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I’ve been in the test prep field for long enough now to be able to have seen about two complete high school student body turnovers. Amusingly enough, when I started prepping students for the SAT I was only a year or two out of college and still had a pretty decent sense of what was happening on the high school front.

Now, I don’t want to pull some sort of “in my day” spiel, but you should know that when I was in high school we didn’t have computers at the house and internet access was extremely limited (and, frankly, we really had no idea why we’d want to use it anyway). That being said, I’ll also admit that we watched a fair amount of television. Nevertheless, we spent a good deal of time reading recreationally. Anais Nin, On the Road, Jonathan Edwards–you name it and someone we knew was reading it. And now, well over a decade later, I will bet serious money on the following statement:

Kids–even the “smart” kids–just aren’t reading like they used to.

It’s a problem.

In the past week alone I’ve had to clarify the meaning of the following words for students hoping to attend Ivy League schools: timid, pedagogical, somber, polarized, consummate, equitable, and steadfast. [There are more but I'll spare you.] In no way do I mean to be condescending or to in any way poke fun at my students; instead I mean to Sound The Alarm.

In the world of educational chatter, “teaching to the test” and the limitations of what one can glean about a students’ intellect or college readiness from standardized testing are major issues–and a fair ones at that. However, I think we’re finally at the point where it’s not about the test anymore.

I don’t want to hear another word about how deeply unfair the SAT is until you can show me a culture of high school students who read quality literature for fun on a daily basis. Show me students who turn off YouTube and Hulu (and  Halo, for that matter) in favor of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell or The Kite Runner. Show me students who are working through House of Leaves for the fun of it (to date, I’ve had one dare to do so and, frankly, he loved it…. and now he’s at Williams) and I’ll show you a legion of college applicants that aren’t doing battle with the reading comprehension section on the SAT.

As a tutor I spend more time than ever teaching the rudiments of critical thinking–meaning, I spend many hours explaining one, the meanings of words, and two, why it’s so important that we be able to articulate definitions. (It’s quite difficult to compare the meaning and intention of two words–the building blocks of answer choices–when all you can say about each of them is “oh, you know, I know what it means, but it’s just so hard to say it!”)

I’m seeing fewer and fewer students knock the SAT Reading out of the ballpark and I’m going to stick my neck out and say that I don’t think it’s because I’ve spontaneously become a lousy teacher. So, teachers, parents, and my tutor colleagues: please, please, encourage your students to read more than you ever have before. And students, you heard it here first: if you don’t start reading challenging literature on a regular basis and discipline yourself to learn and articulate the meanings of new words as you come across them, your SAT score will suffer.

It’s as simple as that.

–Duke doesn’t actually suggest preparation for either test, so don’t feel enormously pressured to prepare. In fact, Duke TIP clearly states on the program’s site that they don’t want students to feel stressed when approaching the test, especially because stress on test day may have a negative impact on scores.

–However, if you do want to minimize test intimidation, your student may feel more empowered by actually seeing a copy of the SAT or ACT before test day just to know what she’s getting into. Free sample tests are available on both the College Board and ACT websites. Remember that the SAT does dock scores for incorrect answers—to score around a 500 on an SAT section, one needs to answer just over half the questions correctly and leave the rest of the test blank. Answering or guessing too zealously may be to your disadvantage. However, the ACT does not take off points for incorrect answers, so you want to encourage your student to select an answer for every question on the test (yes—Christmas Tree during the last five minutes).

Investigating the scoring rubrics in either The Official SAT Study Guide, 2nd edition
or The Real ACT Prep Guide: The Only Official Prep Guide From The Makers Of The ACT
can help you sort out how to earn the scores you need.

–Having your student take a practice test, even just at home at the kitchen table, can be helpful for selecting the best test for her. You may want to keep in mind that the SAT employs a far more robust vocabulary than the ACT, while the ACT includes a fast-paced Science Reasoning section that tests data-interpretation skills (rather than high-school level science).

– The Duke TIP cutoff scores are usually at or just above a 500 on each section of the SAT, which translates to roughly a 20 or 21 on the ACT.

–If you decide you do want to prepare your student, some of the faster, more learnable elements of both tests include Algebra, basic Geometry (not proofs, but rather understanding angles, lines, and degrees), and Grammar. Since you’re just out to collect as many correct points as possible, concentrating on a few specific topics may streamline the process of reaching the cutoff scores. Outsmarting the SAT was written for students to learn these concepts from the ground up, it’s a great option for basic skill-gathering for both the SAT and ACT; use it in conjunction with The Official SAT Study Guide, 2nd edition or The Real ACT Prep Guide: The Only Official Prep Guide From The Makers Of The ACT for real practice questions.

–We’re happy to help and congratulations on having such an accomplished child!

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.

This is my problem: since you all have been using your calculators since the 8^th grade—and sometimes even earlier, you’ve started thinking of your calculators as your outboard brains. As in, “if I can’t figure this out, maybe my calculator can.”

Moreover, I know you have all sorts of formulas and programs stuffed into those TI-89s that let you punch in a bunch of variables and then they spit out the answer for you, no thinking involved. I have students who read math problems with their calculators already in-hand, like weapons they’re about to draw or, worse, security blankets they can’t outgrow.

