High School graduation requirements are not the same anymore, but what is nowadays. If you have a student currently in high school, you may know the requirements in regards to Regents exams and how it fulfills their requirements to graduate. If you are unfamiliar, here are the basics, every student (unless they have an IEP), must pass five regents exams in order to receive a high school diploma. They must pass one math regents (Algebra, Trigonometry, Geometry), one science regents (Living Environment, Earth Science, Chemistry, Physics), Global History & US History Regents, and one English Regents exam. As a teacher of all subjects to high school students that require home instruction, whom are deficient in regents’ exams and are unable to graduate, my strategies have really helped them to succeed.
Here are a few tricks I use:
Global History & US History
These two exams basically follow the same format: 50 multiple choice questions, 1 thematic essay, 8 or 9 Document based Questions (DBQ) including an essay, and all have to be completed within the three-hour time limit.
First, I give students a plan on how to take the test based on the amount of points allotted to each section, as 3 hours for a student that is not fully prepared or has not practiced taking the exam often has proven to be not enough time.
So, now that we have our order in which students should proceed with taking these two exams, let’s take a look at some strategies to improve their score without the required knowledge for passing the exam. First things first, I have each individual student take a past regents exam, located on this website, http://www.nysedregents.org/regents_ss.html. Next, I time them to see how it long it takes, then we check the answers together. Most students who are in danger of failing the exam, score between 15-25 multiple choice questions correct out of 50 on their first try. That becomes the benchmark for the student, and I explain to them after I teach the following strategies for multiple choice questions, you will see your score increase. You will see an increase after the first 3 practice exams along with time limits. In addition, the more practice exams they complete the more opportunities they can learn and retain some pertinent information that does repeat throughout exams. For example, I have noticed a question about the Byzantine empire on every Global History Regents, knowing a bit of information will help a struggling student to choose the correct answer.
Now, I discuss with students that the best thing about multiple choice tests, is that the answer is there! You have to really analyze the questions, find something in common with the question and the answer choices, and talk to yourself. Students look at me like I’m crazy, but after modeling many examples, they start to follow the thought process.
Here are a few examples, and modeled thought processes:
US History June 2015
(1) limit the movement of African Americans
(2) restrict the voting rights of African Americans
(3) improve the social status of African Americans
(4) expand educational opportunities for African Americans
Most students just read through the question and inevitably just pick an answer. Here’s how I tackle this question. After reading the question, I try to understand everything in it, so do I know what literacy tests are? Yes. How about grandfather clauses, (most students don’t). Let’s look at poll taxes, yes, I know what taxes are but some students might not know what polls refers to. Next, enacted by Southern States, I ask myself what was going on in the Southern States within our history. I look at my options and see African Americans, well I know in the past they were slaves within the Southern States, so I think those items mentioned before it did not benefit African Americans. Let me look at the options, one and two discuss limiting and restricting, and three and four discuss improving and expanding, so it has to be one or two. Now to pick the best answer, can literacy tests, the only piece of information I understand limit the movement of African Americans or restrict voting rights of African Americans. Option two makes more sense because if African Americans couldn’t read, then that may limit their ability to vote.
Just to recap what I did, I took some of the words a student may know, used some background knowledge of the Southern States with regards to African Americans, and I rationalized the answer. This process works for students because they have bits of information that can be very helpful as we have seen.
Next Question:
(1) determine blame for the start of World War II
(2) improve efforts to collect war debts
(3) maintain international peace
(4) promote the development of nuclear weapons
Believe it or not, you will find many students struggling within their academics will get this question wrong because they have no idea what the United Nations stands for. So here’s how to rationalize this question, we know about the United States, so now we have the United Nations. What are nations? Student will respond countries, ok, so if we have the United Countries, which answer would go best with this. Most students would automatically pick three because the word international is present.
In this example, we connected words from the question with words in the correct answer.
