Increasing Student Engagement
Engagement in test prep must center on the individual student’s personal goals for college and career, so we’ve included a score goal worksheet you can use after administering the pre-test. Cambridge also offers Student Motivational Workshops and Parent Workshops to extend students’ understanding of the importance of college and the steps they will need to take to get to college.
We’ve also included some resources to keep your students engaged on a daily basis, such as game ideas and teaching tips. If you have any suggestions to add, email us at suggestions@CambridgeEd.com. We’d love to add your own creative ideas to this list.
a. Score Goal Worksheet
After you complete the pre-test, print and distribute this score goal worksheet for your students. You should also use their score goals as part of your grading rubric (see the information on grading below).
Coming soon
b. Calculator Exercise and Calculator Race
Print a copy of these activities for each of your students and use them in class to explore the right (and wrong) ways to use a calculator on test day.
SAT 13e Math MC Calculator Exercise
SAT 13e Math SPR Calculator Exercise
SAT 13e Math SPR Calculator Exercise WITH Answers
SAT 13e Math MC Calculator Race
SAT 13e Math MC Calculator Exercise and Race WITH Answers
c. Games and Activities
We’ve compiled a list of games and activities to help you mix it up in your classroom and keep your students engaged, even on a Friday afternoon.
Essential Skills Math Challenge
d. Five Ways to be a Superstar Teacher
Use this list of tips to up your test prep game. These ideas are designed to help students practice big-picture thinking and to help you leverage each step of your course to keep your students engaged.
Five Ways to be a Superstar Teacher
e. Top 10 Cambridge TestPrep Dos and Dont’s
Print and distribute this list to your class. Use it as a discussion point right before the post-test.
Top Ten Cambridge TestPrep DOs and DONTs
f. Grading
If you’re looking for ways to keep students accountable, grading should be on your list. Here’s our recommended grading formula. Of course, you may modify this to suit your own preferences and/or school requirements.
- Growth from Pre-Assessment to Post-Assessment (G—30 percent)
- Homework Assignments (HW—30 percent)
- Attendance (A—20 percent)*
- Participation (P—10 percent)
- Quizzes (Q—10 percent)
These ratios translate into the following formula for final grades:
Final Grade = 0.3(G) + 0.3(HW) + 0.2(A) + 0.1(P) + 0.1(Q)