To learn something new...

you need time and freedom to experiment. You need to fail before you succeed. 


I came across this snippet of wisdom in, of all places, the comments section of a New York Times article about the recent explosion of Kumon tutoring centers throughout New York City. In case you're interested, it's at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/fashion/with-kumon-fast-tracking-to-kindergarten.html?ref=education. 


The article, which details the latest fad that over-anxious NYC parents have seized on in order to give their precious darlings a leg up on the competition, is predictable Times fare; the comments, however, contain a good deal of common sense from people who realize that rote drilling and cramming from the age of three is not the guaranteed path to Harvard that some people seem to think it is.  I didn't become a "fluent" reader until the age of seven (horror of horrors, I wasn't even in the highest reading group in first grade!), but that didn't stop me from devouring every book I could get my hands on once I did figure it out. 


But enough about that. I do actually have a point.


Learning to take the SAT or the ACT is like learning to do anything. If you really want to improve, you have to be willing to take risks and fall flat on your face a bunch of times before things start to get better. You need to be willing to experiment, to struggle, and to accept that sometimes things get worse before they get better. Call it the zen of standardized testing.


The only people I have ever worked with who did not improve significantly were the ones who steadfastly refused to try anything new and then got frustrated when nothing changed. Sticking to your comfort zone might make you feel better, but it won't do much to change your score. If you're not comfortable skipping around within a section, for example, that's fine, but you need to be ok with the fact that it might cost you a lot of points.


Believe me when I say there's no magic formula; you can't just memorize a bunch of tricks and expect your score to skyrocket instantly. The people at the College Board and the ACT throw in just enough exceptions that tricks alone won't work. They make sure of it.