In addition, as mentioned in previous chapters, you must receive a passing score on the writing sample subsection of the Writing section of the THEA. Your writing sample will be graded by two readers and their combined score used to evaluate how you did. Your score will be a combination of the two readers’ judg- ments, somewhere between a possible high of 8 and a low of 2. To see how you did on your essay for this third and final practice exam, be sure to give it and the scor- ing criteria to a teacher and ask him or her to score your essay for you. You have probably seen improvement between your first practice exam score and this one; but if you didn’t improve as much as you would like, following are some options for you to consider: ■ If you scored below 60%, you should seriously consider whether you are ready for the THEA at this time. A good idea would be to take some brush-up courses, either at a community college nearby or through correspondence, in the areas you feel less sure of. If you don’t have time for a course, you might try private tutoring. ■ If your score is in the 60% to 70% range, you need to work as hard as you can to improve your skills. Reread and pay close attention to all the information in Chapters 2, 4, 5, and 6 of this book to improve your score. ■ If your score is between 70% and 80%, you could still benefit from additional work by going back to Chapters 4, 5, and 6 and by brushing up on your reading comprehension and general math skills before the exam. ■ If you scored above 80%, that’s great! This kind of score should make you a success in the academic program of your choice. Don’t lose your edge, though; keep studying right up to the day before the exam. The key to success in almost any pursuit is to prepare for all you are worth. By taking the practice exams in this book, you have made yourself better pre- pared than other people who may be taking the exam with you. You have diagnosed where your strengths and weaknesses lie and learned how to deal with the various kinds of questions that will appear on the test. Go into the exam with confidence, knowing that you are ready and equipped to do your best. – THEA PRACTICE EXAM 3– 280 S o you think you’re ready for your exam? Here’s a great way to build confidence and know you are ready: using LearningExpress’s Academic Skills Tester AutoExam CD-ROM software included inside the back cover of this book. This disk can be used with any PC running Win- dows 3.1 through Windows XP. (Sorry, it doesn’t work with Macintosh.) The following description repre- sents a typical “walk through” the software. To install the program: 1. Insert the CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive. The CD should run automatically. If it does not, proceed to step 2. 2. From Windows, select Start, then choose Run. 3. Type D:/Setup. 4. Click OK. How to Use the CD-ROM 281 The screens that appear subsequently will walk you right through the installation procedure. From the Main Menu, select Take Exams. (You can use Review Exam Results after you have taken at least one exam, in order to see your scores.) Now enter your initials. This allows you a chance to record your progress and review your performance for as many simulated exams as you’d like. Notice that you can also change the drive where your exam results are stored. If you want to save to a floppy drive, for instance, click on the “Browse” button and then choose the let- ter of your floppy drive. – HOW TO USE THE CD-ROM– 282 Now, since this CD-ROM supports three different academic exams, you need to select your exam of inter- est. Let’s try CBEST, the California Basic Education Skills Test, as shown above. Now you’re into the Take Exams section, as shown above. You can choose Start Exam to start taking your test, or Exam Options. The next screen shows you what your Exam Options are. – HOW TO USE THE CD-ROM– 283 Choosing Exam Options gives you plenty of options to help you fine tune your rough spots. How about a little math to warm up? Click Review Skill Area, and then the Math option. Choose the number of questions you want to review right now. Since this is a sample CBEST, the button for Writing (multiple-choice) is gray; CBEST doesn’t have multiple-choice writing questions. If you are taking a Praxis or THEA, the Writing (multiple-choice) button will be active. On the left you can choose whether to wait until you’ve finished to see how you did (Final Review & Score) or have the computer tell you after each question whether your answer is right (Continuous Review & Score). Choose Retry incorrect responses to get a second chance at questions you answer wrong. (This option works best with Review Skill Area rather than Complete Test.) When you finish choosing your options, click OK. Then click the Start Exam button on the main exam screen. – HOW TO USE THE CD-ROM– 284 As you can see, diagrams are displayed any time a math problem calls for one. You can move the diagram window (or a passage for reading questions) by clicking on the bar at the top of the window and dragging to where you want it. You can also minimize the diagram window by clicking on the left box in the right corner. You can get the diagram back any time by clicking the Diagram button. Once you’ve responded to all ten of the questions, go back to Exam Options and select a Reading exam; then click on Start Exam. AutoExam makes it easy by displaying the reading passage in its own window, which always “rides on top” of the exam window, as seen above.You can scroll through the reading passage using the scroll bar on the right, or minimize the passage so you see only the question window. To get the passage back, click the Pas- sage button. – HOW TO USE THE CD-ROM– 285 . the number of questions you want to review right now. Since this is a sample CBEST, the button for Writing (multiple-choice) is gray; CBEST doesn’t have multiple-choice writing questions. If. diagnosed where your strengths and weaknesses lie and learned how to deal with the various kinds of questions that will appear on the test. Go into the exam with confidence, knowing that you are ready. right (Continuous Review & Score). Choose Retry incorrect responses to get a second chance at questions you answer wrong. (This option works best with Review Skill Area rather than Complete