Over the years that I have tutored students in math, I hear repeatedly from parents that their child understands the homework but does not do well on tests. And I have heard students repeatedly say, “I just don’t test well.” In my experience, the reasons students struggle on tests can be honed down to 2 main causes:
1. ) The student is not prepared; they have not done enough math problems to study for the test.
Students often think that if they have done the homework when it was assigned and understood it, they have studied. Or they think that if they just “review” the homework by re-reading it and looking at the answers, they have studied. In actuality, studying for math requires solving lots and lots of problems over many days. Studying for a math test should start about 4 days before the test and the “heavy lifting” should be “front-loaded.” That is, students should work their hardest at the beginning of the 4 days and the rest of the days should be spent doing additional problems as a test to see if the student understands the content. It is essential for learning that the student test themselves (without looking at the answer key!). This is because the best way to learn any subject (math included) is with repetition and spaced retrieval. Repetition comes with doing many problems. Spaced retrieval is the process of pulling the information back out of the student’s mind (testing) over many days. It is important that the subject matter is “retrieved” from the brain as part of studying. And retrieval itself is not enough. Spaced retrieval is the key. The brain must have time to “forget” the material and be challenged to remember so that the learned material goes into long-term memory in the brain.
2.) The student’s emotions are inhibiting the brain from doing its cognitive work.
The cognitive functions of our brains reside in the frontal lobes. Higher cognitive thinking resides in the pre-frontal cortex. When a student’s emotions become overwhelming, it is the limbic system that takes over the brain, and the pre-frontal cortex, which is most sensitive to stress, goes offline. Studies involving MRI resonance reveal that the activity in the pre-frontal cortex diminishes greatly when limbic activity is high (Arnsten AF. Stress signaling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2009 Jun;10(6):410-22. doi: 10.1038/nrn2648. PMID: 19455173; PMCID: PMC2907136.). Therefore, it is important for students to learn how to self-regulate and moderate overwhelming emotions. Students will be less emotionally activated if they feel well prepared (see #1) and if they know how to calm themselves down. Part of the work of a good academic coach is to teach students how to become self-aware and how to self-regulate.
With effort and help from a tutor or coach, students can learn the best way to study so they can perform well on tests as well as homework.
