About 25.8% of all college students take at least one online class during their studies; this translates to a quarter of all students.
Over time, online learning has gained popularity for numerous reasons. These include affordability, convenience, more comprehensive course offerings, and so on. However, just like traditional learners, the aim for online students is to handle their studies successfully. A significant part of this is passing their exams.
How can you improve your online statistics test scores? Here are some tips.
Attend All Your Lectures
While an exam is a one-time event, the preparation for it goes on all semester.
Your tests will be derived from your curriculum, which is what you have been studying in class. So, to get yourself a head start, begin by committing to attending all your online lectures even when you least feel like it.
Your classes are designed to take you through the syllabus, and they equip you with the knowledge and information required to help you sit your exams successfully.
For example, if you skip a lecture on converting a raw score into a standard score, you will have a lot more difficulty in your exams if a question is asked on this topic. This difficulty can be avoided by attending all classes religiously.
Be Positive
Having the right mental attitude goes a long way in preparing you for things to come.
By approaching statistics with an optimistic, confident mental attitude, you find yourself tackling them far much more quickly. The same also applies to your studies.
While statistics are often thought of as a challenging subject, millions of students take the course every year and do exceptionally well. You can perform well too.
Instead of focusing on the negatives, please focus on the positives and give it your best. Attend classes, finish your assignments, test your knowledge, and so on. These actions will cumulatively help you improve your test scores.
Find Out Allowable Test Resources and Tools
While it might feel better to ace a test without any aid, test tools are widely allowed in most institutions today.
Take calculators, for example. While you might not have been allowed to use one in other levels of learning, they are allowed in college statistics classes. One cause for this is that learning institutions are also trying to mimic the real world, where students will be supplying their knowledge post-graduation.
As such, learning aids like calculators are used in the classroom, lectures, and tests. Find out if this and any other tools are allowable in your institution, and have them on hand during your exam.
Get The Lay of The Land
Many students suffer from test anxiety even when they are good students with a good handle on their course material. This uneasiness is usual.
A practical thing you can do to minimize such anxiety is to familiarize yourself with what to expect.
As you get through the semester, make a point of logging into the portal to look at the testing platform. Access the site, look at the questions, look at the time allocations; this is akin to walking into an exam hall to get a feel of it and what to expect on exam day.
Practice
Because a college statistics curriculum will remain the same over the years, it becomes challenging to reinvent the wheel.
Instead, the same material is used to ask questions differently to test application and understanding.
One way to better your scores is through practicing past exams; this helps you increase your speed and cement your understanding.