Math and Sciece TAKS test-MISD

If your daughter is making A's and B's.. she will be fine. Just tell her to do her best.. If the teachers thought she would have any problems, they would have suggested tutoring..

Has she done fine on the test up to this point?.. If she has, no problems.. If she has failed any portion while in high school, have her ask her teachers for review sheets for those subjects..

Has she taken the PSAT or the SAT? How did she do on those?

I bet she will be surprised at how well she does on them.. Be sure to have her pick out some books to read after the tests.. the schools do not allow the kids to do anything but read once they complete the test.. even if they finish hours early. This was our daughters favorite part.. being able to read whatever she wanted during school for hours. We would go to the book store so she could purchase about 4 for the week..

I cannot stand the TAKS tests! I watched my little sister in law(form grade school all the way through high school) stress over these test- and she is a great student and always did great on the tests.
I don't want my kids stressing over them- and I hate that they spend half the year teaching the tests! I've told my kids that I don't care what they get on the TAKS tests- that as long as they try- they will be fine(and they have been- usually 100% or only missing one or two questions) but I let them know that these tests are mainly just to measure how the teachers are teaching- it is not really a measure of how much your child knows- just if the teacher has been teaching what they were supposed to throughout the year.
I think teachers go about tests the wrong way- it's not really about what you know, but about what you don't know- tests should be a gauge to alert you to what your student needs to improve on- if they haven't gotten a concept, they won't score as well, and they need to focus on that concept until they understand it.
So, if you daughter is having problems with the concepts in math and science- get her a tutor for those subjects(and not just for the TAKS tests) and she will be fine with her tests.
Good luck!
~C.

If your daughter is an A/B student then she will do just fine. I CAN'T STAND the TAKS test and am glad it is going away. The teachers don't like it either but are forced to teach to it. Unfortunately the teachers start stressing over it and are constantly saying things to the students like "you need to know how to do this for the TAKS test" and it winds up stressing the kids out. My 6th grader gets completely freaked but she is an A student and in the end the test is a breeze and she realizes she gets stressed out for nothing. I totally downplay it at home to try to balance the overplay it gets in the schools. If your daughter is an A-B student you will just be throwing away money on tutoring she doesn't need . . . but perhaps you should speak with the school counselor to may have some suggestions for helping your daughter deal with her TAKS blues/stress.

Talk to your Counseling office. At the jr. level, they usually run tutoring sessions all spring for free at the schools if she statistically fits in a "risk" to pass. ALSO...she will have MULTIPLE chances to pass it if for some strange reason she fails the test. I think the Jr's have like up to 8 more chances to take/pass it before graduation. It really isn't that big of a deal. The science test (I used to teach HS Science before i stayed home w/ my 2 boys; now only 2 and 3) is actually a bit easier the jr year than sophmore test...
PLUS, next year starts EOC's for those kids, so on the WAY off chance that she can't pass...i am sure she will be grandfathered out of it...but like i said, she really should have no troubles...the best thing you can do is down play the test at home with her. if you are STILL concerned, you can always go on the TEA website and download/print last year's Exit test and let her look at it and take a "practice run" a couple weeks before the test.. I can almost GUARANTEE they will do some inclass reviews all spring semester in her class, leading up to the test...most likely in the form of a "warm up" questions where they will discuss the most difficult objectives on the test...the test is tied to too many rankings and money that the district will be making sure that they all get the support they need!
She'll be fine. hope this helps put some fears at rest.

Why is your daughter concerned about the TAKS? Has she not passed a TAKS test in the past? The TAKS tests are to be sure that the average student is learning the basics. If your daughter is an A-B student, then she should be fine. Also, they take benchmark tests before the actual TAKS and that would alert you if she has a problem. Most schools offer some kind of tutoring for students that they feel are at risk. It matters A LOT to them in terms of their school rating and salaries.