EASTERN WAKE COUNTY — Students and teachers are gearing up for the state-mandated end of grade test, or EOGs, by doing everything from after-school tutorials to fixing squeaky doors and wobbly desks.

“It’s an entire school effort to help our students be as successful as possible,” said Wendell GT Magnet Elementary principal Winston Pierce. “We tip-toe, we whisper.”

Pierce said the school has been prepping all year for the end of year test that students in grades 3-5 must pass to be promoted. About 80 students have stayed after school for tutoring since October and are now involved in test taking practice.

Teachers throughout the year have pored over computer data, analyzing what skills their students lack and then instructing them in those areas, she said. This week, there is an “EOG Olympics” where students are taught key concepts in reading and math.

At all schools, teachers get students familiar with test-taking strategies, emphasize the importance of breakfast and a good night’s rest, and offer some sort of skills review so students will be primed.

At Lockhart Elementary, the school is so serious about students getting breakfast before test-taking, the principal and an assistant principal deliver bag meals to the rooms at the start of the school day, said Katherine Faison, assistant principal at the Knightdale school.

“Teachers are doing a whole lot of coaching right now and get students to practice skills they’ve been learning all year,” said Faison. “We are real encouraging. We let them know everyday to hang in there and don’t give up and do the best that you can.”

Faison said the school also addresses test anxiety.

“We try not to go the other way and scare them,” she said. “If we feel like anybody would have a lot of test anxiety, we would let them talk to the guidance counselor. We try to make them feel really, really prepared.”

Wendell’s Pierce also said it’s important to boost confidence.

“We are also working not to stress our students out about it,” she said. “We say ‘Look at where you were in September. Look how well you’re doing now. Look at all you’ve learned. The EOG is a chance for you to show everybody everything you’ve learned this year.’ Sometimes it feels like high stakes. But we want them to feel like, ‘Yeah, I know this. I can do this.’”

Hodge Road Elementary School in Knightdale has held two EOG nights for parents for school leaders to explain the process and to urge them to help their students at home, said Juanita Jones-Hall, the assistant principal.

The school also has recruited volunteers from the community for lunchtime tutoring and assigned intervention teams to work in small groups with students who need extra work on skills. And of course, review is going on in the classrooms, Jones-Hall said.

EOGs have even spawned one local business. Learning Curves of Wendell opened last week for an EOG boot camp, said Mary Adams, who owns the business with her sister Pamela Nolan and two other teachers. It’s not just for EOG prepping during test-taking season but tutoring year-round, which also helps EOG outcomes, Adams said.

The four teachers are working with 22 children in three-student group settings to provide test-taking strategies, practice testing and skills review, Adams said.

“We give them a little bit of experience,” she said. “A lot of the EOG test is just an endurance test. We work on confidence to see that they know they can do it. They will know what type of questions and the strategies to get the answer.”

Aside from learning throughout the year, getting ready for the tests takes some extra preparation on the part of students.

“You can’t go out and run a marathon when you’ve only been around the block,” said Pierce. “Those tests are really long. You have to prepare the brain.”

Pierce said students are reading for two and a half hours straight for the reading assessment. They encourage parents throughout the year to see that their children read for longer stretches than 15 or 20 minutes.

There may be test review questions designed to look like the real thing. But the EOG tests themselves are kept under lock and key.

“Only I and a test coordinator have a key,” said Pierce. “We take it very seriously. Last week at a principal’s meeting, the administration told us, ‘There are regulations in place because they are regulations. These are not suggestions.’”