What Parents Can Do to Help Students on PSSA?
Parents can help their child reduce test anxiety. It does not help to tell a child to relax, but there are ways to help reduce test-taking anxiety.
Encourage your child to do the following:
Encourage your child to do the following:
- Get a good night’s sleep.
- Eat a healthy, balanced meal the night before the test.
- Read directions carefully.
- If he/she does not know the answer to a question, skip it and go on. Mark that question so that he/she knows it is unanswered and return to the question later if there is time.
- Provide your child with a well-rounded diet. A healthy body leads to a healthy active mind.
- Do not be too anxious about a child’s test scores. Test scores are not a perfect measure of what a child can do.
- Do not put added pressure on your child. Too much emphasis on test scores may make a child more anxious, increasing the chances for mistakes.
- Do encourage children. Offer praise for things they do well.