Want to Raise Your Scores? Stop Using Your Smart-Person Brain.

Most students head into test day ready to think smart and work hard. After all, they’re about to take a test that will determine, in part, which college they get to go to. This is a test for smart people, and, therefore, you have to have smart thoughts.

These students are horribly misguided and flat out wrong. Sort of.

Huh?

Not to brag, but I have an English degree. I graduated cum laude and taught English/Language Arts in the classroom for years.

However, I don’t go into the English and Writing sections looking for participles, compound-complex sentences, or past perfect continuous tense verbs.

On each punctuation question, my only thought is “sentence” or “not sentence.” If you can tell a “sentence” from a “not sentence,” you too can get every single punctuation question right. Most grammar questions are matching games: follow the pattern that’s set up elsewhere in the sentence or paragraph. Questions about main ideas mostly involve skimming down the page to see what words and concepts come up repeatedly.

On the Reading section, I’m just doing a word search to find words and phrases from the question stem or answers in the actual passage. It’s a first- or second-grade skill. If you’re trying to dissect the passage to find deep, hidden meanings, you’re probably missing a lot of questions.

On the Math and Science passages, I’m dumbing things down into small, simple steps that I know how to do instead of letting myself get overwhelmed by the question as a whole.

Why?

The test makers know how students have been trained to work. If they write a test that complements the skills students already have, then everyone would get high scores. If everyone gets high scores, then the test can no longer claim to predict students’ performance.

So the test makers exploit students who are willing to work hard on test day. Many students have found success using this method, but most find that they plateau at some point.

I prefer my students to work hard in the months and weeks leading up to test day so that they can work less hard on test day. I mean, who wants to work all-out for 3-4 hours on a Saturday morning?

If you’re tired of working too hard on test day, it’s time to switch up your approach.