Make sure your child aces the OLSAT and NNAT tests
Many months prior to the big test you’ve prepared your child and now you’re both ready! You’ve practice with flash cards, workbooks and sites like TestingMom.com. You’ve developed test taking strategies to teach your child to focus, listen and sit still for a whole hour! Now that deserves a big award! With all that being said, your child is much more prepared than the vast majority of kids taking the NYC G&T test so give yourself a big pat on the back. Now your child will walk into the test room with comfort and ready to succeed. Here are some quick final preparations for the test day:
- Getting to the test site
- Make sure you’ve done a “dry run” if you are using public transportation or driving
- Date of exam
- Departure time from your home
- How long will it take you to get to the exam site?
- Night before the test
- Clothes your child will wear
- Proper ID for when you’re checking in
- Make sure you bring a book or toy (non-electronic) for your child to play with in the waiting area.
You’re set!
Getting your child to take the OLSAT and NNAT tests!
Filed under: tests | Tags: NYC Gifted and Talented, OLSAT test, test anxiety
Taking any test can be tough, especially if you’re 4 years old
First, the bad news. Preparing a young child for the NYC Gifted and Talented Test takes works, lots of work! And if you want your child to get admitted to a citywide or district gifted program, your child must receive a qualifying score. There are many pitfalls and obstacles that can stand in the way of your child getting a top score on the OLSAT and NNAT-2 tests:
- Being unfamiliar with the types of questions on the test
- Test anxiety and not being able sit still for an hour with a stranger
- Leaving preparing your child for the test to the last minute
- Not preparing at all
- Not knowing basic test taking skills like process of elimination and guessing
One of things most parents experience is test anxiety even though they aren’t the ones taking the test! You want to make sure you don’t transfer your anxiety onto your child. You want to make sure your child is prepared and that will help eliminate the anxiety for both you and your child.
Here are a few tips to help eliminate test anxiety:
- Teach your child to breathe slowly during test and stretch if they need to.
- Tell your child it’s ok to ask the test proctor (teacher) to take a break to use the restroom during the test.
- Make sure you visit the testing facility PRIOR to test day so your child is familiar with the school and you can tell your child you’ll be returning to speak to a teacher “who wants to know everything a 4 year old knows!”
Once you’re in the final stretch with test day is within 30 days make sure you make a 30-day plan to really get your child prepared for the test.
- Do a mock exam from sites like TestingMom.com where you can get a good gauge of where your child is at in knowing the concepts on the OLSAT and NNAT-2 tests
- Do not change your child’s schedule and make sure you keep a solid routine with diet, bedtime and anything to keep the schedule normal. Now is not the time to go on vacation, change your child’s diet (unless it’s unhealthy) or change bedtime or wake time in the morning.
Filed under: NYC Gifted and Talented Program | Tags: nnat-2 test, OLSAT test
Not planning to prep for the OLSAT or NNAT? Huge mistake.
Everyone makes mistakes, right? It’s a big part of what makes us human and being parents. If we were all perfect, life would be a lot more boring (but also a lot easier!).
Unfortunately, as parents, the mistakes we make in raising our children can affect our kids’ quality of life for years to come. So many parents have told me about the devastating effects of technology. These are typically parents who let their kids fritter away watching Disney TV non-stop, and playing mindless video games, without so much as glancing at skill-building materials that help keep them fresh on the subjects they learn in school.
Another common story I hear is from parents who failed to adequately prepare their children for the NYC Gifted and Talented or private school entrance exam. Many parents assume that these tests will be super easy and includes simple questions, especially if their children are only 4 or 5 years old. Boy, are these parents wrong; dead wrong. I can’t tell you how many parents have told me after the fact to tell me something along the lines of, “I just assumed the test would cover basic colors and shapes. That’s why it didn’t even occur to me to prepare for the test ahead of time.” Unfortunately, these parents didn’t find programs like Testing Mom before the big test. Many other parents, knowing that their child is extremely bright or possibly even gifted, are confident that they’ll do fine on the test no matter how hard it is. This is yet another big mistake I see time and time again. What these parents don’t realize is that there are a limited amount of seats in NYC for the gifted program and even missing a few questions on the test can cause their child to not qualify for a program when all the other kids score higher. For parents who don’t take preparation seriously, it can be a devastating blow when they get the OLSAT and NNAT-2 test scores back and find out that their child scored well below the level they would need to make it into an advanced program.
Perhaps the most common mistake I see from parents – and one that can actually be the most devastating – isn’t so much a mistake as it is an attitude toward testing and education in general. Many parents have a negative connotation of preparation and of the process that lets their children get into gifted and talented programs. The vast majority of the time, these parents’ attitudes are understandable and many times even commendable. Basically, these parents want to leave their child’s education to “chance” and hope for the best. Typically, these parents are worried that by preparing their kids for a test, they’ll be “taking away their childhood” or even considered “cheating,” since these parents think the test is designed to measure children on an even playing field. What I tell these parents is that, regardless of their personal view on testing and education, testing is here to stay – and so is test prep. Countless other parents across the city are making sure that their children are ready for test day and beyond, by working with their child on a daily basis to make sure they have the skills they need to not only keep up, but soar ahead of their classmates.
Let’s face it, it’s up to YOU to make sure these scenarios don’t play out for your son or daughter. I’m telling you this because I don’t want you to make the same mistakes other parents before you have made. Only you have the power to make sure your child is afforded every opportunity for a stellar education – but you have to put in the effort, and you have to start now. Learn from the mistakes of those parents who have gone before you who didn’t prepare their child for the OLSAT and NNAT-2 tests. If not you, then who? If not now, then when?
NYC Gifted and Talented Program and Testing 