i think that's the perfect way to handle practice packets. i tutor kids for the SAT and that's exactly what i encourage them to do. no sense jumping in without having some idea what you should have been studying before you're tested on it.

I have been helping my daughter study for achievement tests for the last few weeks. They bring home practice packets. I've had to look up (more than once) questions with sneaky answers just to make sure I was guiding her in the right direction if she got an answer wrong. We go over them twice and she has to re-answer those that she got wrong. On the third time, I sit down and we talk through the answer and how to get there. Lordy, I'm relearning things from 30 years ago.....and feeling very dumb!

Anyone else going through this?

My kiddo tells me that some kids are just doing the papers themselves and handing them in with bad grades (these get graded). I figure they are just like any other homework and should be treated like a learning experience. When the real tests come, she's on her own.

How's it going at your house with all these new standardized tests? Do you agree with them?

My kids have all gone through the standardized tests, (OGT, IOWA.) They pretty much did the studing on their own. Now I wish I helped a little. I think it would have helped me keep up with school work now that I am in college.(30 years after graduating high school)But as for what I think about standardized test, I am not a fan of them.