Test Prep Tips from Lou Holtz
Football fans know Lou Holtz (1937–2026) as a legendary American college coach and broadcaster. Over a 33-season collegiate career, he earned 249 wins, not only becoming the only coach to lead six different programs to bowl games but also leading Notre Dame to the 1988 National Championship. Coaching wisdom often applies far more broadly than just to one sport or activity, and Holtz habitually dispensed timeless wisdom that should resonate as strongly with test takers as with play makers on any field: “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” “Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” “Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.” “Pressure comes when someone calls on you to perform a task for which…
Benjamin Franklin Knows Test Prep
You don’t become a Founding Father of a free nation without knowing a thing or two. Benjamin Franklin, though, possessed a breadth and depth of knowledge Americans still marvel over today. This celebrated polymath made memorable contributions to science, literature, and–of course–politics. The First American, as Ben Franklin was known, wasn’t just smart but also eminently wise. He dispensed his common sense aphorisms and sayings in Poor Richard’s Almanack, his frequent newspaper articles, and parlors on both sides of the Atlantic. Franklin’s sagacity rings as true today as it did in America’s early days, especially if you’re prepping for high stakes tests: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” “He that can have patience can have what he will.” “You may delay, but time will not.” “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. “We are all born ignorant, but…
Mastery Requires Both Impatience and Patience
Author James Clear offers pithy and prolific insights into many aspects of life. His wisdom hits home quite often the realms of productivity and success. I’m partial to this statement about mastery: “Mastery requires both impatience and patience. The impatience to have a bias toward action, to not waste time, and to work with a sense of urgency each day. The patience to delay gratification, to wait for your actions to accumulate, and to trust the process.” Test prep is all about reaching for mastery, attaining mastery for a moment, and displaying mastery when called upon. Be impatient to earn your best test scores: embrace a bias toward action and get to work. Be patient to prove your best test scores: Create a clear plan for success and work that plan. Leverage spaced repetition and the testing effect to improve over time, ideally under the tutelage of an expert coach.…
Muhammad Ali Knows Test Prep
Muhammad Ali is remembered as one of the greatest boxers of his era or any other, and he never tired of reminding the world of his greatness. His enduring fame as an Olympic gold medalist, heavyweight champion, and civil rights leader afforded him a platform from which he shared more than just poetic boasts. Ali communicated the cost of greatness to the world in both words and deeds. Anyone preparing to pit themselves against a tremendous challenge or competitor can learn from his insights… He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life. It’s not bragging if you can back it up. Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is…
Make This Your Year of Preparation
One topic I never tire of hearing, learning, talking, and writing about is preparation. What makes the principle of preparation so compelling? Simply put, all of our wildest dreams and aspirations become possible and perhaps even easy to achieve with the right preparation. Do you have big goals for this new year? Have you resolved to be better than you were last year? The path to everything you can hope for lies through preparation… We hope you choose to make this–and EVERY–year your year of preparation!
Meditations on Preparation: Effort
Results don’t materialize simply because we want them: we have to work for them. Hard work alone doesn’t guarantee success, but you can be certain that you won’t achieve your wildest ambitions without it! Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative EFFORT.