Slow and Steady Wins the Standardized Testing Race

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We’ve posted before about what to do when your standardized test scores surprise you—not in the good way. If you were disappointed with your fall SAT or ACT results, we hope you’ll channel your energy in a positive direction and redouble your efforts over the next few months. Every SAT or ACT you take gets easier from experience, and if you put in a regular effort executing a well-planning routine of study and practice, you can reasonably expect to go up.

There’s one thing I can tell you with certainty from more than 30 years of prepping students for college entrance exams: ALL students of the test can get the numbers they’re looking for IF they’re willing to put in the time and effort. That’s right. High scores are not reserved for the natural prodigies and bookish brainiacs; being neither of those myself, I know this from personal as well as professional experience. ANYBODY can get great scores if they’re willing to do the reps. Some may have to work harder than others, to be sure, but great scores are there for everyone’s taking.

In his super-interesting book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell asks why some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential. One of the main reasons, he finds, has to do with old-fashioned sweat equity, what Thomas Edison meant when he said, “Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” In the chapter entitled “10,000 hours,” Gladwell discovers 10,000 is the magic number of hours that aspiring musicians, for example (Gladwell examines the Beatles), typically hit en route to becoming world-class and world-famous artists. “The closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play.” Applied to standardized test means the tortoise can beat the hare with enough hours of steadily plodding forward. And don’t worry, the magic number of hours is much more manageable for becoming a world-class standardized test taker; but rest assured, everyone has a magic number that virtually guarantees success!

It’s analogous to getting into great physical shape. I remember back in the day when you’d see an athlete all ripped up, six-pack abs–you know what I’m talking about–and think, wow, that dude or dudette probably spends half their life in the gym. Not necessarily so. Today, it’s pretty much common knowledge that a regular daily routine of diet and exercise yields great results. It’s commitment to the daily discipline that does the trick.

For years at CollegePrepExpress, we’ve been promoting a regular routine of taking practice tests under simulated test conditions and studying the specific, finite bodies of material covered on the SATs and ACTs, specifically math facts and problem-solving concepts and grammar rules and applications, and time management and general testing skills. 25-30 min every night, six to seven nights a week, over two to six months (I myself need 4 1/2 months to get where I wanted to be), and BAM, you’re going to the college of YOUR CHOICE. Slow and steady wins the college entrance exam race.

If you let us be your personal trainer and we’ll get you on a program of daily to-dos, including highly condensed materials for you to master as your scores take off for the stratosphere. We have also recently launched a DESIGN YOUR OWN SAT CLASS SCHEDULE and DESIGN YOUR OWN ACT CLASS SCHEDULE, to accommodate even the busiest students. Commit NOW to a regular routine of practice and study, practice and study, practice and study—wash, rinse, repeat—and the entire application process gets a whole lot easier.

We’re here to help ;-).