Boredom

Kids who are exceptionally gifted may be bored by standardized tests. But their, “I already know this and I want to learn other things” attitude may seriously hurt their test scores. Just like children with difficulty focusing, their boredom may prevent them from paying close enough attention to the test they’re taking.

What you can do: Unlike some other reasons why your child may have poor test performance, this one is actually a result of a good thing … his mastery of the skills. The best thing you can do is explain to your child why it’s important that he perform well on these tests and tie some reward to good performance. For instance, try explaining that the better test score he gets, the more likely that he’ll be placed in an academic situation that will challenge him in the future.

Knowing Less Than He Thinks

Is it possible that your child hadn’t absorbed the information as well as he’d thought? Or maybe he hadn’t been able to properly express the answer. This could be a result of you offering too much homework help or the teacher not explaining the information clearly enough.

What you can do: You and your child can both learn a great deal by examining the exam after it has been graded. Discuss the wrong answers with your child and ask him why he answered that way. Maybe he misread the question. Maybe he knew the answer but didn’t express it correctly. This is especially important for classes like math—where the material builds from one section to the next. It’s only through reviewing the exam and figuring out the source of the wrong answers that you can make sure your child is better prepared for the next exam.