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Preparing For The New Jersey Department Of Education High Sc
USINFO | 2014-01-03 17:07
It goes without saying that many students are concerned about their ability to pass the New Jersey Department of Education’s High School Proficiency Assessment. After all, if they don’t pass their first attempt in 11th grade, the following year will mean reviews and retests. And if they don’t manage to pass the exam by the third attempt, they won’t graduate with the rest of their class!
Parents, too, are concerned about how well their children will do in this very important assessment. However, they should know that there are a number of things that can be done to help students not only pass, but do their very best.
Although it might go against common belief, cramming for the exam won’t help a bit. In fact, in many cases in can hurt. Waiting until a few days before the exam and then trying to stuff as much information into your mind as you can often results in what you really do know getting shoved to the side. What you’re trying to memorize last minute might get confused with other bits of information, and by the time you go to take the exam, you’ve forgotten what you know and don’t understand what you’ve crammed.
A much better, more measured approach is to allow plenty of time for review. Remember that this type of test is designed to discover not only facts and information you’ve committed to memory, but how capable you are of applying these things. Reading a question and deciding the best approach to resolving it takes a certain amount of creative thinking, and if you’ve gotten yourself all tied up into a bundle of nerves, creativity will vanish. Instead, begin studying a long time before the test so you’ll feel confident about what you really do know going in, and can allow your mind some relaxed creative play.
There are lots of different types of study materials available. When you visit a bookstore or the internet, however, be aware that not all test materials are created equal. It’s not in your best interest to purchase the flashiest CD study set or the cheapest flash cards, unless they have been produced by a company with an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. These are the companies that have been in the education business for a long time, are proud of their products and the contributions they make to helping students get ahead.
The night before the big day, it’s much more important to get a good night’s sleep than it is to keep studying. At this point, you either know the information you’ll need or you don’t. Wake up a little early, and eat a good breakfast, and you’ll be ready to go.
Once you’re taking the test, there are a few things to remember to help you score at the top of your game. First, read the instructions! A surprising number of students assume they know what instructions contain, and simply skip them in order to save a few minutes. But what if you answer the wrong thing? The minute you saved is has just become lost forever.
Secondly, if you come up against a question you have absolutely no idea how to answer, skip it for now. But remember that you’ll need to complete it before turning in the test! Statistically, it’s wisest to answer every question, even if you are just guessing. That’s because these tests don’t penalize you for a wrong answer; they simply only credit you for correct answers. Not answering a question obviously won’t win you points. Making a guess isn’t as good as knowing the answer, but at least you’ve got some chance of guessing right!
When making a guess, if time permits do it logically. Read the directions, reread the question, and begin by crossing out any responses you are pretty sure aren’t right. This will increase the chance you’ll guess correctly.
Pacing yourself is another good tip. Remember you’ve got the entire morning— two and a half hours—to complete the test. Many of the questions will be ones you know, and you’ll get through those quickly. It’s a good idea to pass through the exam once, answering only those questions you are certain about. On the next pass, make your best guess for those you can address through the process of elimination. One more time through and you finish items that are still blank.
A word of caution: be extremely careful that the answer you are filling in corresponds to the correct question. The last thing you want to do is get to the end of the test and discover things don’t match up!
New Jersey Department Of Education High School Proficiency Assessment Scoring
The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) combines multiple choice, open- ended and writing prompt essay questions. The NJOE works with an independent contractor who is responsible for machine scoring the rest results on the multiple choice questions. Mathematics and Language Arts Literacy open- ended questions are rated by trained scoring experts. These scorers are monitored throughout the scoring process.
Two trained scorers read each of the open- ended questions and score them independently. Next, the two scores are combined and divided by two to arrive at an average.
The raw score is arrived at by adding to total number of correct responses, each of which is assigned one point. Scale scores are arrived at by a process of conversion of the raw scores; these are the final scores that are reported as each student’s HSPA score. It is important that students know that coming across unfamiliar items is inevitable; rather than skipping questions for which they don’t know the answers, it is statistically advantageous to make a guess since there is no penalty for incorrect answers. Simply skipping the question, however, does count as an incorrect response.
The Language Arts Literacy section of the High School Proficiency Assessment contains essay questions that are written as a response to a written prompt. The NJDOE has created a scoring tool called Registered Holistic Scoring, which ranks each essay on a scale of from one to six. On this scale, one represents the low score. Each essay is examined for competency in four areas: sentence construction; word usage; writing mechanics; and content organization. As with the open- ended questions, two scorers read and rank each essay; these scores are then added together and averaged to arrive at a final score.
