But that doesn’t mean she is relaxed about it. Some high schoolers, knowing that each grade now counts toward their graduation average, stress out over every exam.

If your teen is one of these, suggest these tips from an education researcher. Randall Sprick, author of an education and discipline guide for teachers, advises the following steps for taking exams—after your teen has studied and learned the material:

• Get the easy ones out of the way first. Teens who are prepared should find that there are some questions they can answer quickly. Then they can go on to tougher questions.

• Mark the toughest questions. Otherwise your teen may find that she forgets to come back to a tough question. Or she runs out of time.

• Take a breather during long exams. Most of us can only stare at a piece of paper for 15 to 30 minutes. Tell your teen to look across the room to rest her eyes. Have her take a slow, deep breath, gather her thoughts and return to work.

• Read all questions carefully. They may relate to previous questions. Sometimes, reading one question can jog our memories about the answer to another.

• In multiple choice questions, immediately cross out the answers you know are wrong.

• Watch your time. Use your last minutes to fill in guesses.

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