Bubble Sheets & Confidence Boosters: Facing Testing with Strategy and Strength

Testing season is here—and if you’re feeling the pressure, you’re not alone. In this episode, Teacher Maggie (a reading specialist and fellow dyslexic) shares heartfelt encouragement, practical test-taking strategies, and her own 4th grade testing story that still makes her laugh today.

Learn how to help your child feel confident with tools like “Dumbo’s feather,” master key strategies for multiple-choice questions and reading comprehension, and reframe the way we talk about standardized testing. Plus, a powerful reminder: tests are just data—not destiny.

This is the perfect listen for families walking through TCAP or any spring standardized test with a child who learns differently.

💚

👉 Stay tuned for next week’s follow-up episode on why retention is rarely the right move for struggling readers.

Thank you for listening to Dyslexia Decoded! Remember, every journey begins with a single step, and progress always beats perfection.

Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and if you found this story inspiring, please share it with someone who might need to hear it.

Until next time, stay strong, stay curious, and stay fearless. 💚

Transcript

0:00

Hey there. Welcome back to Dyslexia, decoded by strong minds. I am teacher Maggie, and today I wanna speak straight to the hearts of families staring down standardized testing season, especially if you've got a child who learns differently. Let's take a moment and name what it is. It is a lot. Spring testing like Tcap or Terranova lands at quite possibly the worst time of year. Kids are tired, parents are stretched thin, and teachers are running on fumes. And then we ask students to sit, still read quietly and bubble in the correct answer as if their future depends on it. Or even worse, they put 'em in front of a computer screen where they're very aware of the pace that their classmates are moving and maybe they feel pressured to rush through the test. either way, it is just a horrible time and situation. I don't know if there's a better way, but just acknowledging that, yeah, it's hard and it's made more challenging by the fact that it's beautiful outside and it's been a really long year and we're ready for a break. So deep breath. Today's episode is all about keeping perspective, lowering the pressure, and giving you and your child some real usable tools to walk through this season with confidence, because here is the truth. A test is just data. It's not a final grade on your child's worth, their intelligence, their future. I'll say that again. It's just. Data, but I know that's not always how it feels, especially if our kids have dyslexia, A DHD anxiety, or really any child who doesn't fit the standard mold that these standardized tests expect. Let's start with timing. Testing. Season arrives during what many of us call the spring slump. the novelty of the school year has worn off and the sunshine is calling. The attention spans are practically melting. Kids are ready for movement, adventure, freedom. Not an hours long test sitting in silence. And for students who are already giving their all to stay afloat, this timing feels like a final wave that might just pull them under. I'll be honest with you, I've never forgotten how testing felt for me growing up. I have very specific memories of being in the fourth grade and having to take, the CAT test back then on a Scantron, you know, the bubble sheets where you have to fill 'em in with a number two pencil, and God forbid you accidentally get a pencil. That's not a number two pencil, if that's even a thing, because they made it sound like a real evident danger that could happen and ruin our lives. But you have your number two pencil and your bubble Scantron, Yeah, right from the beginning I knew I would fail. I couldn't keep my place. I would accidentally bubble in two answers on one line, or I would skip a line or go, halfway through the test and realize. I was off a line and having to go back and erase, and it was so extremely stressful going back and forth from the test to the scan, trying and keeping things in the right place. And after all of that, my fourth grade year, our school had us fill out the wrong forms. They had us fill the wrong bubble. She, and we had to go back and spend a whole day transcribing all of our answers onto new forms. I was already done mentally, emotionally, I was exhausted. so at this point I just filled in random patterns, I was drawing shapes, designs, whatever it took to get it done. on the bright side, it was the first time I ever finished a test early. The funniest part was that when they gave us our scores, they sent us home with envelopes, they were sealed. They were like, don't peak, give them directly to your parents. And I actually did really well, which makes me think there was something really fishy going on because there is no way that test showed what I knew. I just randomly bubbled answers. unless it was a miracle. Something fishy was going on. Tests don't always measure what they say they measure, and that moment has stuck with me as a reminder of how unreliable they can be, Now as a reading tutor, I always use, a reading pointer with my students. It's a wand with a little wedge at the end, and I use it to point to words as they read to help their eyes move along the passage, keep their space. I'll sometimes use the wedge to like break a word in half or into syllables as they're sounding it out. It's a tool. I 3D print them and used to 3D print them like every day. And I was consistently giving them out to students because the students will start soon to start associating their reading fluency and improved skills with using the pointer. I've given out many for students to use in their own reading at home or even on their own. Tcap tests or standardized tests, they're using their pointers. it kind of makes me think about Dumbo. when dumbo, holds onto his feather, and as long as he was holding that feather at the tip of his trunk, as long as he was holding onto the feather, he could do anything he could do. The impossible he could fly because he was holding onto that feather and it gave him the confidence to believe in himself. this pointer has become that tool to a lot of my students. It's something they can hold onto slow them down, calm their focus, build confidence, and a small tool can make a big difference. Now, your tool, your dobos feather, doesn't have to be. A reading pointer, like what I use. It could be a special pencil, a quiet phrase they say to themselves, or a routine before a test, like saying a prayer. I know praying has got me personally through many tests. small things matter, and they remind our kids that they are not powerless. They can have control over something, even if it's the color of their pencil. Or