Fact #1 In life you will find that there will be a number of things you don’t want to do. While you will be an adult and will have the freedom to make your own decisions, you’re still going to need to get a job, pay bills, mow the lawn, and do the dishes. (Read: you’re going to need to have a work ethic.)

Fact #2 When you have a job, whether you work for yourself or someone else, if you aren’t a self-starter—even when the project is sooooo boring—you’re going to either lose your job or stay in the same stinkin’ position until the end of time.

Fact #3 While your parents may pay attention to your grades and homework now, the only person who is going to notice the grades you make as an adult—as measured in your personal satisfaction with your career and the number of dollars in your bank account—will be you.

What does this have to do with test prep?

Fact #4 It’s not a big secret that preparing for a standardized test is not as fun as riding your bike, playing a video game, watching television, cooking dinner, mowing the lawn, cleaning the bathroom, changing the oil in your Grandma’s car…. Ok, you get the idea. Studying for these tests, while they do have their creative moments, isn’t usually going to be the activity you most look forward to during the day.

Fact #5 It doesn’t matter that it isn’t fun. Lots of things that aren’t necessarily fun lead to great things: sweating it out at the gym leads to great muscles, running sprints at practice means speed to outrun your opponent when you need it, and cleaning out the car means you won’t be mortified on your date on Friday night.

Fact #6 Sometimes, it’s not even the immediate result that is most important; instead, it’s the opportunity you create for yourself in the long run—opportunities you may not yet even realize exist. What does this mean? Well, to be direct, your SAT or ACT score is totally pointless if you don’t see it as a key to get you through the door of your dream school, even if you don’t yet know what your dream school is.

The moral here is that the amount of studying you do for the SAT or ACT today, that one extra vocabulary word you learn or the geometry rule you memorize, can directly influence the number of doors that will be opened to you after you send in those applications.

On those days where you’d rather give Fluffy a bath than do another flash card or practice test, just remember that drudgework today is just an investment in opportunity tomorrow.

As a millennial, you have some distinct advantages: you’ve grown up in a home with a computer, you’ve got access to information that used to take major trips to the library to discover, and you can stay connected wherever you are, twenty four hours a day.

The disadvantage: you’re blipped out. You’re the sound byte generation. You can’t focus. You bore easily. You’re antsy. You’re not very likely to read this article in its entirety.

This all puts you at a natural disadvantage for surviving the mega tests that are the SAT and ACT.

So what do you do? Well, I’ll tell you, but you’re probably not going to like it. The best thing you can do for your concentration is to get away from the computer. Seriously. Stop obsessively checking your friends’ Facebook statuses, leave Twitter alone for a while, and press the pause button on YouTube. Step away from the screen. Moreover, once you’ve done that, don’t head for the television; head outside.

Ride your bicycle. Play sports. Start a weekly yoga regimen and stick with it.

Read a book for fun, and don’t put it down when you notice your mind wandering. Go back and read the section you missed again. Keep it up! Work up to getting absorbed in a book for one to two hours at a time.

Seriously? Yes. Seriously.

You will probably also want to take a look at what you’re eating. While low carb eating was a big fad ten years ago, foods with a low glycemic index are definitely the way to go. If you’re loading up on sugar and refined carbohydrates (cheap sugars that make your blood sugar spike and plummet throughout the day), you’re certainly in the ruthless cycle of sugar rush and sugar coma.  I’ve got news for you: the words “coma” and “great test taking” aren’t used in tandem very often.

Specifically regarding studying: you’ll want to keep your desk area neat and clean. Turn off the radio. If you’re one of these people that can’t stand the quiet, you may want to check out Simply Noise, a web site that creates white noise to drown out distractions (I like the brown/red noise, personally).

Also, don’t wait until 11 o’clock to do your homework, because that’s when you’re tired. While you most likely would rather use your free energetic time after school to tool around hanging out with your friends, you’re far more likely to focus on and remember what you studied during those times. These are the harsh realities.

Concentration on Test Day

The thing about Test Day is that you’re not likely to turn into Captain Focus if you haven’t been training beforehand. Nevertheless, there are still a few things you can do:

1. Plan to take a mind clearing breath after a predetermined number of questions. If you know you’re someone that loses concentration or tends toward what I like to call the “I’m Never Getting Into College Freak Out,” you need to plan to take a deep breath every few minutes. It loosens you up and gets oxygen into your system. Yes, remembering to breathe helps.

2. Have a mantra. While your mantra doesn’t have to be “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and…,” it certainly can be! Your mantra needs to be something special to you, something personal that reminds you that you are prepared and you are smarter than the SAT. Even “I AM prepared” works. Pick something useful.

3. Take a snack. Just like your brain needs oxygen, hence the breathing, your brain needs fuel too. Since we already talked about the horrors of sugar addiction, you probably know I don’t want you to take a donut along. Take a banana and some peanut crackers (or some version of that) that you can eat quickly that won’t upset your stomach. Think a balance of carbs and protein (for energy) and fat (so that you’ll feel full and not obsess about lunch while doing the double reading passage.

4. Don’t Drink a Red Bull…unless you drink Red Bull every day, in which case, please do. The point here is don’t eat or drink on test day that you wouldn’t normally have. I know those no-crash energy drinks seem alluring, but Test Day is not the day to experiment.

If you’d like more info on the low attention spans of the millennial generation in particular, please check out this great book review on Salon.com.

Focus-building activities come wrapped in what may be surprising packages. While something as small as chewing gum can have an effect on focus/scoring, sometimes it’s worthwhile to invest in more significant and holistic treatment. In fact, Danielle Herb, a teen in Florida, has become an advocate for therapeutic horsemanship to address more significant forms of attention/focus problems, like ADD/ADHD and autism. She’s definitely worth checking out. 

Finding focus in a culture in which we are inundated with high-speed information has become increasingly more difficult. Take the time to consider why you may have trouble paying attention in school and get excited about the myriad ways to take control of the situation. You may be a couple pieces of Dentyne away from a higher test score and a more focused school experience. What a relief! 

If you have ways you cope with attention deficit–or even just tips on how you improve focus in your own study time–please comment!