You’ve worked hard for the ACT or SAT; here are some tips for the day of the test that can help improve your score. Getting these points is like getting free money, why not grab them by paying attention to these 8 things?
1. Prepare your backpack (or equivalent) the night before
Whatever you need to take for the test, prepare it the night before. Read the SAT/ACT ticket carefully to see what’s needed. Your list of things may include: ID, printed out ticket, pencils, eraser, pencil sharpener, snack, calculator, water bottle, watch etc. Doing this in the morning will be stressful at best and be a cause for forgetting something at worst. It’s heartbreaking to see kids turned away because they forgot their ID or brought a soft copy of their ticket on the phone.
2. Have a healthy breakfast
These tests are long and require concentration. Make sure you have a good breakfast with both protein and carbs. Don’t overdo it though; you don’t want your tummy rumbling during the test.
3. Have a good night's sleep
Given a choice between last minute cramming and a good night of sleep, choose the later. There’s really not much you can gain by studying last minute, instead you will need to be refreshed for a 3.5-4 hour session of concentrated work the next morning.
4. Know where your test center is
You’re probably thinking, duh! Unless you registered early, it’s likely that you did not get the test center of your choice and are relegated to an unfamiliar center 20, 30, 50 miles away! Make sure you know where the center is. Colleges won’t let you blame Google maps for driving to a location other than your test center. Also, some school campuses are big, make sure you know which parking lot/entrance you are supposed be at. You really don’t want to be driving/running around the school in the morning. If you are paranoid, maybe drive to the location the previous day (a Friday) and ask the administrative office where you should show up the next day.
We will look at another set of 4 tips in the next installment of this blog. Stay tuned. In the meantime, if you are looking for help on college admissions, feel free to contact us. We have successfully been placing students in Ivy League Colleges, UCs, MIT, Caltech and other private/state colleges for almost two decades.