Maybe you’ve heard it before: “XYZ is a marathon, not a sprint.” Well, college applications and test prep very much fit into that category, especially during your Junior year. Perhaps more so than any other project you’ve faced thus far in your young life!
11th grade will likely bring you your most intense academic load yet, your densest pile of club/sports/other extracurricular responsibilities, and possibly a few jobs or internships in there, too—all while you also take the SAT or ACT one or more times, create and whittle down a college list, travel to visit campuses, and start thinking about your application essays. Whoa. It can be a bit daunting to see it all written out like that!
And, yes: in terms of sheer numbers of hours, you WILL have more irons in the fire during this period than you did sophomore or freshman year! But that doesn’t mean you have to melt down, mess up, or burn out. In fact, with a few key mental reframes, and a few small tweaks to your everyday routine, you can crush this busy year and a half—by working intelligently and steadily, not fearfully and erratically.
Today I’m going to show you HOW to sustain that productive but calm flow state. Below, I’m sharing with you six of the major interventions I help my private SAT/ACT tutoring clients implement. This set of mental reframes and healthy habits materially improve my students’ wellness and energy during this frenetic time of life, and they’ll improve yours, too.
(And…pssst…it’s proven: when your wellness and energy are great, so are your test scores!)
Article Contents
1. Watch this article as a video instead
2. Mindset shifts
A. Count college apps and test prep in your course load
B. Return to the fact that this period is temporary
C. Build your calendar around your busy periods
3. Habit shifts
B. Treat your body with respect
C. Prioritize sleep (even if no one else around you does)
8. Conclusion
View this post as a video:
Mindset Shift #1: Manage Junior Year Stress by factoring Test Prep and College Applications into Your Courseload
You’re going to treat these new, extra responsibilities as if you signed up for two additional year-long classes: “Test Prep” and “College Applications.”
Each of these special “classes” will take the same amount of time and work as a regular class, like Spanish or Bio. Sure, you won’t get a grade for Test Prep and College Applications (though you will eventually get a score…and an acceptance/waitlist/rejection!). Nor will you have “homework” and “due dates” the same way you would for a regular 11th-grade course.
But if you think about it, you actually do have homework:
You’ll have content and strategy problems and sections to do for “Test Prep” leading up to the due date that is your SAT or ACT sitting.
For “College Applications,” you’ll need to research colleges, visit them, and use that information to hone your list.
Only by staying on top of those smaller “quizzes” and “projects” will you be able to get into the upper-level course senior year: actually drafting your applications and submitting them by the deadlines.
Just as some people consult a tutor for help with their academic classes in school, you can also seek help in managing these tasks and completing them well and in time! The advantage of working with a test prep guru like myself is that she can take over the big-picture planning of what you need to do for your “Test Prep,” and when. She can create a timeline for you, give you smaller assignments along the way that build your skills, and get you 100% ready for Test Day. (In fact, that’s exactly what we’ll do if you opt for one of my Ace the Test: Game Plan sessions!)
Likewise, a college counselor can do the same for your “College Applications” course: help you write up your working college list, help you schedule your visits to those campuses (and get the most out of them), provide you with mini-deadlines so that you complete your application essays before they’re really due, and even assist you with financial aid applications and finding scholarships.
Mindset Shift #2: Stay Calm during the College Process by Remembering Now is NOT Forever
This one can be hard to really feel in your bones when you’re in the intense middle of the year, so you’ll have to revisit this reminder often! (Maybe write it on a post-it and stick it above your desk? Seriously.) But it’s true: as much as you might feel like a panicked duck struggling to stay afloat of your two extra “classes” this year, know that this is a FINITE period of time. It’s a junior and senior year of high school thing, then it’s over.
Sure: you’ll probably have to cut back on time with your friends and unscheduled stretches of relaxation. Sure: you may long to throw in the towel towards the end of 11th grade, when your final exams stack up on top of the ACT, SAT, APs, and other exams (Regents, IB, etc.).
However, if you can take a deep breath and try to feel the truth of this—that this period is a once-in-a-lifetime guantlet that you only need to make it through ONCE as a human—you can plan for it and nail it instead of fearing and loathing it.
Planning ahead doesn’t just make the process itself way more bite-sized and manageable—it also helps you remember that the whole process is going to end. One day you'll have time to chill again, I promise. And the end of your senior year will be all the more fun because you’ll really appreciate your new free time (and be headed to a college you’re psyched about!).
Mindset Shift #3: Self-Care Means Building Your Calendar Around Your Busy Periods
Do you happen to know ahead of time that you’ll be totally booked in November and December during the annual dance recital, for which you’ll be choreographing two numbers and dancing in three? Or does baseball season really ramp up after Spring Break, in early April?
Don’t let busy seasons—which often occur the same time every year and are thus predictable—sneak up on you. Instead, recognize the fact that you’re not going to be able to put as much time towards your “College Applications” and “Test Prep” “classes” during those times….and develop a plan that will allow you to finish the necessary work for them during your less crammed months and weeks.
