It can be a real journey to overcome perfectionism. Take it from me, a former perfectionist. I’ve spent a LOT of time learning to tolerate my own, simple human mistakes. Though I can still recall (and cringe!) at how one sour C# tanked my opera audition in New York City years ago, or how a simple probability question cost me first place in the Dallas Mathematics Olympiad when I was in 9th grade, I’ve slowly made peace with not being perfect.
And over the course of my twelve years as a test prep and tutoring professional in the pressure cooker that is NYC, I’ve crossed paths with LOADS of high schoolers who beat themselves up over not getting the score (or the timing) they desire on various sections of the ACT.
Because I’ve been there, I can spot the culprit quickly: perfectionism.
Of course, this advice might seem paradoxical at first. We’re trying to raise your score as high as we think we can get it (often achieving improvements of 7 or more points). That requires getting more questions correct—in short, getting closer to perfection. Yet, your “perfectionism” is holding you back from that perfect or excellent score. How does that make sense?
Allow me to explain. Below I explain the 4 ways perfectionism is ruining your ACT score.
1) How Perfectionism Will Lower Your ACT Reading Score
The ACT Reading section gives you only 8:45 to read an entire two-column passage and answer the accompanying ten questions. Then you have to turn the page and do the same all-out sprint three more times.
Let’s follow a student I’ll call Maria as she embarks on the ACT Reading section. Like many students, Maria gets so caught up in the “all the following EXCEPT” question from her very first passage that she pours an entire TWO MINUTES into this single question, intent on getting every Q attached to that passage completely correct. Maria might lose even more time if one of those first three passages is a “double passage” (though this strategy would have helped her avoid that particular time-suck). After doing this for the first three passages, she has virtually no time left for the last passage.
Yes, Maria got three more questions right by going over those entire selections with a fine-toothed comb multiple times to make sure she weren’t missing a single detail. But as a result, she had to rush (or skip entirely) the Reading section’s last ten questions! (And I know we’re talking reading here, but I’m sure you’ll agree with me that 10 > 3.)
Let's review:
NOT being perfect and skipping (& guessing) on the one time-suck question in each passage = 36 questions correct = score of 32.
Being perfect and not having time for the last passage = 30 questions correct = score of 27.
I know which one I’D choose. (And if you want MORE time-saving ACT Reading tips, you can learn them ALL here.)
2) You’ll Do Worse on the ACT Science Section if You Try to Be Perfect
The ACT’s Science section is like the Reading section in that it always sneaks in a question or two that takes proportionately MUCH longer to answer than the rest.
But each Science passage ALSO usually offers you 4-6 more straightforward questions, problems that simply ask you to follow the trends on a provided graph, locate a certain data point, or pick out a fact from a passage of text (usually in italics).
However, the last question or two in each passage may be beyond the limits of your knowledge or remaining time. Maybe it assumes you possess science-geek information that wasn’t in any of your prep books. Maybe it asks you to comprehend and draw connections between several different data trends. Maybe it requires you to read all of the text in the passage.
In short, one (or two) question(s) could take just as much time as the easy four to six would, sucking up your 5:50 per passage and forcing you to leave the last passage or two blank. Not fun! And not good for your score.
If you are a student who simply does not have time to answer everything, here are your choices:
Either try to be perfect and not get to answer the last two passages because you ran out of time = score of 22-24, OR
Guess on the time-suck questions and move on, getting all the easier questions in all passages = score of 28ish.
While I’d personally aim for higher than a 28, and know a few tricks for getting there, if you are in a bind and these are your only two options, I’d go for the latter.
Not, I don’t think, a controversial decision.
3) Why Perfectionism Compromises Your ACT Math Section
Here’s a curious thing about the ACT Math section: every question is worth the same number of points (one question, one raw score point), regardless of whether the question is a complicated word problem involving rate and work and that you have to use half a sheet of scratch paper to solve…or a simple PEMDAS “evaluate the expression” question.
Another curious thing about the ACT math section: while the questions DO generally progress from easier to medium to harder, those final fifteen “harder” questions don’t always take a long time to answer. Several of them are just “harder” math topics, because they’re from Trig or Algebra II…BUT if you know them, they take all of 15 seconds. And they’re each still worth the same, single raw point that the longer head-scratching, eraser-chewing problems are worth.
So let’s review our options:
Get hung up on time-consuming questions, taking 4 minutes to grab your 1 question and then leaving the last 11 questions blank;
OR mark it for later and manage to get to the end of the section, answering several 1-step questions instead?
I’m sure you know my preference by now…
And FINALLY:
4) How Obsessing over Perfection Will Worsen Your ACT Essay
As you likely know, the ACT essay is now optional. However, if you do opt into the essay, you’ll be shooting yourself in the foot if you try to write an absolutely perfect one. When you waste time on details like word choice or sentence construction, you may run out of time before you can finish your last paragraph. Pouring out your ideas, even with a few grammatical errors or misspellings, is what’s going to get you the gold.
Your priority is to use your 40 minutes to convey ALL of your ideas and get them down on the page. If they’re not on the page, the reader can’t grade them! And if you suffer from analysis-paralysis and leave your best-turned phrases in your head, try this technique.
If you’re scared about laying your perfectionistic tendencies to rest, I totally get it.
I’m right there with you. I’ve lived it and I’ve coached many, many students who have trouble grasping why perfectionism is so damaging. (If you’re in that same boat, reach out to me and we can work together on this issue!)
But unless you actually are at the very top of the bell curve and really are only a couple questions away from a perfect score, you should learn this life lesson now and save yourself years of misery: sometimes DONE is better than PERFECT. And learning to silence that inner voice that tells you I must be perfect, and to INSTEAD be smart about how you spend your time and energy, can actually get you a lot further than beating yourself up—in life, and on the ACT.
