Block & Full-Length Strategies: Preparing for Success on Standardized Exams Stage 4 of 4

This home stretch of your standardized exam preparation is where you’ll bring together all the skills you’ve been honing thus far, along with a few new strategies I’ll introduce, to focus on increasing both your full-length practice exam confidence and, ultimately, scores.

As you transition into the final stage of your standardized exam preparation, it is necessary to once again shift your mindset. Let go of both the need to maximize the learning from every question you take, and, instead, focus on maximizing your score in every timed practice block that you take.

Your first mission: seek and destroy the questions you’re most likely to get correct.

Pacing & Endurance: Preparing for Success on Standardized Exams Stage 3 of 4

A key aspect to getting yourself up to speed with the pace needed for Test Day is not giving yourself a lot of wiggle room. Taking long quizzes in which you don’t get to and appropriately approach a large number of questions won’t apply the same pressure you’ll feel when attempting to complete 3-5 question quizzes within the time limit.

Practice moving forward with your predictions more quickly and confidently; now is the appropriate time for making mistakes and learning from them. Waffling between answer choices and changing answer choices frequently will make it more difficult for future you to remember what you picked this time.

Practice-Based Learning: Preparing for Success on Standardized Exams Stage 2 of 4

Few things in an academic’s life cause as much trepidation and self-doubt as a high-stakes standardized exam. In Stage 1 – Capturing Core Concepts, I went over how to build a solid foundation of knowledge and framework of interrelated ideas. However, knowledge alone isn’t enough to ensure success.

As you work your way up the rungs of the academic ladder, the exams become increasingly challenging by skewing away from knowledge-based questions and towards reasoning-based questions. Successfully navigating these exams oftentimes requires applying the knowledge you’ve gained to novel situations.