<p>Anyone have experiences with it or should I just go for the standard water. I do drink tea quite often but never had before/during a standardized test. Would it help my concentration?</p>
<p>Most medical research shows that caffeine helps concentration in tasks like taking standardized tests. We use very little caffeine in our house, but I have my son choose his favorite caffeinated beverage to drink with breakfast on any day with a major test. That seems to help.</p>
<p>Don't do more than you'd usually do, though, without trying it first. You don't want to be jittery! An apple would do more to give your brain and edge than caffeine.</p>
<p>My son never has caffeine. The exception has been his two SAT test days. For breakfast before his SAT I he had a turkey wrap using a whole wheat only wrap. We figured that would give him protein for alertness and staying power and avoid a crash from having refined carbs at breakfast time. He had half a diet cola at breakfast and another diet cola during the longest test break. At that time he also had a chocolate bar. He said he was incredibly alert the entire exam, but boy, did he crash that afternoon! For his SAT IIs (he took three on one day) I think he may have had the entire pop after the first exam, but am not sure. For him, having more caffeine probably would have resulted in jitters. What he had hit the sweet spot.</p>
<p>2nd the advice to try at home first. If you find yourself needing frequent bathroom breaks caffeine might be more a hindrance than a help. You might want to bring snacks for breaks so you don't run out of gas.</p>
<p>Only if you know how your body reacts.</p>
<p>I have friends that needed to have energy drinks not to fall asleep during testing(not an exaggeration).</p>
<p>However, I get headaches when I drink caffiene(most of the time) or too many diet drinks. So I would stretch or jump up and down or something else like that during breaks. I could never test after pounding the caffiene.</p>
<p>I've done pretty well testing so I like my plan, but everyone's body is different.</p>
<p>I have had different drinks with caffeine before tests and I found out that the best by far is green tea. It doesn't give jitters like coffee or other energy drinks do. It seems much more stable and calming. I scored a 2220 on my last SAT, so it works for me :)</p>
<p>I tried caffeine on the PSAT and it really helped, only problem is that I needed to use the bathroom a lot so be careful</p>
<p>If you thrive on caffeine on a daily basis, down a Java Monster or a Rockstar Energy Drink and you will be ready to go :) Coffee works too! I actually get the jitters when I don't sleep enough and then have to concentrate on something e.g. SAT, but I find that caffeine calms me down somewhat and helps me focus.</p>
<p>who are these ppl who obsess over what you eat on test day?
stay away from rotten, poisonous, or caustic food and ur fine</p>
<p>i don't eat anything... lol wake up too late</p>
<p>but for me 2 monsters = 2360 :)
goodluck</p>
<p>^^^^ YAY for MONSTERS!</p>
<p>I was considering consuming caffeine on the test day as well, but I read that it is detrimental if you are not used to caffeine i n the morning. I had some once before the AP Eng test and couldn't concentrate during the passage readings.</p>
<p>Maybe Bawls might be the answer. It's 2.5x more caffeinated than coffee. Do you guys experience a "sugar rush" slowdown after an hour or so? Because I can't have afford slowdowns during the test.</p>
<p>Caffeine doesnt work for me. I took 2 caffeine tablets and it did not help me at all. I think it actually had some bad effect.. I dont know what i was thinking when i took them.. I probably was too nervous to think straight and realize that 2 of them equal to about 30 cups of coffee..</p>
<p>hey, jvknapp, do you actually brew or make the green tea in the morning? Bring it in an insulating cup?</p>
<p>How do the caffeine sources compare: diet coke, coffee, monster, gatorade, tea?</p>
<p>haha taking SAT just gives me an alert!!!</p>
<p>I've always gone with water. If you drink tea often, then bring tea. Don't try to innovate or anything on test day, stick with what you usually do so you don't get "unexpected results" from your coffee, etc.</p>
<p>I think I'm gonna go with tea. Less of a risk. Gotta drink some all this week to get my body used to it!</p>
<p>i drink coffee every morning, so on SAT day i drank my coffee when I woke up but also brought a red bull for one of the long breaks. it helped but i had to pee... (when i took the march test i was just rushing through questions at the end bc i was tired of testing, but during oct test i kept focused throughout the whole test)</p>
<p>as for drinks...i would say to drink water cuz coffee/caffine makes me do bad on crit reading...and eat foods with slow-releasing sugars, candy made me feel really good for like 45 minutes and then tired the next couple of hours. i ate donuts which aren't really good sat food but if u eat it constantly, like little bites or during every break, it should keep u alive!</p>
<p>lol to the person above ^</p>
<p>I drank one of those Chaser brand energy shots for the SAT and ACT. It really kept me alert and i really didnt need to pee until the end of the tests.</p>