When NAPLAN is around the corner, stress levels often increase in homes around Australia.
So much of how a student performs in NAPLAN is based not on their understanding and capability, but on their ability to perform in exam conditions and their exam technique.
This article will take you through 10 proven and practical tips you can implement to help your child and family survive and excel in NAPLAN this year!
So, let’s get started!
Tip #1: Ask Your Child How They Are Feeling About NAPLAN
Tip #2: Get Familiar with the NAPLAN Test Structure & Layout
Tip #3: Get Comfortable with Completing NAPLAN Online
Tip #4: Plan How to Use Your Time
Tip #5: Discuss How to Tackle Certain Types of Questions
Tip #6: Practise Brainstorming Ideas for Writing Topics
Tip #7: Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Tip #8: Stick to Your Normal Morning Routine
Tip #9: Focus on the Process and not the Results
Tip #10: Be Positive and Create Perspective for Your Child
Tip #1: Ask your child how they are feeling about NAPLAN
This is the best place to start as it will give you a good understanding of what you need to do to support your child through the NAPLAN testing this year.
Are they feeling anxious about it? Are they concerned about the test results?
Encourage your child to talk about how they are feeling, so you can identify as a parent how you can best support, and encourage them throughout the week.
NAPLAN can be a little scary for students! NAPLAN tutoring is a great way to build their confidence so the tackle NAPLAN with ease!
Tip #2: Get familiar with the NAPLAN test structure & layout
One of the best ways to help students prepare for NAPLAN is for students to go through a NAPLAN practice test.
This doesn’t mean they need to complete all the questions, but they should at least read over the practice test to look at the types of questions and the style of the paper.
This helps students get more confident before going into the NAPLAN tests and also helps them become more familiar with the structure, layout and wording, so they don’t miss anything!
To make it easier for you, we’ve compiled practice NAPLAN exams here for you!
Tip #3: Get comfortable with completing NAPLAN online
With online testing being rolled out in 2019, this will also be a significant change for many students.
If your child will be sitting the online version of NAPLAN we recommend they take the time prior to the test to complete some practice questions online to get comfortable with using the technology and submitting answers successfully.
We’ve compiled links to tests available on the online simulator so they can practice here.
Tip #4: Plan how to use your time
One of the big things that most students struggle with in any test is time and running out of it!
Often this is a result of not having a plan for how to use their time.
If your child often runs out of time in exams, a simple exercise you can do with them to help them is to go through the test components and look at how much time they have for each section.
Talk about with them what this means for how long they can spend on questions and what to do if they get stuck on a specific question. Should they keep trying to solve it, or move on?
Tip #5: Discuss how to tackle certain types of questions
If they don’t understand a question, what should they do?
Discuss how important it is to re-read the question first, before panicking and guessing the answer!
For multiple choice questions, discuss how can they use a process of elimination to give themselves the best chance of getting the answer correct, and run through applying this with them on a practice question.
Tip #6: Practise brainstorming ideas for writing topics
In the Writing component of NAPLAN students will need to write an informative, narrative or persuasive piece of writing. And this means coming up with ideas for these in the exam!
While some students are full of creative ideas, many students struggle with coming up with good ideas in exam conditions.
To help students improve their brainstorming skills, spend some time with them prior to the Writing exam brainstorming writing topics in response to a practice question.
The idea here is to teach them the process of brainstorming, so when they are in the exam, they will be more confident and ready to come up with good ideas for their writing!
Tip #7: Get a good night’s sleep
Getting a good night of sleep helps short and long term memory performance, the ability to focus, decision making capacity, math processing and cognitive speed — all things that can make a big difference in exams!
So making sure your child gets a good night sleep the night before can make a big difference!
Tip #8: Stick to your normal morning routine
Sticking to your normal morning routines is very important as it will help normalise the day for students (particularly if they are feeling anxious or stressed!).
Act like it’s just another normal day of school and go through all the typical things you would do in preparation for a day of school.
The less you can change about the morning the better to help your child arrive at school relaxed and ready!
Tip #9: Focus on the process and not the results
Shift the conversation from the results of NAPLAN, to the process.
Instead of focusing on results (which can make student feel anxious and impact on their exam performance) discuss with your child what they can learn from the experience.
NAPLAN represents an opportunity to learn how to get better at taking tests, to learn how to deal with and overcome test anxiety, and to identify their strengths and where they can work to get better!
Tip #10: Be positive and create perspective for your child
If your child comes home from the first day of NAPLAN and has had a bad day, be encouraging and transition the focus to the future. Ask them what can they do differently for the next day of NAPLAN to improve?
So focus on what they can change, rather than what has happened.
It’s also important to help them get perspective. Even if they don’t do well, explore with them what’s the worst that can happen? They may have ideas in their head that are entirely inaccurate and speaking about this can help them find perspective!
If you need more support, we’ve prepared a Parent’s Guide to NAPLAN here you can access here.
All the best for NAPLAN!
Rowan Kunz is the CEO of Art of Smart Education, an award winning provider of academic tutoring and mentoring, study & exam skill workshops, and career & leadership programs for students in K-12. Based on 8 years of research with Australia’s top performing students, Art of Smart Education has built a reputation for their holistic approach to helping students develop strong academic foundations and critical life skills.
