ACT Prep Post #1: mental stamina

I had 10 different appointments yesterday with students heading into their junior and senior years, and 9 out of 10 needed help preparing for the ACT.  The exception to this statistic is the student who followed all the previous advice I'd given verbally.  For the other 9 students that I spoke to, and the hundreds more that I have yet to meet this summer, this post will cover the first reason why they need to start studying now.  As in today.  Not when they finally get around to it.  You know I'm talking to you, don't you?  Good!  Let's begin.

You could probably wake up one morning, step out the front door, complete a 5K.  It might not be great--but most people could run (run/walk?) a 5K in an acceptable time.  That's similar to sitting down and taking an hour long essay test.  Even with little preparation, by the time that you are a junior or senior in high school, you have enough knowledge to sit down and pump out a fairly good essay.  The 5K and the essay are both fairly easy objectives to accomplish.  

Now--let's compare the marathon to the ACT.  They're both long, and they both demand that you give consistent and diligent effort for not only days, but actually weeks...even months of preparation.  The marathon is 26.2 miles long, and in order to finish it you need to follow a training schedule.  I've trained and completed a marathon before, and it took consistent effort to follow the plan for 3 months before the race day.  On the day of marathon, I had a rough idea of what my time would be, because I'd been doing my "long runs" at a specific pace.  I was happy when I finished, because my training and race time matched each other.  I had prepared my muscles for the length of 26.2 miles, and even though I was exhausted at the end, it was a contented exhaustion.  I had prepared with loads of "long runs" that simulated the actual muscle depletion that happens during the marathon.  I knew what it was, how to push through it, and ultimately finish.

The ACT is similar to the marathon because of the sheer length.  It's a 4-hour test!  Even with the breaks, it still takes a lot of mental stamina to stick with it.  The problem isn't that the student doesn't know the material (although this can definitely be a problem), it is that they simply can't focus for the length of the test.  Many students lose steam halfway through the individual sections, as well as on the last section of the test.  They simply haven't prepared their mental muscles for the stamina that this test requires!  They've walked into a marathon, thinking that a few 30-minute prep sessions of scanning through various test prep books would be enough.  It's not.

The key component to succeeding on the ACT Test is consistent and diligent effort.  This means that a student should prep for 1-2 hours, 3 times a week.  And they should follow this schedule for a minimum of 6 weeks, even better if it is closer to 12 weeks (3 months).  They need to be diligent with this, because they will build skills and mental stamina with the repetition and length of these study sessions.  Devoting 2 hours enables you to actually plow through an entire section of the test in one sitting, preparing you for the mental drain that happens in a real test.  Students do even better if they simulate an actual test--completing ALL the sections in one sitting.  I hear time and time again from students that they simply become exhausted from the 3rd or 4th section of the test.  The reason for this is that they don't have the mental stamina to make it through.  And you don't gain mental stamina for a test by talking about the test, complaining about the test, or thinking about studying for the test--you gain mental stamina by sitting down and practicing taking the actual test!

If this concept seems too strict to you, and you're still bent on finding an easier solution, I'd like to remind you that the ACT Test is half (half!) of your academic record for many of the big Academic Scholarships that Universities award.  The other half is your GPA--which takes ALL the grades earned in ALL the classes throughout high school.  Doesn't it seem silly to work hard in all your classes from 9th - 11th grade, then study for a few hours on a few days for a test that makes up HALF of your Academic Record?  I know, right?  Put that way, it makes sense why you would suddenly want to study for close to 3 months for this test and give it your best effort.  I'm glad we agree.  Get to work.  :-)

Coming Soon:  Best Books and Websites for ACT Prep