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The FitnessGram Pacer Test

The FitnessGram Pacer Test is a multiple-stage aerobic fitness test that gets progressively harder as it goes on.

The FitnessGram Pacer Test also measures a student’s aerobic capacity and endurance. If you know the Pacer Test by heart, you are in the right place today.

I will give you a quick look into how I explain the Pacer test and give you just a few ideas about the Pacer test. When doing fitness testing, ensuring you’re not doing it for a grade is important; we should not be grading our students on their fitness scores.

Presentation and how you sell it have a big part in your kid’s motivation to do the Pacer test and the curl test with push-up tests, especially for kids who know they will not be at the top of the class. 

You still want them to do their best so they can learn to set goals, improve themselves, and become better versions of themselves. So, the more you can encourage kids to do that, and the more you can encourage kids to improve, the more wins you’ll have with FitnessGram and fitness testing. 

There are a lot of opinions and a lot of ideas out there that are great ideas. A few that I have done in the past are doing a partner pacer as a warm-up type thing so that kids can hear the CD more, and the more they hear, the more familiar they will be with it, and the better they’re going to do on the test. 

It works so that you can do either 15 or 20 meters, depending on how much space you have. So you have a partner for the Pacer; one person goes and does a lap, comes back, and tags the other person’s hand. 

Then the next person goes, so they are trading off and not getting as tired; they’re able to run more laps, and then you also have that teamwork aspect of it; if one person runs 60 meters and another person runs 30 meters, the one running 60 meters can take two turns in a row and give their partner a break.

So, it’s cool to watch the kids’ dynamics when you do that partner pacer and see which kids can say, “Hey, I’ll run two more for you, like take a break,” and talking about that teamwork aspect beforehand is important. 

Suppose you have a lot of kids in a big space. Try a “trio pacer,” where you have one kid on one end of the gym and two on the other. Then on the line with two kids, that’s the starting line, so when the CD starts, one of those kids will run down and tag the next person across from them; that person will then run down and tag the other, that way they’re doing a triple tag situation, so they are not running as much but running more often.

So if you have a lot of kids, try that to give those kids a chance to see the pace, to hear the CD, and to get used to the Biebs.

You can also do a modified pacer with kindergarten or first graders if interested. They run sideline to sideline, so it’s much shorter; you can do 25 to 30 laps just for the kids to hear it. Then, you can sell it to them as a video game to see if they can make it to 30 points or however many points you want.

Table of Contents show

How to do the Fitness Gram Pacer Test

The warmup is less crucial for the pacer than the other aerobic capacity test because the progressive nature of the test serves as a warmup.

  1. Preparation

    The teacher determines the location of the test; it can be the gymnasium, school field, or any other outdoor field. They will then set up the cones to mark the running course.

  2. Explanation

    The teacher will outline the test procedure and demonstrate the running course.
    Before starting, the teacher ensures that each student has a partner. The partner assists the student in keeping track of form breaks.
    A form break occurs when the student does not touch the line when the beep sounds. 

  3. Starting the Pacer Test

    The teacher, who will stand on the sideline, will record the student’s score, which is the number of laps they complete.
    The students will form a line behind the starting line while their partner stands on the opposite side, and the PACER audio recording will begin.
    The CD includes a countdown of five seconds and instructs students when to begin. 

  4. While doing the Test

    Students will begin the test by running across the distance and touching the line with their feet before the beep sound. 
    The students will run back to the starting line at the beep sound.
    Upon hearing the beep, the student who touches the starting line must immediately return to the opposite end. One beep sounds after each lap.

  5. Conclusion

    The student is allowed to continue after they fail to reach the line when the beep sounds (this is the first form break)
    The second time a student cannot reach the line by the beep, this is the second form break, and the test is complete. 
    The pacer gets faster with more beep sounds

The Fitnessgram Pacer Test Summary

What is a Fitness Gram PACER test?

The FitnessGram Pacer Test is a multiple-stage aerobic fitness test that gets progressively harder as it goes on.

What is the FitnessGram Pacer Test Score?

The recorded score is the total number of laps completed by the student before the second form break.

How do I pass the Gram Pacer fitness test?

Making sure you complete your lap before the next beep sound

What is a good score on the PACER test?

A good score is completing as many laps as possible before the next beep sound.

How many laps is the fitness Gram Pacer test?

The number of completed laps is the student’s score on the PACER Test. The number of laps varies with the level and distance. For example, the number of laps in the 15m test is higher than in the 20m tests.

How long is the pacer test?

20 meters is the ideal distance for the pacer fitness test. Some are shorter such as the 15 Meter track.

What is the goal of the Pacer Gram Test?

The objective of the pacer is for the student to run as long as possible back and forth across a 20-meter distance and at a specified pace that gets faster each minute.

George N.
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