Not everyone is good at taking tests. Most people seem to feel that written tests are not very good at showing their full intelligence. The academic world seems to be catching on to this idea, as fewer and fewer programs are requiring standardized testing scores for admission. Those that do require them are putting less and less weight on those scores. However, unless we come up with a completely revolutionary method of measurement for program admittance, you are likely going to need to take a grueling, future-determining test in the next few years. So here are 8 tips that will help you get the score you need for that next acceptance letter.
1. Establish a routine.
I got this one from my days training for half-marathons. During training, it became very easy to follow a routine because I had to be done running by a certain time in order to get to class. I went to bed at the same time every night, my breakfasts were the same thing before every run. I ate the same healthy runner snacks during the run. I drank the same flavor of Gatorade. I did my stretches in the same order. I listened to the same playlist on the trail.
The reason for all of the routine was classical conditioning. It put my mindset in the same place every time, so when I had my special pre-run breakfast, my body knew I was about to start running. I was literally using Pavlovian conditioning on myself. And it worked.
You need to do the same for yourself in the weeks before a major test. Go to bed at the same time. Get up at the same time. Eat, shower, and brush your teeth in the same order every day. Exercise. All of these things will teach your body what is normal. On test day, do the same thing. This will demonstrate to your body that test day is just a normal day. This alone will "hack” your nervous system to reduce anxiety and help you recall information as if it were for a mundane purpose, not a test that your body will blow out of proportion in its importance.
2. Exercise.
You don’t need to be an athlete, but go outside and get your heart rate up. Chess players are anecdotally reported to burn as many as 6,000 calories per day during tournament play. The brain is an extremely energy-intensive organ, as thinking requires glucose. Therefore, being in good physical condition allows your body to support long-term mental effort.
Exercise also increases blood flow, especially to the brain, and provides a drastically different activity in which the brain can participate. This different type of activity allows the test-taking parts of your brain to recover and solidify the new neural pathways you are setting out to create when studying. You also have different types of thought. You have conscious thoughts that most people hear as an internal monologue. But you also have sub-conscious thoughts, where your brain continues to work on problems in the background without your active attention. Exercise is prime time for this to take place.
3. Take the test more than once.
I don’t like going to a new restaurant for the first time. I don’t know the menu. Will it be like Subway where I have to tell someone everything on the spot? Or can I sit down with a menu first? Do they seat me, or do I come in and find a spot? Do I give the wait staff my card at the table or pay on my way out? Do they have Coke or Pepsi products? Is Dr. Pepper a Coke or Pepsi product, because they’re going to say "We have Coke products” and I won’t know if that means I can have Dr. Pepper or not.
Testing has the same effect on our brains. What door do I go in? What ID did I need? Do I sit at a table or a desk? Is the timer an alarm that will startle me, or my math teacher saying time is up? Are the bubbles perfect circles or ovals? Can I write on the test booklet? How do I ration my scratch paper? Therefore, just like tip one where you establish a routine, having seen everything before makes test day feel much more normal.
I recommend for any of my Academic Coaching clients that they plan on three attempts at a standardized test, if they are allowed. Each attempt serves a different purpose. The first attempt resolves the tiny unknowns of test day. After test one, you know the FBI didn’t bust in and accuse you of cheating, you know how the testing center functions and what the test looks like. You brought in the wrong type of calculator and won’t make that mistake again. You’ve made the metaphorical first bad pancake, and you’re ready to move on.
The second attempt is the fun one. You’ve studied what you missed the first time, and the pressure is off. You have a third attempt on the horizon, so today doesn’t matter. The thing to focus on is getting that little high from answering a question that you KNOW you got right. Go on. Chase that feeling all over the test. You don’t have to sweat the wrong answers at all. All of the pressure is on the third test.
That’s where the genius comes in. You test your best when you are relaxed. So if you know that this score on the second test can be fixed by taking the test again, you test completely differently. That way, going in to the third test, you are in one of two situations:
Situation 1: You already got the score you needed on a previous test. This allows you to be even more relaxed. You did it once, you can do it again. This time is likely even better, and you know this one won’t affect admissions! You can even decide not to go through with the third attempt.
Situation 2: You didn’t get the score you needed. However, your results gave you specific things to study, you’ve identified your pitfalls and had even more time to prepare. You know how many more you need to get right for each section. You’re going to be fine.
4. Apply "Test-Day Math”
This doesn’t refer to actually doing math on the test. Rather, it’s seeing the probabilities involved in your testing. We tend to take a very pessimistic view of our test performance, especially during the test. When we don’t know an answer and mark it randomly, we assume it was wrong. As the test goes on we become discouraged, losses accumulate, and our performance gets worse. "Test-Day Math” is how we keep that from happening.
Let’s have an example of a 100 question, multiple choice test where each question has four possible answers. If you answer randomly, you will get a 25/100! All you had to do was show up! Now you went to class every day, so some of this is guaranteed to look familiar. Those answers will come to you pretty quickly, so there’s another 25 points. So just by showing up for class and the test you’re already at 50/100!
