You may think “Why should I start preparing for the test now? It’s not for months, or even until next year. I’m sure I’ll do fine if I start to study a month or so before the test, or even just a few days before it.”

1.      Cramming Doesn’t Work.

Not only has your experience shown you that trying to learn at the last minute doesn’t help, but neuroscience has also confirmed this repeatedly. Your brain can produce only so much of the proteins and neurotransmitters necessary for you learn and remember at one time. Rest between learning periods is essential to learn effectively[i].     


2.      Tutor Availabliity: The Early Bird Really Does Get the Worm.

The best tutors are the hardest to get at the last minute. Let’s face it; tutors, like anyone else, can only work a certain number of hours per week.  Tutors with good reputations get hired and booked very quickly in high test-prep season, roughly August through November, when high-school seniors are coming up on application deadlines, and the only slightly less-busy December through June season. 

If you come late, not only are you faced with more “cram studying,” you’re stuck with three unattractive choices (also see my “Why Should I Hire an Independent Private Tutor?” post):

(A) Book whatever tutor is available after the ones with the best reputations are booked solid. 

This tutor might be wonderful, in which case you win! Woohoo! But more likely, you’re going to get an inexperienced tutor from a service, a tutor who’s good but overbooked and stressed out, or a tutor who just can’t do the job quite right (some very smart, knowledgeable people are very bad teachers- they know the material inside and out, but can’t explain it to you in a way YOU understand).

(B)   Go with a test prep service like Kaplan or Princeton Review.


Don’t get me wrong; I have a great deal of respect for Kaplan, Princeton Review, and (most) other services. I received much of my SAT tutoring training from Think Tank Learning, an excellent test prep and tutoring service; I was good before working for Think Tank, but I’m even better now.


The problem is, these services give you a good, basic one-size-fits-all course, where you’ll sit in a class and not receive much individual attention.  You may spend too much time focusing on your strengths and not enough time on fixing your weaknesses.
 

Even if a service offers in-home tutoring, you could be the first student of a freshly-trained tutor, which is all right unless you run into an unusual question or problem. A tutor with proven experience is a better bet for your individual test preparation.
 

Finally, some services focus mostly test taking “tricks” instead of focusing on actually teaching the material. While test tricks and tips are essential to getting a high score on the SAT, they are NOT the only things, or even the most important things, to learn. The math, writing, and reading skills tested on the SAT are tested for a reason – you really need to learn them to succeed in college and in life. Being able to guess the correct answer to an algebra problem on the SAT won’t help you when you need to solve the same equation for your college physics class. Why not hire a real tutor and learn the real way to solve a problem as well as the “SAT Trick” way?

 

(C) Study by sitting down with a test prep book – i.e. “Do It Yourself.”

I am a big fan of test preparation books. All I had available to study for the SAT and most standardized tests I’ve taken in my life were test prep books. I highly recommend Barron’s books for most test prep (I generally use Barron’s SAT for SAT prep, and supplement it with other materials as necessary, unless the customer requests that I used other materials). I use them as integral parts of my test preparation program.

The problem with using a test prep book alone is : What if you don’t understand the answer explanations in the books? In the case with the Official SAT Guide published by the College Board, there ARE no answer explanations – just the answer key that doesn’t explain why the right answer is right. [That must make most students think “Great job, College Board – if I didn’t need explanations, I wouldn’t need your review book, since I’d get all the questions right in the first place!” But I digress.]

A test prep book can’t guide you, can’t rephrase explanations and answers until you understand them. Most don’t answer questions like “Will I ever have to know this stuff once I’m done with the test?” “What do I need to do to get into college besides do well on the SAT?” and many other questions that probably wouldn’t even come up while studying by yourself, that do come up when you’re working with a tutor (Really – it happens all the time when I’m tutoring students).

3.      You Can Actually Learn the Material Well Enough to Use it in Real Life, Not Just on the Test.

 

The reason the SAT and other standardized tests ask questions about certain subjects, and that colleges, universities and graduate schools require those standardized tests for admissions, is that these subjects are actually important things to know. For example, algebra and arithmetic are important in any physical or social science (including economics and psychology) and English vocabulary, composition, and grammar are important in practically every aspect of life (at least in an English-speaking country.) Many colleges, such as the one I attended – Williams College, give all incoming first-year students a math test. Those that don’t do well have to take a boring math course covering the parts of high school math that most students, especially those who aren’t math fans, would just as soon never see again. (It was called “Quantitative Studies” at Williams). Many colleges also have a basic English composition course that students who didn’t do well on the SAT I, the English SAT subject test, or the English AP test, have to take. I can’t imagine that’s much fun, either, especially with all the other great courses that could be taken in the same time it takes to take a first-year composition course.

As we all know and science confirms (see above), the best way to learn any subject is to learn a little bit at a time, with breaks between learning sessions. That can’t happen if you start reviewing too close to the test date, and it makes it very unlikely that you’ll remember the material well after the test. That means your first year of college is likely to have “Quantitative Studies” or “English 100” on the schedule.


4.      Junior and Senior Year of High School and College Don’t Leave Much Time for Studying.
 

While you’re preparing for college or grad school, you still have high school or college to finish. That means you can’t study for standardized tests as completely or efficiently as you can during summer break. So starting during or before the summer break preceding the test is a really smart idea. It lets you learn a little at a time, taking breaks and having some fun between lessons. Why wait, stress, and learn less? It won’t help you.

 
So definitely start studying early!  Whether you hire a tutor, go to a prep course, or even just use a test prep book, start early! You’ll thank yourself when you get the “fat envelope” admitting you to the college of your choice.



[i] See, for example: Stix, G. Forget Ritalin and Cramming: Molecular Pathways in the Brain May Reveal the Best Learning Strategies Scientific American. (January 5, 2012), Last retrieved on October 13, 2014 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/molecular-learning1/ Klemm, W. To Cram or Not to Cram? That is the Question. Psychology Today. (January 14, 2012) Last retrieved on October 13, 2014 from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/memory-medic/201201/cram-or-not-cram-is-the-question Stafford, T. Memory: Why Cramming for Tests Often Fails. (September 18, 2014) British Broadcasting Corp. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140917-the-worst-way-to-learn