By Jason DeVelvis
Study, Study, Study
The worst thing you can do before a standardized test is notstudy. There aren't many people who can just waltz into thetesting room and ace one without any test preparation. You haveto buckle down, take those practice tests, and most of all LEARNfrom your mistakes on them!
Speaking of Practice Tests
Get some, and use them. These will probably be the most valuablethings you can get your hands on besides the test answersthemselves. (Not to mention practice tests aren't illegal...stealing the answers is) First, get yourself at least threedifferent copies of the practice tests, and for the first test,take as long as you want, and work through each question. Nostress. Then for the second practice test, time yourself. Stilldon't worry about how long it takes you, but be aware of whattypes of questions take you the longest. Next, time yourselfagain, but don't go very much over the time limit. Maybe 5minutes max. Again, pay attention to what types of questionsyou're taking the most time on. Finally, on the last practicetest or two, time yourself and stick to it. Don't go over thetime limit. While you're taking the test, make sure you rememberwhich types of questions gave you trouble, and if you can'tanswer one of those right off the bat, move on then come back toit if you have time. There is no use missing a couple of "easy"questions because you spent too much time on one you couldn'tfigure out. You can always come back for a hard one, but youcan't get the easy ones you didn't answer back after the timelimit.
REMEMBER THIS!
Hopefully that headline will help you remember this during yourtest preparation, as well as when you actually take the test.ALWAYS read the directions - for every test, every section,every question. If there are directions there, read them.Period. If you don't read the directions, you may answerincorrectly or spend too much time trying to figure out aquestion that you shouldn't have had a hard time with if you hadread the directions. I cannot stress this enough - READ thedirections!
Be Well Rested
The worst thing you can do is pull an "all-nighter" the nightbefore a big test. It is almost guaranteed to ruin your testpreparation. Think about it - taking a test is stressful, andyour body can only take so much stress before you have to sleepit off. If you don't sleep (or don't sleep much) the nightbefore a big standardized test, chances are the stress of thetest will take its toll on your body, and your brain will beginto react more slowly. You will miss things you should haveotherwise noticed, miss questions you should have known, etc.You can't afford to do this on a standardized test.
Along that same note, show up to the test site early. That way,if you forget something, you've got time to go get it. That willhelp reduce your stress level, and thus, help increase yourscore. Again, too much stress will ruin all of the testpreparation you've done.
Remember What You Learned From The Practice Tests
Remember when I said that you should pay attention to the typesof questions you stumble over during your test preparation?Remember that when you're taking the test. If you're gettingstuck on a question, skip it and come back. Just like you didduring the practice tests. You're better off trying to come backif you have time left over than you are wasting time on aquestion you might get wrong anyway. Go do the questions you cananswer quickly! And if you've got time left over after you'veanswered all of the questions, go back and re-read them all andmake sure your answers are right. At this point, you can affordto wrestle with an quetion that you stumbled over. However,remember this - your first instinct is usually the best one.Don't talk yourself out of an answer you know is right.
Don't Worry
Standardized tests aren't the be-all end-all. There are plentyof people out there who didn't do well on standardized tests atall, and they're doing quite well for themselves. It's not theend of the world if you don't get a good score, just do somemore test preparation and give it another try
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