Alright, but there are going to be some questions that take some work, but you studied. You probably won’t get all of those right, so let’s give you 15 out of 25 on that part. So now you’re at 65/100 and you still have a quarter of the test left!
The final quarter are questions that you don’t know the answers to, but you can narrow them down to only two answers. So we will call that one 13/25. So that brings you up to 78/100. 75 is considered average on a bell curve, so you’re already ahead of more than 50% of people taking the test. And let’s be honest, you studied hard enough that 15/25 and 13/25 are actually really pessimistic estimates, so obviously you’ll do better than that. 78 is just a baseline for a low-effort attempt! You’re guaranteed AT LEAST 78!
Applying this kind of mindset helped me a lot through college. I saw the test as already mostly-passed before I ever sat down. When I didn’t know an answer I had already accounted for it in the "Test-Day Math” and it didn’t lead to accumulating emotional losses across the test. Is the logic good? Nope. Are you lying to yourself? Yep. Are you relaxed because it’s put you in a place where you’re focusing on successes, getting serotonin (the hormone that we get from winning and helps us keep winning) and staying focused on the questions you are capable of? Yep!
5. Do the test fast. Then slow. Then really slow. Then really fast.
If the test allows you to jump around, you need to take full advantage of that. When you first sit down, quickly read through the whole test. Only answer questions if you know the answer without any effort. This will help you make sure that you answer all of the easy ones. It would be a shame if you got stuck on a question halfway through the test, used up all of your time, and got it right, but didn’t answer any of the second half of the test. You would leave so much low-hanging fruit! So whenever the test allows, get the easy ones first.
Once you’ve answered the easy ones, go back and get the ones that you know you can do with some effort. Use the scratch paper, dig around in the reading passage, draw a picture and figure it out. This is when you really show how much you know.
Once you’ve done everything that can reasonably be done quickly, pick a few of the really hard ones and do them very intentionally. Narrow answers down, apply things you picked up from other questions on the test, don’t be afraid to do it wrong because you’ve already gone and gotten all your right answers. Use up the majority of the rest of your time for this.
With just a few minutes left, all you have left to do is make sure you answered something for every question. Don’t leave blanks. Have a pre-determined answer for them, such as "All blank bubbles are going to be C”. That way you aren’t wasting extra time and brain power acting like you can make a difference on your score by applying some complex algorithm to your unknown answers.
6. Don’t just study FOR the test, study ABOUT the test.
Is there a difference between a wrong answer and a blank? What are all of the sections of the tests? What are the time limits? Can you bring any notes? What formulas always show up? What formulas sometimes show up? How does the test try to trick you? Prep books from academic companies are cheap! Often just $20 on Amazon. Public libraries often carry prep books. You don’t even have to complete the entire book to get the benefit, just read the chapters about how the test works and you’ll be far more prepared than someone going in blind.
7. Learn how to actually study.
I’ll be making another post sometime about HOW to study. But for right now there are a few basics you need to make sure you do. First of all, learn to set aside distractions. Go to the library, turn your phone off (Tell people they can email you if there is something urgent) have only your study materials out, and get busy.
Your brain works best when it has frequent, brief rests. Plan to study for 20 minutes then take a 2-3 minute break. DO NOT LOOK AT A SCREEN DURING THAT BREAK. Walk around, play an instrument, do pushups, work on a jigsaw puzzle or doodle. The goal is to disengage from things that use the more logical portion of your brain and instead gets motor and creative function going. This will keep you on-task while letting the brain rest in the ways it needs. We also remember things from the beginning of studying and end of studying the best. Adding breaks means that more things you study are close to stops and starts.
The best studying happens when you are preparing to study. Create flash cards. Write a study guide. Write down all of the vocabulary you’ll need. Highlight definitions in your book and rewrite them in your own words so they are more accessible when you’re studying. You’ll often find that prep took a lot of your study time, but somehow you got everything you need out of it.
Teach someone else. Grab a white board, marker, and a rubber duck and teach it all about differential equations. Better yet, teach someone else who is struggling.
8. Keep it in perspective.
You have probably spent most of your life in school. When that happens, you end up with a paradigm that puts grades and measurements of intelligence at the center of your world. From where you are, this test seems so supremely important that the rest of your future hinges on your success or failure. Well, it does. And it doesn’t.
Next time you’re in public, ask yourself "How many of these people wanted to be what they are now when they were kids?” The answer: Almost none. Most people didn’t know that the job they are doing now existed when they were in high school. Many people do well on these placement tests and still don’t end up doing what they thought they would! And they’re happy. Or at least, they wouldn’t be any happier if they had ended up in the job they thought they wanted.
Also remember, these tests are designed to be filters. They are not a reflection of your worth. Having worked with teenagers with high aspirations for a decade, I have seen many whose futures are saved by not achieving the score they thought they wanted. They would have struggled and failed in the programs they wanted to attempt, and accumulated a lot of debt in the process. Your future is dynamic. If you are not flexible with your future, it will break you. Remember, the focus of education is to make yourself valuable. First, valuable to yourself. Then to your family. Then to your employer. If that remains your goal, I guarantee you will be fine no matter what score you get.
