Final Exams 7

Dear Parents of 7^th graders:

 

I just finalized the 7^th grade exam.  As I’ve been telling the students for over a week now, it is going to be a LONG exam, but it should have NO surprises.  I gave students a list of “fair game” topics on May 24, and they have been working on review activities for the past week.  The real key to this exam will be stamina and AUTOMATIC recall.  Because of the length of the exam, students will need to be able to rapidly recall definitions and concepts, without hemming and hawing for long periods of time on any one question.  It is essential, therefore, that students put in some real time studying.  There will be an 80 minute study period for all students on Wednesday afternoon at school, but that will not be sufficient for most kiddos. 

 

To encourage studying, I have had students doing projects on exam topics and presenting/sharing with the class.  I have also told them that they may bring a 3x5 card to the exam as a legal “cheat sheet”.  This card may be filled in on both sides.  The creation of the card is, in itself, an act of “studying,” in that the individual must first identify what he or she doesn’t know.  Students should not stop there;  they should do more studying, such as reviewing the midterm and other tests and quizzes, verbally quizzing a friend, proofreading sentences, writing definitions, reading notes aloud repeatedly, and other techniques.

 

In case you did not get the earlier email with the topics on the exam, here they are again:

·         Capitalization rules

·         Punctuation rules (comma, semicolon, colon, hyphen, apostrophe, quotation marks)

·         Irregular verbs (ex:  bring, brought, brought NOT bring, brang, brung)

·         Kinds of sentences and associated punctuation

·         Fun and useful words

·         Language arts terms

·         Word parts

·         Ten Little Indians plot and vocabulary

·         Essays – genres, structure, expectations

 

Thanks!

 

Abby Wald