Although I haven't seen the test firsthand, DD10 took it for the first time last year. She breezed through the practice items as well (other than an english question or two related to organization
). However, while she did well on the EXPLORE, she did not finish 2 (or 3?) of the sections, and she was only at the ceiling in one area on the actual test vs. most areas on the practice test. In other words: the practice test items do not represent the difficulty level.
My suggestion is to print off released items from an 8th grade state test (google 8th grade released test items and you'll get plenty of options). Talk to your kids about the skip-it-and-go-on strategy, set the timer for 30 minutes and let them try it. The goal is not for them to finish it (in fact, I'd recommend printing much more than they can do in 30 minutes). You
could
do this for each subject area, but it's probably only necessary to do it for one. The goal is for them to experience running into problems/questions that are too difficult and determine when to skip over problems/questions to get to the ones they can actually answer. That experience should generalize regardless of subject area. Personally, I wouldn't advise trying to "teach" the material that they've missed, but it's a good opportunity to talk about the experience of making decisions under pressure and to reassure them that they aren't expected to know everything that they'll see. HTH!