In other words, instead of saying to yourself, “Phew! I don’t have as much to do for Model UN or cross-country right now. Guess I’ll catch up on Netflix,” try this: “Phew! I don’t have as much to do for Model UN or cross-country right now. Guess I’ll get a head start on the work I need to do for Test Prep and College Applications so I DON’T have to pull all-nighters when I’m crazy busy in a few weeks!” (Speaking of all-nighters: more on sleep in a minute.)
Give this gift to your future self. You’ll appreciate it when those sprint periods are upon you, believe me.
Habit Shift #1: Make Time for Exercise.
Even 10 minutes of cardio—as in, jogging, cycling, swimming, or even dancing like a maniac to your favorite tunes in your bedroom—has multiple boons. But for you, a high school junior or senior, these are the pros that matter the most:
Exercise radically defuses stress! It noticeably lowers the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in your body, helping you feel less tense.
Exercise also releases feel-good hormones and endorphins in your body, meaning your mood really does improve. (Ever heard of the “runner’s high”? It’s a real, wonderful thing—and you can get it from those other types of cardio, too!)
Exercise is one of the most predictable and immediate “state changes” available to you. Feeling down? Tired? Unmotivated? Launch into some jumping jacks or hit the elliptical. Just 10 minutes later, you won’t even remember how grumpy you were feeling before you laced up your tennis shoes.
Exercise brings some of the same effects as meditation. Moving your body forces you to get out of your head—which might be buzzing with all manner of negative “Ugh who cares?” and “I hate this year!” thoughts. In other words, if you’re mentally dialing in on that next breaststroke or perfecting the your free throw, you have no mental capacity for stressing about your SAT score. Your brain gets a break…meaning it gets the recharge it needs to work effectively again once you return to your test prep or homework.
Habit Shift #2: Respect Your Own Body
In brief: you need to be careful about what goes in to your body and mind so you can help make sure only good things (for instance, a 35 on the ACT or a 1570 on the SAT) come out. That means that, yes, you need to actually eat fruits and veggies to make sure you get the vitamins and micro-nutrients your brain needs to function at a high level. Whole foods actually make you feel better, too, unlike that Kit-kat Bar (and its ensuing sugar crash) that you might instinctively reach for after 4th period.
A NOTE ABOUT DRUGS AND ALCOHOL: As a test prep expert, I’d like you to seriously consider consciously opting out of substance use during high school—not because you're an evil person if you don't, but because it distinctly messes up your test prep timeline and college dreams!
It takes several hours for your body to process alcohol and drugs—sometimes even days!—so in essence, you destroy that quantity of time. If you thought you were busy before you squandered your whole Sunday with a hangover, you’ll really have to scramble to catch up now. And your scores and grades will suffer as a result.
In addition, alcohol and drugs kill brain cells, water down your focus, and slow the formation of synapses in your brain. It should seem obvious that it’s NOT a good idea to mess with your brain chemistry when you desperately need your brain in A+ shape for the next couple years. Getting into college is a big, important step—don’t mess up your next four years (and future after that) just because your peers were pressuring you to do so.
Habit Shift #3: Prioritize Sleep. Seriously.
I know you’ve heard this one before, perhaps from every adult in your life. But this cliché really is true: you need to sleep well during your junior and senior years if you’re going to perform at a high level. We’re talking 7-9 hours of shuteye every night. That number might be higher than what you’re currently getting—but it’s a necessity, not a luxury.
Please learn from my bad example: I used to NOT get enough sleep during MY junior year of high school. I was so obsessed with my coursework and math competitions and piano and flute and side projects that I distinctly remember thinking that sleep was a “waste of time." But then, thanks to my fatigue-impeded immune system, I got mono…and was out of school for HALF A MONTH! Talk about wasted time and having to play catch-up!
Even after the mono, I started getting awful migraines…almost every day. Those DEFINITELY hampered my ability to do homework (or, really, much of anything).
My poor mom was so frightened. She thought I might have a brain tumor and took me to a neurologist. After several tests, the good doctor finally asked me how much sleep I got. He almost tumbled out of his seat when I said, “8 hours on weekends, and between 2-3 hours on weekdays.” Turns out, that’s NOT a lot of sleep. And it didn’t take a detective to figure out that severe fatigue had either caused or worsened my mono AND my migraines. Please…don’t be like me.
In some schools, it can become a bit of a bragging right to talk about how little you’re sleeping. But seeming hardcore (and having your grades/scores suffer) isn’t as cool as actually being hardcore (getting enough sleep so you can earn the top grades/scores in the class). YOU can choose to make time for sleep, even if the other kids around you don’t.
Conclusion
So hopefully, you’ve now got a better grasp on how to use your precious time and energy over the course of the next couple years…AND understand how to properly take care of your mind and body so that it can help you grab the test scores and college admissions you deserve!
If you find yourself hungry for more tips for the challenging year(s) ahead, or maybe even a custom month-by-month schedule (and personal accountability and guidance during each of those months!), reach out to learn more about working together.
