To Get Better, Start By Giving Your Best
Our highest aspirations and most trivial goals alike often feel just out of reach, attainable only through the most magical expression of our best effort. One good day, we think, could make any of us a winner. But that’s not how people win. Victory over obstacles, opponents, and adversity occurs over a long campaign of effort and accomplishment. Your best test score depends on much more than one good day–you actually need to elevate the best you start with to a higher level. How does that happen? Practice does not necessarily make perfect. Imperfect practice only makes imperfect technique and outcomes permanent. Deliberate practice is the path to excellence, one step at a time. In the context of test preparation, this type of practice differs from the less effective forms of practice many of us settle for in four important ways: You must want and be willing to work towards…
Olympic Athletes Know Test Prep
No matter what else is happening in the world, the Olympics always command attention. If you ever doubt the burning will to exceed all limits inherent in all of us, just look at the dedication these indomitable athletes exemplify. No spectacle captures the world’s imagination on such a grand scale. But we’re not tuning in to catch up on air rifle or luge or any of the other hundreds of sometimes obscure events (race walking… really?) we somehow ignore every other week of the year. No, we thrill to the competition, the effort, and the unquenchable commitment to win. Everyone on the path to their best test scores and grades can learn what being the best really requires from those who have paid the costs and reaped the rewards–including Gold Medals and enshrinement on boxes of Wheaties–of enduring excellence… “Practice creates confidence. Confidence empowers you.” — Simone Biles, most decorated…
Resolved to Be Better
Happy New Year! The fresh canvas of a new year inspires most of us to select some (possibly most) areas in our lives to improve in specific ways. We at Chariot Learning certainly do. Deliberate improvement over time is something I think a lot about. Here at the intersection of education and performance, we see lots of students looking for better grades and test scores. Obviously, we want the same for them along with greater proficiency in our ability to support our students. Our most recent and sixth consecutive Best Of Rochester award for tutoring makes for a nice picture, but best is just a moment. Better is a process. Better does not come easy. Becoming better than you were in any dimension of your life may be a worthy goal. Staying better–being able to cast aside bad habits and develop new, more adaptive ones–is another thing entirely. How do…
Create Your Own Hoops
At this moment when so many are completing their studies in high school, college, or graduate school, we’d like to share artist Grant Snider’s inspiring message to a graduate: To get an education, you must jump through many hoops. Some are ultra-competitive. Others require perfect timing. Many will seem unreachable at first. There will be moments of boredom. You will be burned. And even embarrassed. But often, your imagination will be sparked. With luck and coordination, you will reach the final hoop… and arrive at a place where hoops are scarcely seen. Should you stop jumping? No! Now you must create your own hoops. Good luck, graduates!
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.…
Best of Luck to June Test Takers!
The standard school year feels like a long slog, where students begin knowing very little in certain subjects and finish fearing that they’ve learned little more over seven or eight months of instruction. All those culminating exams from finals, APs, and state tests to the SAT and ACT may feel like obstacles in the way of a lovely summer break, but they actually represent critical opportunities to lock in learning and prove that a long year of study was not spent in vain. June is here. Crush the SAT, ACT, and every other test in your way. On the other side lies a long summer with plenty of time to rest, play, and prepare for future challenges!