Imagine, if you will, a gut punch that many standardized test takers experience. Perhaps you’ve been on the receiving end of this unpleasant experience yourself!:
Until yesterday, you were actually excited about taking the ACT or SAT—or, at the very least, simply looking forward to having it done and dusted! You’ve been carefully learning all the subject matter, strategies, and testing techniques recommended by the prep books. You’ve poured MONTHS into this thing. And you’re feeling good about your odds.
And then, a nasty twist: last night you took a practice test…and totally whiffed it.
We’re not talking minor errors, here. You flunked big time. Maybe you didn’t finish the reading section in time, maybe you totally forgot everything you used to know about compound ratios, or maybe you drew a complete blank when you hit an Experimental Design question in the ACT Science section.
Whatever the specifics, this was by far the worst SAT or ACT you’ve ever taken! Your final number was somehow even lower than your diagnostic test, which you took EONS ago, before you’d even studied. You’re feeling so down on yourself—how are you supposed to attack the REAL test with the energy you need next week?!
If only I had a matcha latte for every time I hear some version of this from one of my SAT/ACT tutoring clients (or their anxious parent), I’d never have to buy myself a green-colored treat again!
But seriously, after over a decade of being a top-ranking test prep expert in New York City, I can coach you right now through the thought process that will help you breathe easily again. Here’s what you need to know and do if you bomb a practice test.
Article Contents
1) Remember: this happens to most students.
3) Take this as an opportunity to increase your score.
4) Stay the course (probably).
5) Conclusion
1) Remember how common it is to bomb a practice test.
EVERYBODY—and I do mean everybody, like Every. Single. Student. Including the one who eventually snags a 1600 or 36—will at some point have a real clunker of a practice test. In fact, it’s so par for the course for me at this point as a tutor to many brilliant teens that instead of wondering if Student XYZ will have a rough practice test, I simply wonder when Student XYZ will have a rough practice test!
It’s all part of the rollercoaster of test prep. And I know it’s easier said than done, but this is one of those times that you should take the expert’s word for it: one bummer result does NOT mean you’ll tank the real thing.
2) Be glad you screwed up the rehearsal instead of the real performance.
Since, as #1 asserts, everyone at some point messes up a practice SAT or ACT, if you can get YOUR worst score yet in the comfort of your own home/practice test center—instead of ON THE ACTUAL TEST DAY—you are actually avoiding the actual unfortunate scenario. Be happy you fell on your face when it didn’t count!
3) The lessons you can learn from a bad practice test can actually HELP you land a killer score on your REAL test day.
Here’s the bright side to a very bad practice test—and I’m drawing on experience, here, not being naively optimistic, I promise. A low score on a trial run is pretty much the only way to diagnose and address any triggers that might make you nervous, give you test anxiety, or otherwise throw you off your game.
Did your watch break? Did your calculator die? Did you forget to eat breakfast? Did you eat the wrong type of breakfast? Did you not do your morning routine to fully wake up and warm up before taking the test? Did you go to sleep too late the night before? Did you get distracted by yesterday’s friend drama, or by something in the surrounding physical environment?
Pause and consider which factors may have contributed to your banana-peel-slip of a practice test, so you can correct them before the REAL test day. Even just being aware of some ways that you react to distraction, anxiety, etc. can give you the opportunity to intervene in those reactions—and prevent them from damaging your actual score.
4) Do not jump to the conclusion that you must now change your test prep approach.
So many times, students and parents assume that one bad practice test means that something’s wrong with the overall path they’re on. But take it from someone who’s designed successful test prep strategies for sixteen years: it doesn’t (necessarily, probably).
Getting one less-than-great practice score and throwing your plan out the window is like investing in the stock market for the long term and then totally redesigning your portfolio because your account value took a dip one week. Trust me: you want to stay the course, not introduce unnecessary chaos into your testing timeline.
The thing is, one (or more!) “bad” practice test(s) should be planned for in any testing timeline worth its salt (I always plan for them in the timelines I make for my students!). See, most test prep experts know that it’s quite normal for a student to get a little worse because of the “cognitive load” of learning new material before the concepts and strategies come together and his scores start to rise again.
Conclusion
Don’t let one bad test make you forget about all the real progress you’ve made! Stick to your plan. Hold your head high.
If you’re working with a true expert who’s guided hundreds of students down this path successfully, know you’re in good hands….and try to take the lows with a grain of salt, because they’re actually part of what gets you to the highs (and high scores). And if you’re in need of just such a highly seasoned test prep expert, learn about my tutoring packages here.
