After 1000s of hours of instruction with 100s of students, there is one habit that I’ve observed in students that always correlates with test prep success: personal organization. The usefulness of this skill may seem so obvious that it’s not even worthwhile mentioning; however, I think it warrants further discussion.
Broadly speaking, test prep can be complex, nuanced, and at some points demoralising. It does not have to be this way. With a well-thought out test prep plan and simple, easy-to-follow organization steps, I would argue that it can be straightforward (not easy, necessarily, but rather straightforward to implement).
Whether you consider yourself to be an organized person or not, the one thing I would recommend for all students is to have a folder downloaded on your computer containing all of the relevant subfolders with the relevant documents for test prep success.
Then, spend a few minutes each day on maintaining this organization. That’s it.
One folder containing the following documents:
ACT/SAT - Student Resources Folder
ESM mentors can help with this—ask our team about the ACT or SAT Resources folder to get you started.
The folder can be organized in a way that makes sense for you in as little as 10 minutes, and spending just a few minutes before and after each lesson can make all of the difference. You will ultimately save time and reduce your barriers to beginning your homework and test prep. This can mean the difference between finishing the test prep process with a ‘good’ score or a ‘great’ score.
To quote Steve Jobs: “Simple can be harder than complex: you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
