Parents and teachers need to be actively involved and commitment to helping students improve their writing abilities. Part of the responsibility of your middle school language arts or writing teacher is to help you prepare for the Writing Proficiency Exam. Complete all homework assignments, practice activities and exercises that your teacher requests of you and realize that the assignments she gives are meant to help prepare you. Enlist the help of your parents and older siblings as well by asking questions or asking them to edit and review your practice writing.
You may be tempted to immediately begin writing when you see a prompt on the Writing Proficiency Exam. A much better strategy, however, involves brainstorming about ideas, outlining and organizing those ideas into main paragraphs and then developing the paper out further. When you see a topic on the Writing Proficiency Exam, take a couple minutes to brainstorm about key topics you want to address. This will help you ensure that you write a well-rounded document.
Even if you spend hours prewriting and developing an interesting paper that everyone would love to read, the entire piece can be ruined if you do not understand the rules of grammar, syntax and spelling. Although slight errors may be overlooked on the Writing Proficiency Exam, you will want to make sure that your exam holds as few errors and distractions as possible, so that those who are grading your paper are able to stay focused on the message you are trying to convey.
Many young students do not appreciate the idea of revising and editing work before submitting it. However, revising, proofreading and editing are extremely important during the Writing Proficiency Exam. Save some time at the end of the exam to allow yourself to go back and read through what you wrote. Don't be afraid to make changes if you aren't sure that something sounds exactly right. Practice your reading skills to ensure that you have enough time to read through your piece.