It’s a classic situation for me: I’m with a new student, he reaches for his calculator to solve some linear equation (or whatever), and I barge in.

Me: You don’t need your calculator.

Student: But I have the formula!

Me: I promise, it will actually be faster if you just do the problem on the page.

Student: But I can’t! I don’t know how! It’s in my calculator!

Usually, since I’m the boss in these situations, I win. (And that often means re-teaching students concepts long since forgotten, which is fine, since that’s my job.) But every now and then, even after the student has successfully solved the problem without a calculator, he retains some residual fear or frustration and thinks I am either insane, mean, or some sort of masochist.

The fact is that you can use your calculator on the SAT, and if you’re looking for a just-above-average SAT score, that’s fine. But if you’re looking to score with the top ten percent of kids, you have to get over it. Why?

Because your calculator isn’t any smarter than you are.

When I ask you to not use your calculator to solve a problem (and I don’t mean that I don’t want you to check your arithmetic on the calc’ if you’d like to), it’s not because I am mental and like things to be hard. Actually, training yourself to understand the simple concepts on the math section of the SAT (and ACT, frankly) will allow you to solve the most difficult questions on the section because you will understand how the math works instead of just how to punch it into your calculator.

The SAT people don’t care how well you use your calculator; they care how well you are able to apply math skills you learned in high school. Meaning you should have actually learned them. The most difficult math questions on the SAT test your ability to do math elegantly and quickly, which is–seriously—usually not done on your calculator. This is the same reason that I filled OUTSMARTING the SAT with math lessons rather than calculator tricks and shortcuts.

If you are so reliant on your calculator that you can’t do an entire SAT test without it, you need to challenge yourself to put it down while you practice and use it only for checking your arithmetic. Be brave. You can do it.

Your calculator will not help you. Seriously. Train your brain.

I recently realized that, whether you’re an accomplished student or not, that you may not really have a handle on the best way to prep for a standardized test. People argue back and forth about how “coachable” these tests may be, but there are two fundamental things you need to keep an eye out for while studying for either the ACT or SAT. This is one of my best-kept secret tactics. 

For every question you come across (and this is assuming you are using only real practice tests created by the test maker), you need to know what they asked how they asked the question. It’s fairly simple, really. Neither the SAT nor the ACT is a test of everything you learned in high school; instead, they test a finite number of facts/concepts and then test your knowledge or ability to apply them in different ways.

So, while you’re studying any SAT or ACT topic that fact-based (like grammar and math), this what you do for any question that gives you any sort of pause:

• Write down what you needed to know.

New formula? New grammatical construction? How functions work? Make sure you take notes on what you needed to know (and, most importantly, what you didn’t know) so you can make sure you don’t miss it again.

• Write down how they asked you about it.

Did they make the question a two-parter? Was the grammar something that “sounded right” that you might actually say but is, in fact, wrong? Did you miss an EXCEPT question? Did you overlook the different of perfect squares because you didn’t recognize it? Did you have to factor exponents in a way you never did in Algebra class?

Tracking these two simple elements is the key to unlocking and studying for any standardized test. Good luck!

Until now my general rule of thumb for practicing the reading passages on the SAT or ACT is “don’t read them aloud because you have to read silently during the test.” I’m all about practicality and doing things as they should be done, so I’ve always assumed this tactic made the most sense.

But sometimes I have to stop and rethink my strategies and this recent New York Times article has made me do a double take. One of the main tenets of my test prep tactics is based on a single concept: “I’m really good at standardized test; how can I share what I know with others?” Moreover, what are the experiences enhanced my natural test-taking ability and are they applicable to my students?

Reading this article, it hit me: reading aloud at my house wasn’t just something that my mother did with me when I was very young. We weren’t merely a bedtime story household. In fact, some of my favorite memories from my high school years involve hanging out with my mom, reading essays and articles to each other and laughing ourselves to tears.  We read Russell Baker, E.B. White, and George Will to each and talked about what we read. (Yes, seriously.)

The fact is that learning to read with nuance fosters not only an understanding of others’ work but also the ability to edit one’s own work efficiently and masterfully. Practicing communicating—conveying meaning—is integral to developing the very comprehension that the SAT in particular* tests.

What does this mean for us? Well for me and my students it means that we’re going to be doing a lot more reading aloud, and I’m going to be nitpicking their inflection and cadence to more carefully notice when they’ve lost their purpose. For students reading this it means it’s time to start reading out loud, whether to your friend or your family. If you find a funny article online on a magazine, share it with your friends by reading a paragraph or two to them rather than just handing them the magazine. When you’re hanging out on the beach this summer vacation share that funny bit you just read in your beach book.

Join the debate club. Get involved in theater. Consider being part of the literary magazine or yearbook at your school—most clubs that involve writing will involve reading aloud. Most importantly, get in the habit of reading material on a variety of subjects aloud into your daily life. Prioritize it, and you should see your scores increase.

*I say SAT in particular because the ACT’s reading passages are more geared toward testing attention to detail rather than nuance, intention, and implication of the passage itself.