Does this sitch sound familiar?: Until yesterday, you were actually looking forward to taking the SAT or ACT soon—or, maybe, jittery and just excited to get it over with! You’ve been systematically learning all the concepts, strategies, and testing tricks to get the score you need, and you mean business! There’s just one catch: last night you took a practice test…and flubbed it.
Not in a small way, either. You bombed big time. Maybe you didn’t finish the reading section in time, maybe you totally forgot everything you used to know about linear equations, or maybe you just had no IDEA how to parse that last chart in the Science section! This was by far the WORST SAT or ACT you’ve ever taken! It was even worse than your diagnostic test! You’re so demoralized—how are you supposed to go on?!
If only I had an oatmilk latte for every time I get some version of this from one of my SAT/ACT tutoring clients (or their harried parent) or student: my dreams would come true, and I’d never have to buy coffee again!
But seriously, after over a decade of being an elite test prep expert in New York City, I know a thing or two that can help you breath easily again. Here’s what you need to know and do if you bomb a practice test:
1) keep in mind that you’re not the only one who’s ever messed up a practice SAT or ACT.
EVERYBODY—and I do mean everybody, like Every. Single. Student. Including the one who eventually grabs a perfect score—will at some point produce a stinker of a practice test. In fact, it’s so predictable for me at this point, that instead of wondering “if” Student A will tank a practice test, I simply wonder “when” Student A will tank a practice test! It’s 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: it does NOT mean you’ll tank the real thing.
2) Be happy you tanked on the practice test…not the real SAT or ACT!
Since everyone at some point bombs 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 real heartbreak! Be happy you swung and missed 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 silver lining about a disastrous practice test (and I’m not being a Pollyanna, here—it’s very real): a low score on a practice runthrough gives you a GREAT chance to figure out any triggers you have that 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 get enough sleep the night before? Did you get distracted by something in your social life, or by something in the surrounding physical environment?
Pause and reflect to see which factors may have contributed to your pratfall 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 score.
4) do not assume that this changes your test prep plan. It probably doesn’t.
So many times, students and parents assume that one bad practice test means that something’s wrong with the overall PLAN. But take it from someone who’s designed successful test prep strategies for fourteen years: it doesn’t. Seeing one bad practice test and throwing your whole plan up in the air is like investing in the stock market for the long term and then totally redesigning your portfolio because your account value went down one week. Trust me: you want to stay the course, not introduce unnecessary chaos into your testing timeline.
Thing is, one (or more!) “bad” practice test(s) should be accounted for in any sound testing timeline (I always build them into the ones 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.
Don’t give your power away to one bad test, and don’t give up on the plan or get demotivated!
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 on the chin, 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 top-of-the-line test prep expert, contact me here.
