After countless days of cramming, attempting to master the art of data sufficiency questions, I walked over to the testing center where it was finally time to put my skills to the test. As I toddled into the massive office building, my anxiety was through the roof. I crept up to the security guard, and told him that "I’m here to take a test.” While the paper had told me to ‘get there early’, he wouldn’t let me upstairs until EXACTLY thirty minutes before my appointment time – as if I wasn’t stressing enough, this just put me over the edge. So I left the building, only to wander around the block five times, stare at the ping pong players in Bryant Park for twenty minutes, and let my anxiety escalate even further. When the clock finally hit 3:28 and I was technically allowed to enter the testing center, I walked back around the corner, back up to the security guard, and finally made my way into the elevator.
As I stepped into the elevator with my Princeton t-shirt on and my eighth grade North Face backpack weighing me down, I looked to my right only to see a girl heading to the same floor wearing a Harvard shirt. Naturally, my instinct was to become extremely competitive. We glared at each other all the way up to the correct floor, while we fiddled with putting our bags in lockers, and while we anxiously awaited the start of the test. We didn’t say one word to each other – I had no idea what test she was even taking that day, and yet still, I just needed to make sure that I did better than her. When the operational procedures were finally winding down and I was assigned to a computer in the testing center, I quickly discovered that there was no air conditioning. Of course, on the day when I was supposed to take the GMAT, the air conditioner in the testing center had to break. So inevitably, I was stuck taking a four hour test in about eighty-five degree weather. Fabulous.
When I thought that my experience couldn’t possibly get any worse, about one section into the test, I got a blaring migraine that only intensified when met with the angst that came with data sufficiency questions. I came into the test thinking that my sole concern would be maintaining a laser focus, and getting the questions in front of me correct; yet, here I was becoming fixated on every potential detail and distraction around me. As important as the test was for me, everyone had their own agenda that day – the woman moving at a snail’s pace signing me out for breaks, the security guard who made me agitated right before the exam, and the Harvard girl who could very possibly have been thinking the same thing that I was. Though it took me until about section three of the test to realize it, I came to see that it wasn’t about them, and it wasn’t about her – it was about me.
I wasn’t in competition with the girl from Harvard, and spending moments hoping that I would do better than her wouldn’t necessarily allow me to reach my own goals. Though the staff was not helping the situation, they were just doing their jobs. They didn’t feel the need to move faster or to accommodate my needs because they were not the ones concerned with getting a good score on the GMAT. But when you are so focused on being in that moment and putting everything you have on the table, it is not unlikely that you may place extra weight on your own needs.
Standardized tests are by no means a walk-in-the-park. Even more so than testing your intellectual abilities, they test our stamina, our drive, and our ability to maintain laser focus when an infinite amount of stimuli are pulling us in different directions. Given that I’ve been quite literally buried under books for the past several weeks playing the standardized testing game, I thought I would share some of what I’ve learned before putting my stack of newly purchased test-prep books in the attic for good.
1. Instead of worrying about the people in the room with you, consider the test as a game between you and the test-makers. Don’t try to find the right answer; try to think like the person who wrote the question you are reading. After reading almost every brand of GRE test prep books, I came to see that there were a fairly repetitive list of tricks that the test writers were implementing – and the key to getting the question correct is often identifying which of those tricks they are trying to use. In many ways, once you find the trick in the problem, you can feel good about yourself – you outsmarted your opponent. The next step is not to find the ‘right’ answer, but to rather look for the answer that they intended to be the ‘best choice.’
2. If you are going through the test and feel like it’s too easy, you’re probably falling into the test writer’s traps. When I was initially starting to go through test prep questions, I felt like when I was doing a practice section, I was getting the majority of the questions correct. Then I would go to check the answers and realize that I had fallen into many traps. During the times when I have done my best on the actual tests, I have typically felt like it was more challenging and that I was not necessarily breezing through the questions. Yet, I learned to just take it one question at a time and try to focus on finding the trick in each question as quickly as possible. Then I made sure that I didn’t fall into the writer’s trap, and solving the problem became easy.
3. When you are working on verbal/reading comprehension questions, try moving your lips while you are reading the questions, almost as if you are talking aloud to yourself. In the midst of a multiple hour test, it is very likely that you are going to get tired by the time the last two sections come along. Quietly reading the questions aloud helps you to more actively engage with the material rather than passively going through the motions.
4. As you are preparing, purchase and study from test prep books that are made by the company who designs the actual test. For example, ETS creates the questions on the actual GRE, so their test prep books more closely mirror the material on the actual test. Often studying with books from a variety of different test prep companies can become frustrating, because they all teach slightly different strategies and have slightly differing question structures. This can become overwhelming, so it is often best to stick with the material that most closely resembles what you will see on test day.
5. Spend some time before the test understanding yourself, and what you need to do on the day of the test in order to do your best. For example, I find that I am significantly more focused if I run right before the test. Develop a routine that you know works for you, and don’t deviate from it on test day.
Ultimately, testing is a game between you and the writers of the test – but it is also a test of your stamina and drive, and a measure of how well you know yourself and understand how to handle yourself in different situations. When I went to take the GRE the other day, I knew that the test was in the middle of a very corporate office building in Manhattan, and yet I still wore my paisley pajama pants, with no makeup on, and marched right up to the security guard to take the test. Given that I was wearing pajamas in the middle of an office building, I was inevitably getting stares left and right; yet, I didn’t care. When you are taking a test, you need to put yourself first and know what you need to do in order to perform at your best. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks; put all judgment aside and focus on yourself. So while testing may initially appear to be an intimidating measure of ‘intelligence,’ it is often those with a strong sense of self, an ability to maintain laser focus, and the most grit who can push through the various obstacles in front of them and come out on top.