Get Over It and Go Over Your Mistakes! The mistakes you make during test prep are a gift. They show you where you need to improve during practice, when it doesn’t matter, instead of on the actual test, when it does. A mistake is valuable information and the best thing you can do is examine …
Don’t Be An Idiot: How To Talk With Your Parents About Your Test Many students want their parents to leave them alone, then act in ways that ensure that never happens. The best way to get your parents to leave you alone is to communicate with them and let them know that you’re doing your …
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Your Friends are Liars You may feel bad that you’re not as good at standardized tests as your friends Tina and Mark, who aren’t being tutored and don’t study and never sweat and ace all their exams. If this is you, stop it. Tina and Mark are lying to you. They’re probably getting tutored and …
What to Do the Morning of Your Test It’s go time! You’ve done the work; now it’s time to take your exam. Here’s what to do to put yourself in the best possible condition for success. If your test isn’t today, and you haven’t read What to Do the Night Before the Test, go here …
What to Do the Night Before Your Test There are two parts to getting ready the night before your exam: emotional prep and logistical prep. Both are important. Logistical prep Pack a go bag The night before the exam, pack everything you’ll need in a bag. This includes: Admission ticket All necessary identification At least …
The Two-Breath Reset Sometimes, students spiral when taking a test. They run into a difficult reading passage, or three hard math problems in a row, and they start to panic or turn negative or lose focus. It’s normal, and it’s easy to deal with. All you need to do if you’re ever in this situation …
Weird but it Works–How to Feel Better Many years ago, I had pneumonia. For three months, I spent almost all of my time inside my apartment. I was always exhausted, and my chest hurt every time I took a deep breath. As you can imagine, it wasn’t a banner time for my mental health. I …
Stop Thinking You’re Not a Good Test Taker! A student who thinks they’re “just not a good test taker” will always underperform on standardized tests. ALWAYS. It’s an awful mindset to have, and not for mystical, intangible reasons: people perform worse on tasks on which they think they’ll fail. Here’s how it works on standardized …
Handling Test Anxiety Part I – How to Think about Anxiety Most students have at least a little anxiety around standardized tests. Many of them feel like their anxiety is a problem and they need to get rid of it. But the truth is there’s nothing wrong with feeling anxious. I’ve tutored for standardized tests …
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How to Get Motivated We all have times when we know a task is important, and we just can’t ourselves to do it. For whatever reason, the motivation isn’t there, and anything: social media, television, staring at the wall, is more appealing. Obviously, we can’t spend all day watching tv and staring at the wall, …
