Scoring a 4 on the Grade 8 NYS ELA Test April 16, 17, 18, 2013

Helpful Hints for Doing Well on the NYS ELA Test for Grade 8 Double-check which testing room you are in before Tuesday morning. Get a good night’s rest on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night. Eat a healthy breakfast. Dress in layers. It may be too hot or too cold in your testing room. Arrive to school on time. The test begins during Mod 2. Bring two sharpened pencils and a highlighter to your testing room. Pay attention to all directions. Go back to the passages to find correct answers. Don’t guess! Carefully check all of your work. Proofread!

Tips for Reading the Passages When possible, read the questions first. Highlight key words and phrases in the questions. When you see those key words and phrases in the passages, highlight them there too. As you read the passages, highlight any text details that seem important. Names, places, dates, numbers, and measurements are especially important. If you come to an unfamiliar vocabulary word, try to figure out what it means by using context clues (the familiar words and phrases near the word). Read everything on the page! This includes italicized introductions, sidebars, captions, graphs, and footnotes. When you are finished reading a passage, ask yourself, “If I had to summarize this for a friend, what would I tell my friend this is all about?” This will help you determine the main idea of the passage. If necessary, read the passage more than once. When you are answering the questions, go back to the text to find the answers. Do not guess or trust your memory to correctly remember all of the details.

Tips for Answering the Multiple Choice Questions Read each question carefully. Most wrong answers result from answering what you thought was the question. Identify what the question is asking you. Highlight key phrases or words in the question. Determine what you are being asked to identify: text details, a vocabulary word, main idea, theme, etc. Cover up the possible responses with a piece of paper or your hand while you read the stem (or the body) of the question. Try to anticipate correct answers before you are distracted by the possible responses. If you see the response you anticipated, circle it but check to be certain none of the responses is better.

Tips for Answering Multiple Choice Questions, Continued If you do not see the response that you expected, consider some of the following strategies to eliminate responses that are probably wrong: Eliminate any responses you know to be incorrect. Responses with absolute words like “always” and “never” are less likely to be correct than responses with conditional words like “usually” or “probably.” “All of the above” is often a correct response. If you can verify that more than one of the answers is probably correct, then choose “all of the above.” “None of the above” is usually an incorrect response. An answer choice that seems much different from the other choices is usually the correct answer. Look for grammatical clues. If the prompt ends with “an,” the correct answer will begin with a vowel. The longest response is usually the correct one due to qualifying adjectives and phrases. If all else fails, choose response B or C. Test makers subconsciously feel that the correct answer is hidden better if it is surrounded by “distracters.” Response A is usually least likely to be the correct one.

Tips for Completing the Short Responses Your answer should be an indented paragraph that has three to four sentences. Restate the question. If the author is mentioned, use the author’s name. (Go back to the article to see what the author’s name is.) Do not use a pronoun such as he, she, they, or it without first defining what that pronoun is replacing. Use people’s or objects’ names first in your answer. Use plenty of text details. You may paraphrase (put them in your own words), or you may copy details directly from the text. If you copy, remember to use “quotation marks.” If you are told to use details from both articles, make certain to do that. Fill every line provided! The scorers are more likely to give you a 2 when you do this. It’s okay to use more than the lines provided too!

Tips for Completing the Extended Responses This is a typical extended response prompt: How was Louis Braille's dot system received at first? How was it received later? Write an essay in which you contrast the response the dot system received at first with the response it received later. Use details from the article to support your answer. In your answer, be sure to— Describe how Louis Braille’s dot system was at first received. Describe how Louis Braille’s dot system was later received. Contrast the two responses to Louis Braille’s dot system. Include details from the article to support your answer. Check your writing for correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation. The bullet points listed underneath the first paragraph of the prompt are very important. View them as a checklist of what you must do to earn a 4. Your answer must be in the form of an essay. You need to have three to four indented paragraphs. Write an introduction where you restate the questions or statements in the prompt. Use the same tips for short responses (previous slide) for extended responses too.