MCAS Vocabulary
Test-Taking Strategies
Types of Annotation
Question Types and Text Features
Text Features
100
The meaning of this word is to "break into parts and examine closely."
What is "analyze"?
100
In this strategy, you think about what the answer is BEFORE you read the choices.
What is "predict"?
100
You might use an exclamation mark in the margin to show this.
What is an annotation to show that something that surprises you?
100
In this question type or topic, you are asked to explain the meaning of a word or phrase (usually in quotes).
What is "context clues"?
100
The purpose of this text feature is to hint at what a text might be about and to give a brief of the text's content.
What is "a title"?
200
This word means a disagreement, argument, or problem; the main problem in a story.
What is "conflict"?
200
In this strategy, you get rid of or remove the answers that are incorrect.
What is "process of elimination" or "slash the trash"?
200
You might circle or put a question mark to represent this type of annotation.
What is marking what confuses you?
200
Examples of this type of question include the following: "What was the main purpose of the passage?" "What was this passage mostly about?"
What are "main idea" questions?
200
The purpose of this text feature is to help us visualize what we are reading about and to catch the readers' attention and make the text seem more interesting.
What are "pictures"?
300
This term means to tell what is good or bad, what you like or don't like, and tell strengths or weaknesses.
What is "evaluate" or "criticize"?
300
In this strategy, you put difficult parts of text in your own words.
What is "paraphrase?"
300
You might underline or "box in" the main points of a paragraph to show the paragraph's this.
What is determine main idea?
300
Metaphors, similes, and personification are all types of these.
What is figurative language?
300
The purpose of this is to help organize the text into sections of information that support the main topic or to make it easy to find important topics within the body of the text.
What is a subheading?
400
This is when something is put into time order from first to last.
What is chronological order?
400
In this test-taking strategy, you reread each story, reread each multiple choice and make sure they picked the best answer, and reread the open response question and their response to make sure they have done their absolute best on the entire test.
What is "check your work"?
400
You should NOT do this all over the text. Instead, just focus on the important parts.
What is highlight?
400
This type of questions asks why the passage was written.
What is "author's purpose"?
400
This is an explanatory note inserted in the bottom of the page referring to a specific word or phrase in the text. The purpose is to give readers extra information they may need to fully understand to fully understand the word or idea in context.
What is a footnote?
500
This is another word for reading between the lines or making an educated guess.
What is draw an inference?
500
This is how you ensure that your correct answers are recognized by the test grader.
What is bubble in the scantron neatly?
500
You should do this for every question and number which question it answers.
What is go back into the text?
500
An author does this to hint at important ideas that readers should pay close attention to.
What is change the font size and/or type?
500
An author uses these to break up a lot of text into chunks of important information and to create lists.
What are bullet points?
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