Sometimes analyzing only the grades to understand your child’s academic progress can be misleading. Schools have a standardized method of testing and grading students, and hence, their methods do not identify gifted or struggling students.
So, it is always a good idea to take a second opinion. The best way to break out of this pattern is to appear for competitive exams to identify a student’s academic growth better. MAP or Measurement of Academic Progress is one such exam that helps determine students’ true potential.
It is an adaptive exam that has to be taken on a computer. Adaptive means the test questions change according to the answers given by a student. It means no two students take the same test.
Main aim of the test is to gauge academic progress
NWEA: NorthWestern Evaluation Association conducts the MAP test. There is no elimination or failing system in MAP. If a student gives wrong answers, the complexity of the question becomes less. The main aim of the test is to gauge academic progress.
This one-hour exam tests students on the two most fundamental education subjects, especially early. The test is divided into two sections – numerical operations and reading. Stronghold on these two sections creates a strong foundation for a student’s academic career.
The MAP test is adaptive. The paper is constantly customized according to how a student performs. Hence, every student answers a different set of questions. It makes this exam one of a kind. But how do you take a MAP test?.
Relaxes students as they would feel more confident
Login: The best part about MAP is that you can take it from anywhere. You don’t need to be at an examination center. If anything, this relaxes students as they would feel more confident giving the exam from comfort.
All one has to do is log in to the portal and use the secure browser to appear for the test. It makes sure that the integrity of the test is maintained. You can get the login ID and password on the website. All you have to do is follow the prompts.
Process: Once you start the test, you can still pause, suspend or terminate the exam. With the pause option, one can take a break of fewer than 25 minutes and then pick up from where they had left off.
Need more preparation for the exam
Alternatively, you can also suspend the exam. During writing a paper, one realizes that you need more preparation for the exam. You can take that option with the MAP exam if you need it.
Submitting the test: In MAP, completing the test is not enough as your test doesn’t get automatically submitted when the time comes. If you don’t save and exit the browser, instead of getting submitted, the test will get suspended.
Thus, you must save your test so that even if you are giving the exam from a standard device, the next person’s activities won’t delete your test. But in case you want to delete the test yourself for any reason, you have that option too.
Final Thoughts:
So, as you can see, taking the exam is a cakewalk. There is no need to panic about that. So prepare diligently and adequately. Use the score to know your strengths and work on your weaknesses. There are just a few simple steps. But the main goal is to answer the questions correctly.
It will help you develop an idea of what learning techniques have been working on till now. The progress chart can also be used to graph your growth over the years.
