Perhaps you’ve heard the old saying that “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” And as a leading test prep expert and tutor, I’ve gotta say: those words definitely apply to preparing for the ACT or Digital SAT!
Indeed, before you even take that first step down the lengthy path that ends in a PHENOMENAL Digital SAT or ACT score (and admission to your top-pick college!), there’s one thing you need to do first. Think about it as consulting your map. That pre-step, if you will, is to assess the state of affairs: where your CURRENT abilities lie. You can’t improve upon your baseline if you don’t know what that baseline is.
In other words: you need to know how you’d do on the ACT or SAT if you were you to take it for real today!
ARTICLE CONTENTS
1. Video version of this article
2. Why should you take a diagnostic test?
3. Diagnostic Tests Do's and Don'ts
4. Conclusion
Watch this article as a video:
Why Should You Take a Diagnostic Test?
Fair question! There are four reasons why this is a crucial move for anyone who wants to get a fantastic score on their standardized test:
You likely need to first determine WHICH test—SAT or ACT?—you should put your (significant) efforts towards. After all (to continue our hiking analogy), you don’t want to start walking East when you should be walking West, right? So take my easy-breezy Which Test Should You Take? Quiz. Next….
You need to understand how you’re currently scoring, so you can calculate how much further you need to go before you hit your Target Score.
You need to have a known starting-point so you can notice and CELEBRATE any gains you make beyond that status quo. Observing and feeling good about your small victories will give you much-needed encouragement during the long slog of test prep! And finally…
You need to determine what exactly your strong points and weak spots are within the test. That’s the only way you can focus on improving what needs to be improved…without wasting time reviewing topics you’ve already mastered.
That’s a long list of “need-to’s,” but happily, there’s a reliable method of checking them ALL off your to-do list with one act. What is it? Well, you might have guessed from the title that I feel this way, but…
You need to take a diagnostic SAT or ACT test!
At this point, you might already be convinced that diagnostic testing is a good idea! So why should you keep reading this post? Because are actually a lot of wrong ways to approach diagnostic testing. These little process errors in how you administer the test are actually a big deal: they can give you an inaccurate score, making the whole shebang a waste of time...or, even worse, pointing you in the wrong direction ith your test prep because you now have an INACCURATE idea of where you’re already “at” with your chosen test.
But that sad fate will NOT be yours—because you have a seasoned test prep master on your side to make sure you wield your diagnostic test the way it’s meant to be wielded. The way that gets you information you can trust and build a testing timeline on!
So without further ado, here are the DOs and DON’Ts of diagnostic testing.
Diagnostic Tests Do's and Don'ts
DO take an official practice test. I’ve linked all those tests for you in one handy place, right here! In the case of the ACT, what you’ll be taking the publicly-available version of the ACT’s new test format, made available by ACTStudent.org.
When it comes to the Digital SAT, the College Board has NOT yet made old tests available, but it HAS written seven practice tests, and you can take them on your own computer by downloading the BlueBook App. (Yes, the College board also published a physical book of practice tests, but those tests are the SAME that appear in BlueBook! They just switch between giving you the "harder" and "easier" second modules for each section. As for the "Linear (nonadaptive)" practice tests on the College Board website: about 65% of the questions are directly from the official tests, with about 35% new questions. That said, a word to the wise: if you take them all, you definitely WILL have spoiled the real tests in BlueBook.)
DON’T take a test created from scratch by a test prep company (e.g. The Princeton Review or Kaplan, etc.). Such tests may be modeled off the genuine article, but they AREN’T the real thing! The balance of “easy” and “hard” questions might be off, and the scoring curve is only an estimate, not a real score curve.
(Note: if you go the BlueBook / Digital SAT practice test route, you ALSO won't exactly know how your performance stacks up again a real past grading rubric…because it isn’t a real test that real students took in large numbers! But you’ll still be using the best possible approximation of real test questions and conditions, issued directly from the horse’s/College Board’s mouth.)
