Confidence Is a Skill: How to Train It During Test Season

Tests are always stressful. For students, it’s often a mix of nervous energy, mental fatigue, and the pressure to perform. For parents, it’s the helplessness of wanting to support your child but not always knowing how. And in all of this, one ingredient often gets overlooked: confidence.

Our goal is to transform unhealthy and unhelpful stress levels to a healthy activation by building student confidence. Of course confidence in the material is important, but there is also a broader base of confidence in test-taking skills and ability to work under time pressure that can be systematically built over time. Confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s a skill, and just like math or reading comprehension, confidence can be taught, practiced, and strengthened.

The Genre of Testing (Yes, It’s a Genre, Perhaps Our Favorite)

Unlike the reading your child might do for fun or schoolwork, test reading is its own beast. It’s fast, structured, and packed with questions that test not just what you know, but how well you navigate pressure. That’s why research suggests[1] we treat test reading as its own genre—and teach it accordingly.

At Now Test Prep, we believe that confidence in test-taking doesn’t just come from knowing the material. It comes from understanding the format, learning to recognize common question types (and common pitfalls), and practicing under the conditions students will face on test day: under time pressure and without help.

How to Build Confidence the Smart Way

1. Start with Strategy, Not Just Content

We model deconstructing questions. We teach pacing. We guide students to recognize question types, keywords, and test structure. All this adds up to showing students how to think through a test, not just memorize facts. When kids see that tests follow patterns, they realize they’re not at the mercy of the unknown—they’re problem solvers in control.

2. Practice Like It’s Game Day

Test Day confidence grows when students know what to expect. Use real practice tests under real conditions. Go through directions so you can skip reading them on test day. Time each section. Talk through answers and encourage students to justify their choices (or equally importantly, their cross-outs). When they can explain their process, they recognize a repeatable pattern and build trust in themselves.

3. Highlight Strengths in the Process

Baselines are usually rough!  So find some good moments to highlight.  Did they eliminate bad options? Did they spot a distractor answer? Manage their time well? Even when they get a question wrong, celebrate the strategy they used. This reinforces a healthy growth mindset, the idea that scores will grow over time through hard work. Confidence comes from realizing: “I knew how to approach that here, now I just need to do the same thing over there.”

4. Read Actively

Reading stamina is critical. Test questions often hinge on one critical word (not, only, except, before, sum, etc.).  Therefore sustained attention to detail is a cornerstone skill, even and especially for math. Encourage daily independent reading at or above grade level, and ensure students are actively annotating practice tests. Annotation strengthens comprehension and builds endurance.

Students who are comfortable with long texts walk into tests with a secret weapon—focus.

5. Teach Persistence and Strategic Guessing

When students don’t understand something fully, teach them to make as much progress as they can rather than leaving the question blank or taking a random guess. Of course students won’t always see the answer from the beginning - that’s what makes tests hard! 

Focus on making just one more step, and then the next step and the next. Teach alternate strategies like backsolving by plugging in the answer options or working backwards from the goal. Talk about estimating or eliminating answers to help improve your odds on a strategic guess. Together, practicing these strategies helps students build self-confidence, and change mentalities from “I can’t get this” to “I can figure this out.”

Parents: Your Role Matters

Your encouragement is often the difference between a panicked and steady test-taker . You know your child best, but if you’re ever stuck or unsure how to support them, try these strategies:

• Ask open-ended questions: “What strategy did you use?” or “What helped you stay focused?” or “What felt easier this practice test?”

• Celebrate risk-taking and hard work: “You tried something new even when it was hard. That’s how learning happens, when you’re uncomfortable.”

Final Thoughts: Confidence Is Built, Not Gifted

Sometimes we all wish we could tell a student to “believe in yourself.” Sometimes we see potential in students before they do, and because we’ve been through more ups and downs we don’t take the disappointments quite as hard. 

While encouragement and support are of course vitally important, in our experience the most impactful way to boost student confidence is to give them the tools to earn that belief and see their improvements in action. Confidence isn’t magic. It’s the result of real preparation, small wins, and the quiet voice inside that says, “I’ve done this before. I can do it again.”

At Now Test Prep, we don’t just teach for test day—we teach for life. We often say to each other that our goal is to work ourselves out of a job by giving students the tools to succeed independently. Confidence is a skill your child can carry into every classroom, every challenge, and every dream that feels just a little out of reach.

Sources:

1) https://blog.heinemann.com/strategies-to-build-test-taking-skills-and-confidence