Test-Taking Strategy Instruction in the National University Entrance Examination (NUEE) English Section

Abstract

This study attempted to investigate the effect of test-taking strategy training on Iranian students' performance on English section of the National University Entrance Examination (NUEE). To do so, 160 fourth grade high school students were randomly assigned to the control and experimental groups. The experimental group received 8 hours of test-taking strategy training along with samples of the NUEE exams, while control group only practiced the samples of the NUEE exams without being imposed to these strategies. Participant's performance on school exams which were very similar to the NUEE English section was also measured through a multiple-choice test which was used as the pre and post-test. Results revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in both high stake test of NUEE and the post-test. Moreover, there was a positive relationship between the participants' general point average (GPA) in their school final exams and their test taking strategy use. The findings provide empirical support for encouraging language teachers to instruct test-taking strategies in language classes, especially the strategies which help students in stressful exams like NUEE.

Multiple Choice Test-Taking Strategies, Test Anxiety, and EFL Students’ Achievement

“…In addition, teachers' responses emphasized the negative effect of test anxiety on students' performance as was found by (Cassady & Johnson, 2002;Strnad, 2003). Furthermore, teachers' perceptions on the importance of test-taking strategies supports the findings of (Holmes, 2021;Igwe and Orluwene, 2019;Pour-Mohammadi & Abidin, 2018;Sweetnam, 2002;Takallou et al, 2016).…”

“…A meta-analytic literature review on test anxiety concluded that "test anxiety was significantly and negatively related to a wide range of educational performance outcomes, including [outcomes of] standardised tests, university entrance exams, and grade point average" (von der Embse et al, 2018, p. 483). Takallou et al (2016) found a relationship between students" grade point average (GPA) and the test-taking strategies they adopted. Several studies have found that lower second-language (L2) achievement is linked to higher levels of test anxiety and is associated with "deficits in listening comprehension, impaired vocabulary learning, reduced word production, low scores [in] standardised tests, low grades in language courses or a combination of these factors" (Gardner et al, 1997, p. 345).…”

“…Tests are regularly used as evaluation tools in virtually all educational systems and academic organisations. Their importance extends beyond the classroom, because they are the sole basis of some crucial decisions that affect students" lives including postgraduate admissions and employability preferences (Butler, 2018;Takallou et al, 2016). Therefore, enhancing students" performance in tests has become important for educators and students.…”

Exploring ESL learners' reading test taking strategies

“…Nemati 2016administered a re-test questionnaire on test-taking strategies to learners and then trained the same learners on test-taking strategies. Takallou et al (2016) also conducted an experimental study to train learners on test-taking strategies. As in our study, the learners were given a reading comprehension test paper consisting of ten multiple choice questions.…”

“…They yield different results. The data collection procedures used include think-aloud protocols (Nam, 2015), questionnaire (Nemati, 2016;Zhang, 2016), post-task interview (Lee, 2015), pre-test and post-test (Takallou et al, 2016), and think-aloud protocols as learners took the test and categorised the protocols into reading strategies (Nosrati, 2015).…”