DO take a full-length ACT and/or Digital SAT, with all the sections, in order.
DON’T take a shortened version of the ACT or SAT. That would be like sprinting 200 meters and then assuming you’d finish a marathon at the same pace. These tests assess your content knowledge and facility with certain strategies, sure, but they also measure your endurance and your ability to be accurate when you’re fatigued and bored!
DO take your diagnostic SAT or ACT in the morning to recreate real testing conditions.
DON’T take your diagnostic SAT or ACT in the afternoon or evening. This isn’t when you’d take the real one, and your alertness can vary drastically at different times of the day! It’s not a fair comparison to take a diagnostic at, say, 1pm when you might be at your best...and then assume you’d do just as well at 8am (especially if you’re a night owl—or, y’know, an average teenager—who tends to feel groggy in the mornings).
DO time your diagnostic SAT or ACT...in accordance to your time allotment! If you have regular time, you’ll follow the directions on the test. If you have “extended time” (time and a half), double or triple time, you’ll time yourself according to your specific requirements. (If you need the exact details on how long you should get for each section, I’ve listed that out for you here.)
DON’T take your diagnostic tests untimed! This will not reflect your true ability AT ALL!
DO get a parent, sibling, or pal to time you if you’re taking the ACT…or if you don’t have a Bluebook-compatible device and so have to take a paper (aka Linear or Non-adaptive) SAT practice test. If you live close to a testing center, you may even be able to pay for an option where you take a diagnostic test with a proctor keeping time for you.
If you’re taking one of the seven Digital SAT practice tests on BlueBook, that app times you automatically, so no need for an external way of keeping time!
DON’T keep time for yourself (if you’re taking a diagnostic ACT or Linear/nonadaptive SAT)! It can be surprisingly stressful simply having someone else holding the stopwatch and yelling “TIME!”….and we need to replicate those same nerves to get a sense of how test anxiety might affect you. Better to find out now that your mind goes blank as a snowstorm when you’re anxious than to find out in the middle of the ACTUAL exam! (And if you feel like test anxiety might be impacting your score on SAT, ACT, IB, AP, or school tests…my Testing Confidence course will help you become a way more zen, and thus higher-scoring, test-taker.)
DO complete the entire test in one sitting...unless you have a special accommodation that allows you to split up your test over multiple days (and then, follow THOSE rules as closely as possible in your mock test).
DON’T split up the test and take a section or two today and a section or two tomorrow, etc. Remember, it’s not just about how well you answer Science questions...it’s about how well you answer Science Qs AFTER you spent hours doing English, Math and Reading!
DO take breaks exclusively when you’d take a real break on the real test. (The BlueBook app will administer these breaks automatically; for other tests, I include a rundown of exactly when you’re allowed official breaks on my diagnostic test page.)
DON’T take breaks whenever you feel like it.
DO take your diagnostic test under physical conditions resembling the real ones as possible: quiet environment, no distractions/screens, no talking, sit at a desk or table, no food or drinks besides water.
DON’T take your diagnostic test in a “comfortable” environment—this will be NOTHING like the real test, so it won’t get you to replicate how you’d act on the real day. So, NO lying on your stomach in bed to take the test, NO eating or drinking, NO interruptions to take breaks, NO phone, NO screens, NO talking.
Conclusion
Now, I know those were quite a few “dos” and “don’ts.” But it’s important that you learn how to make the most effective possible use of the diagnostic tests available to you—remember that they are a FINITE and thus PRECIOUS resource!
For now, use these tips to launch you into your SAT and ACT prep—because a diagnostic test, when you take it right, is the best start you can possibly give yourself!
Hungry for more info about diagnostic testing? I provide you with full instructions AND access to the official diagnostic tests for both the Digital SAT and ACT on my diagnostic testing page.
And if you need help fine-tuning the details of your diagnostic test—or help setting up the testing game plan or timeline that sets you on the path to success and your dream school—you can contact me here.
