December 27th, 2011
A young girl was brought to me because she was failing in math. Her parents were concerned that she wouldn’t get admitted to the competitive middle school to which she was applying. And there was also another potential problem: the interview. The girl, I’ll call her Amy, tended to shut down with strangers.
Sure enough, she wouldn’t talk to me.
OK, I thought, now what? I saw Amy eyeing a set of colored markers Read the rest of this entry »
March 6th, 2010
Help your child by calming down
If your child hates tests, life is hard for your child and for you. You worry along with them when they become severely anxious for any reason. You are frustrated when they won’t study. You believe you have failed as a parent when their test scores are lower than their peers’. You might be intensely angry at the school system—if not the whole culture—for putting so much weight on testing. It shouldn’t make your child suffer or put you in the position of worrying for them.
As the stress rises and your child’s performance worsens, you probably feel hopeless and helpless. You want to do something to…
December 16th, 2009
PTO Emery is a bright light in East Bay
On Monday night I had the honor of being the featured speaker at the Emeryville Unified School district’s parent teacher’s association meeting. After a delicious holiday dinner we all moved into the library of Emery Secondary School and PTO President Brynnda Collins introduced me. The school district generously provided each parent at the meeting with a copy of my book. I gave a talk on the book and particularly chapter 5, “How to Calm Down.” I think the material in this chapter is particularly helpful for parents when their kids are stressed out about tests.
November 27th, 2009
Agnes, 4th grader, uses The Workbook!
At our Chinese-American Thanksgiving feast, our cousins Tommy and Daisy told us about their fourth-grader Agnes, and how she’s using THE WORKBOOK FOR TEST SUCCESS. “She’s going through the checklists and thinking about herself and checking off things,” Tommy told us. While the book is written for high school and college students, knowing that a younger child finds it relevant is great news. Many parents of young kids are buying the book because they (the parents) want to know how to help prepare their children for all the pressures of test-taking and especially to help reduce test-taking anxiety. If the book can help teach effective study skills also to a 4th grader, we’re delighted!
As a matter of fact, I wrote a chapter especially for parents. so this is not a test prep book only for students. I want parents to have the help they need to guide their kids through the treacherous terrain of test taking.
Let us know your stories about younger kids and test-taking anxiety, and how you teach them effective study skills.
