by Erica L. Meltzer | Nov 8, 2011 | Blog, The Mental Game
I’m the first person to admit that I have a terrible short-term memory. Terrible. I think it used to be halfway decent, but then my senior year of college hit, and that was that. Now it isn’t uncommon for me to get halfway through a sentence and drift off halfway through, unable to recall the point I was attempting to make.
This happens with alarming frequency when I’m tutoring, at which point I typically ask my student what I was saying. What really disturbs me, however, is that most of the time my student can’t remember what I was saying either. I’m sorry, but you just shouldn’t be losing your memory at sixteen. You have the entire rest of your life for that to happen. Besides, you need to have something to look forward to in middle age! (more…)
by Erica L. Meltzer | Sep 6, 2011 | Blog, The Mental Game
Given the amount of weight admissions officers give to standardized test scores, I realize that everyone not applying only to test-optional schools is therefore entitled to a reasonable amount of stress over them. Yes, they count for a lot, and having to deal with them can be exhausting and overwhelming when piled on top of everything else the average high school junior or senior is trying to accomplish. What concerns me, though, is the tendency to confuse worrying (and talking) compulsively about the SAT with getting a good score on it.
If I may play armchair psychologist for a moment, I think that all that talking serves a distinct purpose, namely that it creates the illusion of control. If you can expound upon every last thing that could possibly be on the test (and, of course, the distribution of “hard” and “easy” tests throughout the year), then you can beat it. And thus the more you expound on it, the better you’re likely to do.
Only it doesn’t quite work that way. (more…)
by Erica L. Meltzer | Sep 3, 2011 | Blog, The Mental Game
One of the things that inevitably drives me crazy is when a student proudly announces to me that he or she is determined to take the SAT in a particular month because that’s when either 1) the test is always easier, or 2) that’s when all the stupid people take it, and so of course they’ll beat the curve that way.
Newsflash: the SAT is a *standardized* test. If the test is on the harder side, the curve will adjust accordingly and be a bit more generous. If the test is easier, the curve will be harsher. And without significant work on their weakest areas, most people will repeatedly score within the same 20 or 30 point-range — regardless of how easy or difficult they perceive a particular test to be.
Besides, you are not just competing against the math whiz in your physics class (she’s taking it in November, so clearly that’s going to blow the curve!) or the moron in Spanish (well he’s taking it in June, so that must be when all the dumb people take it). You are competing against the hundreds of thousands of people taking it in Iowa and Mississippi and Alaska, not to mention Singapore and Sao Paolo, many of whom will have had very minimal prep and who will thus keep the average pulling toward about 500 across the board. Forget about “smart” juniors taking and early and “dumb” seniors taking it late. So many people take the test each time it’s offered that the average is always going to be about the same.
If you’re more concerned with trying to pull tricks that’ll give you a tiny little leg up on your classmates than with actually learning the material, you’re wasting your time. Tricks don’t get you to a top score, only knowledge and a willingness to be utterly, ruthlessly meticulous about your work. If you’re spending your time trying to figure out the easiest month to take the SAT, that’s a sign that your skills might not actually be solid enough to get you the kind of score you want.
Every single kid I’ve worked with who wanted to focus on these kinds of easy outs at the expense of getting to the root of their problems 1) did in fact have some form of underlying weakness that they didn’t want to address, and 2) consistently failed to make the kind of improvement they wanted. The kids who get the very top scores — the ones for whom a 770 CR constitutes a bad day — don’t spend their time worrying about those things. Their skills are so strong that it doesn’t really matter whether most people think that the test is “hard” or “easy.” If you want to be seriously competitive with them, you need to focus on getting yourself to that point as well. The other stuff…well, it’s peripheral at best.
by Erica L. Meltzer | Jun 16, 2011 | Blog, The Mental Game
I used to use the words “zen” and “test prep” in the same sentence only in the most tongue-in-cheek manner, but I’ve been thinking about it seriously of late, and I actually think there’s a connection.
First, though, lest you think I’ve gotten all new-agey, let me make it clear that I am not talking about meditating in order to get yourself in test-taking mode or reduce your anxiety or anything of that ilk. There are test-prep companies that do that sort of thing, but I’ll refrain from voicing my opinion about them. Suffice it to say that I am a firm believer in the principle that the best way to reduce test anxiety is simply to master the material on the test.
What I’m talking about is the attitude with which you approach the entire test-preparation process. One of the things I’ve noticed is that students who come to me knowing that they have big gaps in their knowledge and that they don’t really know what they’re doing tend to end up with higher scores in the long run than students who come to me with relatively high scores, convinced that they only have to find the one trick that’ll make everything perfect. (more…)
by Erica L. Meltzer | May 30, 2011 | Blog, General Tips, The Mental Game
I understand that for most high school juniors and (especially) seniors, the words “SAT” or “ACT” and “happy” have absolutely no business appearing in the same sentence. But please hear me out. I recognize that I’m speaking strictly anecdotally and from limited personal experience, but I seriously think this idea has some merit.
Two quick stories: one of my students who had already taken the SAT twice — and not scored as well as he could have because of serious anxiety — took his third test as a last-ditch effort the day after he was accepted early evaluation (non-binding) to his backup school. He was unbelievably relieved that he had actually managed to get into college somewhere, and when he took the test, he was practically walking on air. With zero studying between that test and the previous one, he went up 130 points.
Another one of my students whose practice-exam scores had been all over the place took the SAT for real the day of a championship soccer game. He was so excited to go play that he didn’t give himself the chance to get nervous about the test — and ended up with his best score ever.
To be sure, my students would not have been able to raise their scores by so many points had they not had the necessary skills to begin with; however, their experiences taught me a major lesson about test psychology. The more stressed out you are about a test going into it, the more likely you’ll start to panic and second-guess yourself, and the less likely you’ll be able to focus and work through things slowly and calmly — which is what prevents you from making the kinds of careless, panicky mistakes that can drag your score down. In retrospect that’s seems obvious, but it’s very easy to get caught up in “omigod I have to improve my score or I’ll never get into xyz college” mentality and lose sight of everything else.
So the day you take the exam, try to plan something fun for afterward. Give yourself something to look forward to so that not everything is about the test. You’ll thank yourself later.
by Erica L. Meltzer | Feb 20, 2010 | Blog, General Tips, The Mental Game, Uncategorized
One of the most-common issues that many SAT-takers face, particularly in Critical Reading, is the seeming randomness of many of the answers. While I do agree that the College Board occasionally does in fact come up with a set of answers choices that are uniformly awful, this is actually a pretty rare occurrence.
I say this because I have had countless conversations with students about why their (incorrect) answer was truly the right one, or why such-and-such answer could not possibly be correct. While I admire their conviction, my response, uttered from the bottom of my heart and with the greatest possible affection, is ‘Get Over It.’
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