<p>She has good scores right now, and I’ve found that high scorers tend to hit plateaus that are hard to break through. But with my students, I’ve found two methods that get consistent success. I recommend both:</p>
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<li>Buy three journals (or make 3 Excel charts) and label them Math, CR, and Writing. As she takes practice tests, keep track of BOTH anything she misses and anything she guesses on. In the appropriate journal, record the ones she missed with an X and the ones she guessed on with a G–even if she guessed between only two answer choices.</li>
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<p>After a few practice tests, you/she will start to see patterns in what she misses. Sometimes the pattern is quite clear–e.g., she might always miss grammar questions that have to do with joining two independent clauses with a comma and coordinating conjunction…or she might consistently have to guess on remainder problems when they come late in a section and are therefore a more challenging iteration of that kind of problem. After you find these patterns, you can then target her review and save a lot of time. There’s usually no reason to review the material she consistently aces across all tests.</p>
<p>Also, I recommend being flexible in how she reviews. Once I had a high-scorer (2300’s composite SAT) sometimes miss things like 9+4, 8*7, and other arithmetic operations–especially when he was running out of time on a section. I assigned 3rd grade flashcards, to be reviewed before bed every weeknight. There should be nothing embarrassing about this; it’s exactly like a professional basketball player working on quick dribbling skills. This is what I mean about being “flexible.” It’s a synonym for “honest,” even if what is honest goes back to the rudimentary basics.</p>
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<li>This next method is one I want every high school student in the country to know. As she retakes practice (and real) tests, she’ll of course want to outdo her highest score every time. This seems to make sense–after all, there’s no point in retaking exams over and over again only to repeat scores or even score lower. But surprisingly, I’ve learned through painful experience that this is not the best attitude to have in retaking tests. When a student constantly pressures him or herself to “score higher than I’ve ever scored before!!!”, he/she gets stressed out and actually starts making mistakes that normally never come up in a calm, staid practice environment. Instead, I highly recommend thinking, “I need to score higher than my AVERAGE SCORE.” By “average score,” I mean the average of all the scores she’s ever made on any practice and real test ever since she started regular study (I wouldn’t constrain the time period too tightly unless, for instance, she took an SAT way back in 7th grade.) As for whether or not you should take into account possible outlier scores that skew the average downward too much (e.g., she fell asleep during one test and so scored much lower than average), I’d use your best judgment.</li>
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<p>At first, shooting to score better than one’s average rather than better than one’s Best Score Ever might feel like a “cop out,” especially if the average score is significantly lower than the dream score. Merely pushing one’s self to do better than one’s own average perhaps seems too easy, too much like avoiding adversity. But by thinking, “I need to do better than my average,” students tend to focus much more on technique, on skill, on just doing what they know how to do. As the months go on, her prep should focus on shifting that average more and more towards the right/the high-end of the score spectrum. This gradual, patient shifting of the average higher and higher is important. Then, when the actual test day comes and National Merit is riding on the line, thinking “do better than my average” is quite soothing and helps greatly with test-day anxieties and avoiding silly mistakes.</p>
<p>Score variations are unavoidable, and it breaks a lot of hearts when students/teachers/parents know a score isn’t what it could be. But if she keeps shifting her average up and up, then a variation up or down won’t be a big deal–she’ll hopefully have shifted her average so far to the right that she’s competitive for the National Merit even on a “bad day.” The ideal is to shift the average until “bad days” are in the 99th percentile anyway.</p>
<p>There’s more to explain regarding these methods, but I hope this gives a good idea and helps out. I like hearing about successes and plateau-shattering! Best of luck to her.</p>