barron's Educational Series Kaplan, Inc. is an American for-profit corporation that provides educational and training services to colleges, universities, businesses and individuals around the world. Founded in 1938 by Stanley Kaplan, the company offers a variety of test prepa ...

- publisher of books and educational materials *

CliffsNotes CliffsNotes are a series of student study guides. The guides present and create literary and other works in pamphlet form or online. Detractors of the study guides claim they let students bypass reading the assigned literature. The company clai ...

- publisher of study guides * The

Complete Idiot's Guides The ''Complete Idiot's Guides'' is a product line of how-to and other reference books published by Dorling Kindersley (DK). The books in this series provide a basic understanding of a complex and popular topics. The term "idiot" is used as hyperb ...

- publisher of instructional reference books *

For Dummies ''For Dummies'' is an extensive series of instructional reference books which are intended to present non-intimidating guides for readers new to the various topics covered. The series has been a worldwide success with editions in numerous lan ...

- publisher of instructional/reference books *

Gary Gruber Gary R. Gruber (November 19, 1940 - August 27, 2019) was an American theoretical physicist, educator, and author who wrote books and software programs for test preparation. His work focused on test-taking and critical thinking skills. His writings ...

- educator and author *

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referen ...

- publisher of books and educational materials *

Peterson's Peterson's, founded in 1966, is an American company that has a wide range of print and digital products and services, including test preparation, career exploration tools, memory retention techniques, and school, financial aid, and scholarship s ...

- publisher of books and educational materials * SparkNotes - publisher of study guides *

Study Notes Study Notes is an online learning tool created by high school junior Feross Aboukhadijeh in El Dorado Hills, California. It was released to the public in March 2007. By September 2011, Study Notes was receiving 10,000 page views per day. As of S ...

- publisher of study guides *

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globa ...

- technology company that offers test-maker approved calculators and a variety of test preparation and test-taking tools

Criticism

Some test-preparation programs have been proven to help students improve test scores, but others may have little effect. Test preparation for the SAT and the GMAT is a highly lucrative field. A lot of people have criticism towards exams and testing in the primary and high school environment, the number one type of testing in Australia that receives criticism is NAPLAN. Parents and teachers have put forward numerous cases stating the stress it is having on children and how pointless it is.{{Cite web, url=http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/auscurric/articles/naplan_timeforadeepbreath.pdf, title=Time to take a breath

References

School examinations Standardized tests Student assessment and evaluation Preparedness

Preparation options

Resource providers

Test makers

Third parties

Criticism

See also

References