Test Taking Strategies
Poetry
Context Clues
Figurative Language
STAAR Preparation
100
This part of your passage may give you an early hint of what the text is about.
What is the title
100
They are two lines that rhyme
What is a couplet?
100
This item comes in handy when the context clues are just not strong enough.
What is a dictionary (or thesaurus)
100
"Don't count your chickens before they hatch."
What is an idiom?
100
Do this the morning of the big test.
What is eat a good breakfast?
200
Do this first to increase your chances of getting these type of questions correctly.
What is read the questions first to find the ones that are about the whole text.
200
This poem type has three lines with syllables of five, seven then five.
What is a haiku?
200
Another way to say this phrase would be "a scholarly deduction."
What is an educated guess
200
"It will take the class a thousand years to figure out this answer."
What is hyperbole?
200
You should do this the night of the test.
What is go to bed early?
300
This strategy uses reasoning to take away unlikely choices until the best choice remains.
What is the process of elimination
300
You call it this when there is no rhyming at all.
What is free verse?
300
Another word for "Clue"
What is a Hint.
300
"Paris was as sneaky as double-agent."
What is simile?
300
Leave this at home, in your locker, and hand it to a test administrator just before.
What is a cell phone or electronic device?
400
This tool helps to "enlighten" us about key parts of the text and new vocabulary
What is a highlighter pen
400
Why poems should be read completely more than once during the STAAR test.
What is poems are hard to understand?
400
A conclusion based on evidence and reason
What is an inference
400
"Chocolate was her Achilles' Heel."
What is an allusion?
400
Bring this to past the time if you finish testing early.
What is an AR book?
500
This often overlooked part of a test passage gives us a "good look" into what the text will be about.
What is a picture or illustration
500
Like a paragraph for poetry
What is a stanza?
500
These two items team up to help you make an inference
What is text evidence and previous knowledge?
500
This type of figurative language gets a lot of work in comic books
What is onomatopoeia?
500
Be prepared NOT to do this at any point while testing.
What is talking during the test?
M
e
n
u