{"id":1950,"date":"2010-04-21T07:56:34","date_gmt":"2010-04-21T12:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/?p=1950"},"modified":"2010-04-21T07:56:34","modified_gmt":"2010-04-21T12:56:34","slug":"testing-time-test-prep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2010\/testing-time-test-prep\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing Time & Test Prep"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
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April is the worst month to be a student or in a school in Minnesota. Not only is the weather turning and making it hard to be inside, April is MCA month. MCA’s are the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments aka the standardized testing. What could be worse than sitting quietly at your desk for 2+ hours staring at a booklet, filling in bubbles with hopefully the right answer. Even our best students struggle with test anxiety and the patience required to sit, read, and fill, not to mention how our English Language Learners from Somalia and other countries must feel (some have only been here for a few weeks).<\/p>\n

Their is a point to this besides getting into the politics of testing and education. This is also a time of testing for many runners. With the Boston Marathon now over and London approaching we are in spring marathon\/racing season. These races are often used as tests to determine our overall fitness and how are training is going.<\/p>\n

Some of us “test” ourselves more than others, we like to race as much as possible, others prefer to wait for the “big test” and don’t race until their goal race. I prefer to have lots of tests throughout the year. The more tests you take, hopefully the better you’ll do overall. Or you’ll at least know where you are at in your training so you’ll know what to expect on race day.<\/p>\n

Below are some test preparation strategies from the MN Department of Education<\/a> (pdf<\/a>)<\/p>\n