Example for the Global Studies Regents-
(1) established a democratic form of government (2) denied individual rights
(3) expanded the power of labor unions
(4) sought a classless society
This is another example of knowing one term and not the other, most students know who Saddam Hussein was because they have learned or remember that he was bad, so they can proceed with this notion and continue to the choices. Choice 2 is the only answer that represents a bad quality of a leader. But to go through each one, option one, what do you know about a democracy or democratic government, give an example. Is that good or bad? Option three expanded the power of labor unions. Some students aren’t familiar with labor unions, so we tackle the word union, which they say means to bring together, so how do you feel about that option of expanding the power of something brought together? Option four sought a classless society, what do you know about classes in history or in a society. Some students will say serfs, ok great, who were the serfs? They were poor and/or workers. So do you think Saddam Hussein would want to seek out a society without classes?
Asking and answering questions based on the options will ultimately help a student to pick the right answer.
The next question is one in which a student would have a very difficult time answering this without any knowledge of World War I. So, I discuss with students, that there are usually 5-10 questions out of the 50 that are meant for students who have studied diligently for the exam and are doing well in their coursework, or sometimes students refer to these students as ‘Nerds,’ but if we can aim to get 40 out of 50 correct, they can still pass the test.
(1) signing of the Treaty of Versailles
(2) invasion of Poland by Germany
(3) assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand
(4) use of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany
Now on to the DBQ strategy:
Complete the DBQ’s to the best of your ability by analyzing each passage and the question. The problem with students failing nowadays is their reading comprehension is very low and lack of vocabulary are hindering them from answering these questions. Also, the extreme lack of interest on the topic. So I teach students how to SLOW it down, and understand each sentence that they are reading.
June 2015- US History Regents
In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed a commission to investigate practices in meatpacking plants. This is an excerpt from the commission’s findings that were presented to Congress.
…The results of our observations have already been partly given. Other instances of how products may be made up, and still secure the stamp of government inspection, are here given. In one well-known establishment we came upon fresh meat being shoveled into barrels, and a regular proportion being added of stale scraps that had lain on a dirty floor in the corner of a room for some days previous. In another establishment equally well known, a long table was noted covered with several hundred pounds of cooked scraps of beef and other meats. Some of these meat scraps were dry, leathery and unfit to be eaten; and in the heap were found pieces of pigskin, and even some bits of rope strands and other rubbish. Inquiry evoked the frank admission from the man in charge that this was to be ground up and used in making “potted ham.”…
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So, now we read together slowly. The first two sentences generally state what the observations will be, so students now have a focus for the rest of the read. ‘Fresh meat being shoveled into barrels’, how does that sound? Nasty! But this is also part of the strategy of understanding a passage is by immersing yourself into it with even just an opinion. The next sentence mentions ‘…stale scraps that had lain on a dirty floor…,’ and by now students have an idea in which direction the passage is going in.
Now, Here’s the question:
Based on these documents, what is one reason President Theodore Roosevelt supported consumer protection laws? [1]
The student only has to choose one statement from the passage to receive one point. The way meat was being handled was disgusting, “we came upon fresh meat being shoveled into barrels…” (Adding a direct quote ensures they will receive credit)
Because the DBQ portion of the test can earn students 14 points for the questions, and lets say a student receives 40 points for the multiple choice, that will give students a raw score of 54. But if you tally up the essay scores saying 3 on the DBQ essay and 2 on the thematic essay, the total essay score is 5. If you scan the following scoring guide for the test, that student would have a total of 84. Even if a student scores 40 points total for the multiple choice and DBQ questions, and gets a total of 5 on both essays, they can still receive a passing score of 67.
These strategies will work with any student that has minimal time to prepare for the exam, and wasn’t participating in regular course study in school. The students I have worked with were very bright kids, but just were getting lost in school, and ultimately saw no light at the end of the tunnel until they met me. In addition, I have been mentioning this over and over, this generation of students rejects the curriculum that has been taught to students for decades now. Its old fashioned, and kids like modern, so the fact is some students are failing because they are truly BORED! With technology and answers at their fingertips, do you blame them? I don’t want to see a student fail his/her entire life because they can’t pass an exam that doesn’t measure their ability to excel in other pathways, but this is a major barrier students must face early on, and is an increasing reality for the future of Children!
If you are interested in a full length analysis of either Regents exam, please comment on this blog, or email me at Heather @Monstermas.com