their own self-talk before a test. this might be surprising to hear because I'm dyslexic and learning has been a challenge for me. But I'm actually a pretty good test taker I think a lot of that is because of my dyslexia. I have had to figure out how to overcome, but I've gotten pretty good taking tests. I've taken certification tests, placement exams, just random tests we've had to take to get through my teaching credential or reading specialist programs. And I've always done better than I should have. it's always felt kind of like a cheat code and I love it. I wanna share some of my tips with you guys today. I teach these tips to my students too. here are a few of the most important test taking tips that I give my students and that I use myself. you've probably heard a lot of these, but being intentional about presenting 'em to our students and our students, being intentional about using these strategies can improve their test scores. So first use the process of elimination. Most of the time, there's at least one response and a multiple choice question that is just obviously wrong. so start by ruling out the obviously wrong answers. You don't have to know the right answer right away. Just get rid of the wrong ones. my next piece of advice is to use the passage like a treasure map for reading comprehension. I teach kids to go hunting for the answer in the text. Don't try to memorize it. Go and find it. Don't just be like, oh yeah, that sounds right, and pick your answer. Once you think you know what the right answer is, go back and find it into the text and ensure that. You're marking the right answer. next is to preview questions, especially in science and history and language arts. You read a passage and have to answer question. This is a very common format and a lot of standardized testing. So before you even read your passage, I encourage my students to go read the questions first before reading that long passage. Glance through the questions, read over them. what is the question actually asking? when you have what you're looking for and the questions when you read the passage, those will just stick out to you. The answers will stick out to you while you're reading. Another tip is to skip the harder questions and come back. Don't let one hard question steal all of your time. Skip it and circle back to it if you can. finally answer. Every question. So you might skip some of those hard ones, or there be might be things you're like, I have never seen this before in my life. Don't leave the answers blank, right? There's typically not a penalty for guessing. A blank answer will get you a zero. But a guess why earn you a point. So putting a guess when you don't know. here are a few bonus strategies to help dig a little deeper. Know the directions ahead of time. Reviewing sample test formats can really calm the nerves. where I live, students take the tcap and they make tcap. Prep books and materials, I use those in my tutoring to help prepare a student for not just what they need to know, but how the questions might be worded on the tests. Check your work with intention. Teach kids to self-check their work so they can catch their own mistakes. So when you're looking over your student's homework or schoolwork and you see they made a mistake, don't tell them what the mistake is. Tell them, oh, you made a mistake here. Can you figure out what you might have done wrong? To teach them to look at their own work critically. micro breaks teach them to close their eyes, take a deep breath, or roll their shoulders between sections to reset their brain. You can help build routines, ways they can kinda let their mind. Relax, take a break. This is a good time to use some of those positive affirmations or bible verses or prayers, are all good ways to help you. have a moment of peace before you move on to another section in a test, and then use your test voice. Have them create an inner test voice, a calm, kind voice that says, you've got this. Let's think it through. These things are powerful. Okay, let's read that question again and see if I can figure it out. Oh, let's circle the number. I'll come back to this one. So figuring out from the beginning what your plan's gonna be and maintaining a calm, positive inner voice. Just habits of being kind to ourself. So before we wrap up, I wanna leave you with one more thought. There's so much value in doing things that are outside your comfort zone. That's where the growth happens. That's where you learn what you're made of. Honestly, that's a big part of why I do this podcast. It doesn't come naturally to me. It feels awkward sometimes. I have rerecorded episodes more times than I can account. I stumble. IS and guess myself. I've got a very serious case of imposter syndrome that I'm working on, but you know, I just, I keep doing it 'cause maybe it'll help someone, maybe it will help me grow. All of this discomfort. is what stretches me and that stretch is what will lead to growth. Testing can be like that too. Not because we love it or agree with it or because it's the best thing for us, but because it's moment where our kids get to practice courage. They get to try something hard, they get to take a deep breath and show up anyway. Here is the beautiful part. Doing uncomfortable things now makes the next leap just a little easier. You never know which Grand Leap will be the one that teaches you to soar. I wanna end with a word for parents. If your child is dyslexic or struggling in school, you might already be dreading those test results. You might be afraid the data will be used to hold them back or say something final about their future. And let me say this clearly, holding a child back, especially a dyslexic learner, is almost never the answer. we're gonna dig into why. In next week's episode we'll talk about the research, the reality, and what really helps struggling readers move forward. But for today, just remember this. You don't have to protect your child from the test. You just need to remind them that they are more than the test way, way more. testing. Season is hard, but you're not walking it alone. You are the steady voice. Testing season is hard, but they are not walking it alone. You are the steady voice in your child's ear. You are the safe landing at the end of a long day. Celebrate the effort, praise the courage, and when it's all over, get ice cream have a movie night, or just dance it out in the kitchen because showing up and trying is the real win. Thank you for spending this time with me today. If this episode encouraged you, share it with a fellow parent or teacher, and don't forget to come back. Next week, we're going to unpack the big issue of student retention and why repeating a grade is rarely the solution. Until then, stay steady. Stay kind, and remember the Data doesn't define your child love does.