This post is about a misfortune that, I sincerely hope, never happens to you.
While it might sound like the stuff of nightmares to wake up feeling sick (or just seriously, unshakably off) on a morning as significant as your SAT or ACT test date…the universe can sometimes have a weird sense of humor.
Still, it need not be the end of the world if this happens to you—as long as you know how to react. And that’s what I’ll explain today: your mental game plan, should the going get tough on test day.
Article Contents
1. Video version of this article
2. What to do if you’re suddenly ill on test day
3. Other things that can go wrong at the testing center
4. When things go wrong on test day: two reframes
5. Conclusion
Watch this article as a video:
Suddenly Ill on Test Day
Let’s say it’s Junior year, and you’ve spent quite a bit of time prepping for the ACT or Digital SAT. On top of your honors and AP classes, and your leadership positions in various sports, performing arts, and volunteer roles, you’ve ALSO had to find time in your schedule for weekly standardized test tutoring sessions and related studying. It hasn’t been easy, to say the least.
But you prevailed and finally got your Math topics down pat—from Algebra to Geometry and Trig. You strengthened your grammar chops. You learned the right pacing for the Reading and/or Science sections. You even drilled Vocab in Context or “Big Picture” questions.
You learned to deploy all of these different pieces of info, took practice tests, then took mock tests. And when test day finally arrived…you STILL got a really, really rough score. Like, way below where you need to be.
Perhaps you were taking the ACT. Everything was going as planned until you opened up the Reading section and just could not for the life of you comprehend the double passage about abolitionism—at least, you think that’s what it was about. This Social Science passage gobbled up more time than the 8:45 you were supposed to spend on it, so you had to guess on the last 5 questions of the section.
Your confidence now totally shot, you entered the Science section feeling like a giant ball of anxiety, and forgot to practice your ”Three Points of Contact” to calm down. You couldn’t stay focused there, either. Half of your attention still stuck on the abolitionists, you all but gave up towards the end, guessing on several questions in this section as well.
Or perhaps you were taking the SAT. You’d been feeling sick to your stomach all morning (stress? or was it that third helping of eggs?). You had no choice but to jump out of your seat in the middle of the second Math module, high-tail it to the bathroom, and spend seven whole minutes there. There goes your section! And unfortunately, there goes your Math score, too.
Reasons for a very low test score
Here are other things that could produce a similarly disappointing and surprising result.
Perhaps a beloved cousin passes away the night before the test. Or you start to feel gallstones moving through your gut in the middle of the ACT Math section (this actually happened to one of my students!). Or you wake up and can barely talk without coughing.
Or maybe you’re perfectly fine physically and emotionally, but you just happen to draw a “bad test”—you get stuck with a Reading or Math or English section that just doesn’t click for you. One unlucky passage ruins the whole test for you: your low score in the section gets averaged with your other amazing scores…leaving you with the exact same Composite Score as last time. (Cue violin.)
To sum up, even if we do everything we “should” to get ourselves a fantastic result on test day, sometimes life has other plans.
When things go wrong on test day
While the thought of a random lightning-strike of bad luck is enough to make some students say, “So why should I even try?” and jump ship, YOU, my friend, are NOT like those students. Because you understand two important things that they do not:
1) Though there are some things you just can’t control on Test Day, there are MORE things that you can.
Though you might have parents and tutors breathing down your neck, YOU are ultimately the one in charge of putting in the effort. If you know the test like the back of your hand and get a curveball thrown to you, imagine how much WORSE your score would have been if you HADN’T known the concepts and had THEN been beset by test-day disaster! Make sure you’ve fully prepared.
You are also in charge of your well-being and mindset. Did you get enough sleep and eat a square breakfast before the test? Did you leave yourself enough time to shower, do a warm-up question set, and get to the testing center with lots of time to spare….or were you sprinting all the way to your plastic seat (starting the test with an extra-flustered state of mind as a result)? Did you do a Power Pose before entering the test room? Did you ruminate upon negative thoughts like “I stink at Math”…or instead consciously opt for optimistic mantras like “I’ve got this! I know I’ve learned everything I need to know for this exam”? A calm, confident mindset goes a very long way, even under less-than-ideal conditions.
2) Messing up one test does not destroy your college prospects.
First of all, both the ACT and the SAT permit Score Choice (meaning you get to pick which test sitting to send colleges, so they never see that one yucky number you got)…assuming, of course, that the colleges on your list allow it, which most tend to do.
And—even better—more and more colleges are beginning to Super Score. That means they use only your highest performance on each test section to calculate your ultimate score, even if you earned them on different test dates.
These days, most students take the SAT or ACT two or three times. And since you hopefully factored multiple test dates into your Testing Timeline, you’re allowed to have a not-so-hot performance on one of those dates. Happens to the best of us.
But wait! What if catastrophe happens to strike EVERY SINGLE TIME I sit for the test?
I actually had one student like this: the poor thing was hit by one medical emergency after the other. Eventually, though, she still improved several ACT points over time, because she would let NOTHING stand in the way of her success. She put in the hard work again and again, over the course of a year of prep. And thanks to Super Scoring, she got to a 32. While we both knew she was capable of attaining a 34—and had even done so in several mock tests—that higher number was just not in the cards, given her physical health. In the end, she still locked in about 70% of the gains she had made. Now THAT’S a success story, in my opinion!
If this is you, remember that you did the very best you could, given the circumstances. That’s all you CAN do, anyway, right? Emergencies of this type strike very, very rarely for most people—but you’ll gain invaluable stress management skills and perspective from the testing process, if you go about it with a clear head.
Conclusion
And speaking of learning to manage stress: helping students overcome test anxiety is one of my specialties. Every year, I tutor students who are crushed by test-day nerves when they first walk into my (virtual) office….but by the time we’re done working together, they are the picture of calm when it’s time to sit in the hot seat. Learn more about my one-on-one prep services, where I can develop a personalized study and stress-busting plan for you.
OR, if private tutoring doesn’t fit your budget or study style, never fear! My online course is here to help you feel more relaxed when you take the Digital SAT, ACT, AP, or finals:
This is a totally digital, totally self-directed video class that will help you lay your test anxiety to rest once and for all. I walk you through over a DOZEN tricks and strategies for keeping calm…so you can get the score you DESERVE!
So if you connected with the zen reframes that today’s post had to offer, just imagine how high your score can climb with loads MORE of them.
