Better than a Guess

One weekend before New York State's Regents Exam in Global History, a student of mine confessed that she was nervous about the essay part of the exam.

Standardized tests are written in a specific language form. If you get comfortable with the discourse, navigating the questions and expressing in preferred terms becomes much easier. The best way thing for a student to do is practice, practice for the test by answering the questions on old tests. The student should be exposed to the test to mitigate the initial shock of seeing the presentation for the first time on the day of the test.


Then, when possible, a student should be taught how to decode the language of the test. If the student knows what the test is really looking for then they have another set of coordinates to locate the information.

These methods usually work wonders, but not always. Some people don't test very well. Whether it's the foreign nature of the content of the test, or the very real problem of test taking anxiety, not all people test well.

I try to explain to students that the world doesn't end with a bad test grade (Unless that was what the Mayan calendar was referring to). Nor, does a test indicate their intelligence or ability; nor does it predict the success levels of their future.

A test is a form of assessment, a flawed form, but one that has been popular for quite some time, much like baggy blue jeans. If a test offers anything at all, it is general information about the areas of a subject that require further study by a particular student.

So, knowing all this, I still encourage students to do their best. Tests are puzzles, you try to solve. You can't fail a puzzle. You either solve it or you don't. To some, tests are a game, and you can't win every game you play (Unless you are the 1972 Miami Dolphins) but you can certainly do your best. And as any fan of games (and I am one) will tell you, luck is part of the equation for victory.

"Guess," I suggested. "If you don't know the answer, just guess."

A sensible strategy, the sharing of this idea had particular relevance to my student as guessing was completely foreign to her. She would not answer unless she remembered reading the information or hearing it from a trusted source. If she didn't remember, she kept quiet. Some people rely too heavily on their memory. The brain is capable of so much more: synthesis, dreaming, re-writing commercial jingles for chicken to include the names of presidents-- I feel like Grover Cleveland, like Grover Cleveland.

Use what you have. And luck, scientifically speaking, is just understanding probability. So in that way a guess is scientific.

I spoke to her on the phone after the exam.

"How was it?" I asked.

"It was good," she replied. "I didn't know the essay."

"So what did you do?"

"I guessed."

"Good!" I shouted into the phone. "That's great. What was the question?"

"How did geography affect the development of the civilization in places like India?"

"What did you guess?"

"I wrote about how the mountains kept other cultures from mixing with the Indian culture."

Lucky? Or properly prepared? Or, truthfully, she was just much smarter than she knew! By eliminating self doubt, she was able to deduce, or induce, the right answer.

Sometimes, a guess is better than what you know.