Hillview Prep
  • Home
    • HSPT Class
  • About
    • HSPT Prep Class
    • Upcoming Classes
    • Testimonials
  • Services
    • ACT Prep
    • SAT Prep
    • SAT II Prep
    • PSAT Prep
    • HSPT Prep
    • ISEE/SSAT Prep
    • Admissions Consulting
  • Resources
    • Getting Into College
    • Practice Problems for Students
    • Student's Corner
    • For Parents
    • Test Prep Question Bank
    • Scholarships
  • Blog

​

This is What You Need to do to if Your Practice and Official Scores do not Match

7/11/2018

2 Comments

 
Mind the gap
Free Image from Pixabay
It is a common phenomenon where students are not able to get their test-day scores to match their practice test scores. To them the gap seems unsurmountable. No matter how much they work hard, or how many practice tests they take, they underperform at the actual test. 

If you are one of such students, we suggest to read this blog. There are a few common reasons that official scores remain persistently lower than practice scores. 
1. Test taking anxiety--fast and slow

It is natural for you to feel anxious on a test. That can manifest in many ways. You could freeze and lose confidence and try to over thing thus missing a few questions. Or, you could speed up, trying to do everything as fast as possible and start making mistakes. 

If you are a slow test taker, speed up. Don't over think. If you are a fast test taker, slow down. There is usually more time than you think.

At Hillview Prep, we use an interval based strategy to teach you the right pacing for your test. Test taking is mostly about learning how to take tests when you know the material. Our methods will train you how to pace yourself correctly and bridge your performance gap.
2. Are you taking the wrong tests?!

Third-party tests (Kaplan, Barron’s, Princeton Review, etc.) are not interchangeable with the real thing. They are good to improve your understanding and abilities, but they are not the real tests. The questions they ask are different and that may be one reason why your official test scores are different than your practice ones.

At Hillview Prep, we carefully plan your learning. We interleave the third-party tests with the real tests so you build your stamina and experience in answering test questions. We make sure that you see different publishers, but not lose sight of the real tests. We also make sure you are not just using old tests. 
3. Are you second guessing your answers?

Often students second guess themselves. They go back and check and double-check their answers, and end up changing the right answers to wrong ones. Many students lose points this way.

At Hillview Prep, we teach you how to guess when you are unsure of your answers. Our deducting reasoning methodology limits the number of pure guesses, so you don't have to go back and second guess your answers all the time. 
4. Beware the distractions!

At home you can concentrate easily, as long as you put away your digital devices and other distractions. During the official tests, many students get distracted because their concentration got thrown off by the test taker in front of them. Maybe they were kicking their chairs, humming a tune or tapping their pencils.  If someone in the room is really being loud, you can obviously ask your proctor to stop the distractor. 

At Hillview Prep, we organize bootcamps and classes which mimic real test conditions. You will be taking tests with other kids, which means distractions. You could take tests using earplugs, but they may not be allowed in the real test centers due to past cheating scandals. 

5. Can you sustain your focus?

Real tests are long, and unlike studying at home, you don't have access to your phone, or frequent breaks, etc. If you are not used to focusing for long periods, your performance in the real test will suffer.

At Hillview Prep, our interval pacing strategy trains you to focus for longer periods of time, thus building your test taking endurance. We teach you how to pace yourself, how to take short mental breaks without losing the flow of the test. Just like you would train for a marathon, we train you to build your endurance for the grueling test. 
6. Are you being stubborn and not applying better test strategies?

We have seen smart students underperform in actual tests. The reason is that they are stubborn and refuse to implement the strategies we teach. A case in point. A bright, straight-A student came to us for ACT test prep. We coached him in better test taking strategies. He refused to use your strategies and ended up scoring a 30. We believe he could have scored a 34, given his high level of knowledge and expertise, but he refused to implement better strategies.

At Hillview Prep, we try to match our strategies with your strengths and coach you how to use your strengths to conquer your weaknesses. However, if you refuse to implement good strategies, you will underperform in your tests. 
Contact us if you need help on your test prep. Call today!
2 Comments
Tiffany
1/7/2019 07:08:45 pm

What is your deducting reasoning methodology? How do I guess if I am unsure of my answer?

Reply
Hillview Prep
1/9/2019 06:10:57 pm

Hi Tiffany,

Deductive reasoning is the skill of disqualifying the wrong answers in order to be left with the write answer. It sometimes takes less to know if an answer is wrong than to be sure than an answer is right. This helps you to be a more confident decision maker.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016

    Categories

    All
    ACT
    AP
    College Admissions
    College Lifestyle
    Common Core
    #edtech
    Essays
    FAFSA
    Financial Aid
    Foreign Languages
    Gateway Series
    GMAT
    GPA
    GRE
    High School Admissions
    High School Life
    Homework
    HSPT
    International
    Internships
    Iseessat
    Ivy Leagues
    #LifeHack
    Math
    PreACT
    PSAT
    Quantitative
    SAT
    SAT Subject Tests
    Scholarships
    Science
    Smart Scoring System
    Student Debt
    Student Loan
    Summer Classes
    Test Taking Strategies
    The Hillview Difference
    Verbal

    RSS Feed

We are here to help.
Call: 408.868.9808


info@hillviewprep.com
14375 Saratoga Avenue #202
Saratoga, CA 95070
Google Maps>>
Recent Blogs
  • The Secret Language of Harvard
  • The June 2018 SAT. What?
  • Hack College Admissions
Scholarships
  • Facebook Grace Hopper
  • The Thiel Fellowship
  • Nickelodeon Animation
Log-in/out
We offer SAT, ACT, HSPT, ISEE, SSAT, GRE & GMAT test prep tutoring, test preparation boot-camps, classes and courses. Our professional test prep tutors also provide online courses and private tutoring. ​We offer our tutoring services in Los Altos, Saratoga, Los Gatos, San Jose, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and the entire Bay Area California.
Copyright © 2018 Hillview Prep LLC, all rights reserved. 
  • Home
    • HSPT Class
  • About
    • HSPT Prep Class
    • Upcoming Classes
    • Testimonials
  • Services
    • ACT Prep
    • SAT Prep
    • SAT II Prep
    • PSAT Prep
    • HSPT Prep
    • ISEE/SSAT Prep
    • Admissions Consulting
  • Resources
    • Getting Into College
    • Practice Problems for Students
    • Student's Corner
    • For Parents
    • Test Prep Question Bank
    • Scholarships
  • Blog