When you’re working with students to help them prepare for the SAT or ACT, they may be reluctant to study. The format of the SAT and ACT seem like a totally foreign language compared to a student’s real world experience. However, the SAT and ACT can have some very real world applications. Helping students understand the connections between their test prep and life can help you prepare them and help them develop the right mindset to succeed.
Although the typical student won’t need to know how to compare similes for the rest of their lives, preparing for the SAT and ACT can help them accomplish a lot. Here are four real world ways that SAT test prep and ACT test prep can prepare students for their life ahead.
1. Learning how to set a goal and reach it.
Scoring well on the SAT or ACT is a big goal for high school juniors or seniors. By focusing on the end result and making plans for achieving their goals, students can learn lessons that apply to other parts of their lives. When they set a goal and see it through to completion, they get the satisfaction of knowing that they can succeed. This skill can apply to any other part of their life – from completing their degrees to starting their career to achieving any personal goals.
2. Facing their strengths and weaknesses.
When students prepare for the SAT and ACT, they go through a series of steps that help them understand where they excel and where they need to spend more time practicing. Through practice tests and using online test prep software, students will come to understand what they need to do in order to improve. Being able to look at your performance, evaluate it from an objective perspective and make plans for changing is a set of skills that can be used in many other areas of life. Preparing for the SAT or ACT can help students get used to evaluating themselves and taking an honest look at what needs to be changed.
3. Practicing and perfecting skills.
Practice makes perfect! If students start early, they may be taking standardized tests three or four times in order to prepare for the official test. All of this practice will pay off in the long run. By studying for the SAT or ACT, students will learn the value of practice. When they first start they may have difficulties with certain sections or questions, but will become better with practice. This lesson applies to other skills and goals throughout their lives.
4. Thinking about the big picture.
Going through practice questions and completing vocabulary drills isn’t the most fun thing in the world. It’s not something that every teenager wants to spend their free time doing. But if they understand the importance of performing well on the SAT and ACT in the long run, they can get through the process of studying for the test and improving their skills. Thinking about the big picture goal, rather than getting bogged down in the details, will serve them in life anytime they need to jump through a series of hoops to achieve a goal.
