Way back in 2010, one of my first blog post series on WyzAnt took the form of a five-part series on rules for effective time management.  For the next few Ellen’s Choices, I’ve decided to go back through these rules and apply them to the world of preparing for the SAT (or any standardized test).

So let’s begin with Part 1: All-Nighters Are Evil

Ellen’s Rules for Effective Time Management

1. Never pull an all-nighter.
2. NEVER pull an all-nighter!

Seriously! I mean it. All-nighters are downright useless. Besides the fact that this concept breaks almost all of my other rules for effective time management in one go, all-nighters cause fatigue, stress you out, and just end up producing sub-par work. You can’t write well when you’re tired, and staying up all night studying just means you’ll be yawning all the way through the test the next day. If you haven’t learned the information on the test by the night before, you’re not going to learn it in one fatigue-inducing night of sleep-deprived cramming. If your paper isn’t written by the night before, then it’s not going to be a good paper, regardless of how late you stay up to finish it. Moreover, even if you do manage to retain something, depriving your brain of the rest and reorganization that sleep provides means it will be that much harder to recall it during the test when you need to. Bottom line is, your brain works best when it’s well-rested, so don’t deprive it of the one thing it needs to help you succeed.

This rule works well for prepping for any standardized test. Many times I’ve had a student come to me saying, “I’m taking the test next weekend and I just realized I need help!” Unfortunately, standardized tests don’t function like regular school tests, and just knowing the material covered won’t necessarily get you the score you’re looking for. To really do well on a test like the SAT, you need to know how to take the test itself – strategies and tricks for pacing yourself and figuring out the desired answer even when you don’t know the material in question. And to get used to those strategies and tricks, you need to practice. Prepping for the SAT involves leaving yourself enough time to practice taking the test repeatedly, so that you can analyze your performance and figure out where to focus your efforts to increase your score. If you haven’t gotten to your target score by the night before your test date, cramming won’t change that. In fact, most SAT prep books mention this specifically, recommending that you take the night before the test to rest and refresh yourself with something you enjoy – go see a movie with friends, have a nice dinner out, read a good book. Just don’t stay up too late; you need to get a good night’s sleep before your early test date the next morning!

Stay tuned for Part 2: Take Breaks!