Parents, too, are concerned about how well their children will do in this very important assessment. However, they should know that there are a number of things that can be done to help students not only pass, but do their very best.
Although it might go against common belief, cramming for the exam won’t help a bit. In fact, in many cases in can hurt. Waiting until a few days before the exam and then trying to stuff as much information into your mind as you can often results in what you really do know getting shoved to the side. What you’re trying to memorize last minute might get confused with other bits of information, and by the time you go to take the exam, you’ve forgotten what you know and don’t understand what you’ve crammed.
A much better, more measured approach is to allow plenty of time for review. Remember that this type of test is designed to discover not only facts and information you’ve committed to memory, but how capable you are of applying these things. Reading a question and deciding the best approach to resolving it takes a certain amount of creative thinking, and if you’ve gotten yourself all tied up into a bundle of nerves, creativity will vanish. Instead, begin studying a long time before the test so you’ll feel confident about what you really do know going in, and can allow your mind some relaxed creative play.
There are lots of different types of study materials available. When you visit a bookstore or the internet, however, be aware that not all test materials are created equal. It’s not in your best interest to purchase the flashiest CD study set or the cheapest flash cards, unless they have been produced by a company with an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. These are the companies that have been in the education business for a long time, are proud of their products and the contributions they make to helping students get ahead.
The night before the big day, it’s much more important to get a good night’s sleep than it is to keep studying. At this point, you either know the information you’ll need or you don’t. Wake up a little early, and eat a good breakfast, and you’ll be ready to go.
Once you’re taking the test, there are a few things to remember to help you score at the top of your game. First, read the instructions! A surprising number of students assume they know what instructions contain, and simply skip them in order to save a few minutes. But what if you answer the wrong thing? The minute you saved is has just become lost forever.
Secondly, if you come up against a question you have absolutely no idea how to answer, skip it for now. But remember that you’ll need to complete it before turning in the test! Statistically, it’s wisest to answer every question, even if you are just guessing. That’s because these tests don’t penalize you for a wrong answer; they simply only credit you for correct answers. Not answering a question obviously won’t win you points. Making a guess isn’t as good as knowing the answer, but at least you’ve got some chance of guessing right!
When making a guess, if time permits do it logically. Read the directions, reread the question, and begin by crossing out any responses you are pretty sure aren’t right. This will increase the chance you’ll guess correctly.
Pacing yourself is another good tip. Remember you’ve got the entire morning— two and a half hours—to complete the test. Many of the questions will be ones you know, and you’ll get through those quickly. It’s a good idea to pass through the exam once, answering only those questions you are certain about. On the next pass, make your best guess for those you can address through the process of elimination. One more time through and you finish items that are still blank.
A word of caution: be extremely careful that the answer you are filling in corresponds to the correct question. The last thing you want to do is get to the end of the test and discover things don’t match up!
New Jersey Department Of Education High School Proficiency Assessment Scoring
The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) combines multiple choice, open- ended and writing prompt essay questions. The NJOE works with an independent contractor who is responsible for machine scoring the rest results on the multiple choice questions. Mathematics and Language Arts Literacy open- ended questions are rated by trained scoring experts. These scorers are monitored throughout the scoring process.
Two trained scorers read each of the open- ended questions and score them independently. Next, the two scores are combined and divided by two to arrive at an average.
The raw score is arrived at by adding to total number of correct responses, each of which is assigned one point. Scale scores are arrived at by a process of conversion of the raw scores; these are the final scores that are reported as each student’s HSPA score. It is important that students know that coming across unfamiliar items is inevitable; rather than skipping questions for which they don’t know the answers, it is statistically advantageous to make a guess since there is no penalty for incorrect answers. Simply skipping the question, however, does count as an incorrect response.
The Language Arts Literacy section of the High School Proficiency Assessment contains essay questions that are written as a response to a written prompt. The NJDOE has created a scoring tool called Registered Holistic Scoring, which ranks each essay on a scale of from one to six. On this scale, one represents the low score. Each essay is examined for competency in four areas: sentence construction; word usage; writing mechanics; and content organization. As with the open- ended questions, two scorers read and rank each essay; these scores are then added together and averaged to arrive at a final score.
