Looking for stress-free test prep strategies? This guide shares five powerful, teacher-approved methods to help students master key skills like citing text evidence, using the RACE strategy, and tackling paired passages. Make test prep engaging, effective, and frustration-free!
Test prep season can feel like an uphill battle—too much to cover, not enough time, and students who really, really, really, really don’t like reviewing.
But here’s the thing: test prep can be manageable – and even enjoyable – with the right approach.
With the right plan, you can make it work for you instead of against you. A little strategy, a little creativity, and a few teacher-tested tricks can take test prep from ugh to actually useful.
If testing season has you stressed, don’t worry—help is here.
These five articles will help you get students ready with less stress and more success.
1. 5 Tips for Test Prep
5 Tips for Test Prep: Think of this as your test prep starter pack. This article breaks down five practical, teacher-approved strategies that you can put to work today. From pacing yourself to making review interactive, these tips will help you simplify your approach and increase student engagement.
✔️ Why it’s helpful: These classroom-tested strategies come from my own classroom. They keep students engaged and make review sessions more effective. From partner work and quick review games to short, focused study bursts, these ideas help break up the boring drills while boosting learning.
📝 Try This: Instead of cramming a ton of information into one long review session, break it up into bite-sized chunks. Try a “Power 10” session where students focus on one skill for just 10 minutes, then switch to a different type of activity. Quickly rotating ideas keeps things fresh and helps students remember more information.
2. Prepare for Testing with Writing Stems
Prepare for Testing with Writing Stems: If your students freeze up when they have to write their answers, this one’s a game-changer. Writing stems are sentence starters that improve students’ responses and boost confidence. Often, the hardest part about writing is getting started.
This article gives you ready-to-use strategies to help students communicate their thoughts clearly as they’re working on constructed responses or open-ended questions.
✔️ Why it’s helpful: Writing stems take the guesswork out of writing. Instead of staring at an empty page, students have a structured way to begin their responses. You’ll get step-by-step guidance on teaching writing stems, plus examples of how I used them in my classroom. You’ll also see some bulletin board ideas to reinforce learning.
📝 Try This: Give students a set of sentence starters for different types of questions. For example, “One important detail is…” or “The author’s main point is…” Have them practice completing the stems using short passages so they’re comfortable using them before test day.
3. RACE Strategy: A Must-Have for Written Responses
RACE Strategy: A Must-Have for Written Responses: One skill that shows up on almost every test is explaining your thinking. The RACE Strategy (Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain) gives students a clear, step-by-step way to write strong, evidence-based responses. This strategy helps students break down questions and back them up, so there are no more one-sentence answers with zero support.
✔️ Why it’s helpful: We know that so many students love giving the shortest answer possible. The RACE strategy forces them to slow down, think, and actually back up what they’re saying. This article shows you how to introduce it in a way that won’t overwhelm students. It also provides scaffolding tips for struggling writers and helps them strengthen their answers with better support.
📝 Try This: Start with a simple sentence starter for each step of RACE. For example, give students a question and model how to restate it in their answer. Then, have them underline the key part of their answer, find and highlight supporting evidence, and finally, explain why that evidence matters. Breaking it down like this helps students see each step in action before trying it on their own.
4. Compare and Contrast
Compare and Contrast: Compare-and-contrast skills are crucial for tackling paired passages on standardized tests. Students don’t just need to understand two texts—they have to figure out what’s the same, what’s different, and how the texts connect.
Many students get stuck making only very basic comparisons or they miss key details, which can lead to wrong answers. Helping students analyze themes, tone, and the author’s purpose leads to deeper comparisons and stronger answers. And since tests are timed, the faster they get at explaining these differences, the better!
✔️ Why it’s helpful: This step-by-step guide walks you through defining key terms, using graphic organizers, prompting discussions, and writing essays. You’ll also find engaging activities to help students compare themes, perspectives, and author techniques, so when test day arrives, they tackle paired passages with confidence
📝 Try This: Choose two short texts on the same topic for students to read. First, have students identify the basic similarities and differences between the texts.
Next, help them analyze the authors’ techniques. Do the authors use different tones? Does one text make the reader feel a certain way? Using sentence starters like “Both texts discuss…” or “The first text states ____, while the second text explains ____.” will help students organize their thoughts.
5. How to Teach Students to Cite Text Evidence
How to Teach Students to Cite Text Evidence: Getting students to support their answers with solid text evidence can be a challenge. This article offers straightforward techniques to help them confidently find and cite relevant details. This article provides practical strategies like anchor charts, guided practice, and interactive activities to help students move from guesses to well-supported answers.
✔️ Why it’s helpful: One of the best tricks is color-coding. Have students highlight their answers in one color and their text evidence in another. This simple strategy helps students see the connection between their answers and the text, making it easier for them to cite evidence correctly.
📝 Try This: Try a scavenger hunt approach – give students a claim or statement and have them go “hunting” for the best supporting evidence in the text. When they find it, they highlight it and explain why it’s the strongest proof. This makes evidence-based writing feel more like a game and less like a chore.
Final Thoughts: Make Test Prep Work for You
Testing season doesn’t have to be painful – for you or your students. These five articles will help you make test prep more effective, engaging, and maybe even enjoyable. (Okay, tolerable at the very least!)
🌟 Want more time-saving test prep resources? Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers shop for printables, activities, and stress-free lessons to help your students succeed!
Written by Jules Rhee, MEd, and 30-year teaching veteran; published 3/11/25.
