That's So 90s: Test-Prep Edition
How Using Study Techniques From Two Decades Ago Can Help Our Students Today
Many of us can remember what life was like before easy access to the internet, an insane catalog of video games/movies/TV shows on every device, a gadget that can store a seemingly endless number of books, and your friends and family just a text/DM away.
For the sake of test prep, I’m taking you back to a time when you had to pick up a landline phone and call someone’s house phone to talk; when computers required a designated room; dial-up internet meant that your sister couldn’t call her boyfriend while your Mom checked her Juno email; and gossip still traveled by word of mouth. That’s right, we’re going back to the 1990s!
“You can’t do big things if you’re distracted by small things.” -Anonymous
It’s normal for our focus to ebb and flow while working/studying/reading. We try our best to keep our focus on a task at hand, but our minds naturally wander to other, more interesting things: a new video game, a date on Friday night, an addictive Netflix series, Twitter/Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat/TikTok/etc./etc./etc. (that list just keeps growing) feeds. In addition to those more interesting time-sucks things, are the notifications that accompany them; dings, pings, and rings that are set to alert you. There’s a new player ready to play on Xbox. You just got a text from your best friend about nothing everything. Have you seen that gif of a cat falling off a table your brother shared? These typically welcome distractions kill your concentration and can seriously undermine your goals. Now, imagine how much harder these distractions are for our students studying for the ACT® or SAT®.
How To Study Like It’s The 90s
Strip away the modern-day distractions, and get back to the basics. When it comes to studying, technology can be an amazing tool, but it must be utilized wisely. Here are some tips for using technology in a way that is helpful, not harmful to concentration—much closer to how it was back in the day—as well as a few more rudimentary test-prep strategies to help students maintain focus and achieve their academic goals.
Devices: Turn Off The Notifications
Making the internet a tool, not a distraction is the key. The best way to accomplish this is to silence or turn off notifications; this is particularly important for phones. If a student has the self control to simply turn their phone off or flip it upside down to silence it and then ignore it, awesome! Otherwise, they need to get into the habit of manually turning their notifications off and putting their phone far enough away so that they won’t be tempted to check it.
Notifications on computers should be turned off, too. If a student is using their computer/iPad/laptop for studying, they need to be sure that those pop-ups and banner notifications for emails, games, social media, etc. are turned off. Even the slightest distraction can break our concentration, derail our workflow. Studies show it can take us more than 20 minutes to refocus. 20 minutes—our students don’t have that cushion of time in their busy, often-overbooked schedules! Let’s help them make the most of the time they do have.
Experience Print On Paper
The medium used for reading truly matters. When we read text on paper, our brains slow down more and we’re able to focus on the content better. When reading print on paper, we don’t have the ability to scroll, so we become more engaged with the text.
That deeper engagement and full attention is vital to reading comprehension and a necessary skill for our students to master. Even as tests are moving to screens, having some preparation work on paper still has benefits. Help your students practice their reading skills by getting into the habit of reading print on paper: magazines, newspapers, physical novels.
Fluorescents Are “Da Bomb”!
In the 90s, fluorescent everything was a must. From fanny packs and hair scrunchies to slap bracelets and hats (worn sideways, of course!), fluorescents were totally radical. While I’m sure that the younger generations have put their own spin on fluorescents, today’s students don’t need to look like highlighters to make good use of them!
Highlighting text is a really great way to identify key elements of a text. Like all skills, it can take some practice.
Left to their own devices, some students will use highlighters to turn their texts into coloring books—washing their texts in neon without actually focusing on the most important details and elements they will need to refer back to later. Others will haphazardly mark random words and phrases without any particular rhyme or reason.
It turns out, it is really easy for highlighting to be a complete waste of time…and bodacious tubular ink colors. Make it a point to support your students by not only helping them decide what to highlight, but give them deliberate uses for referring back to the material that they mark. For instance, this post from Edutopia outlines three useful ways to incorporate highlighting into active reading strategies.
Highlighting text, if properly supported, can be a useful strategy during prep and on the exams. Both ACT® and SAT® allow highlighting and even the digital version of the SAT® offers a highlighting tool!
Get over FOMO
Harsh, I know. But, seriously. FOMO was totally not an issue for us in the 90s because if something was going on and we didn’t know about it, we didn’t know about it. Nobody’s friends were calling you on your family’s house line to let you know that you were missing out on something. When you were home or at the library studying, you were shut off from the social goings-on outside. That, of course, is not a luxury that our students have today. FOMO is a real anxiety-inducer for most students. But, the good news is that they can help overcome FOMO by:
Taking technology breaks
Setting limits on and for social media
Remembering that most of what they see on social media isn’t reality (most people are overcompensating on the internet)
Trying to be present
These simple, yet effective changes can help our students realize that they’re most likely not actually missing out, allowing them to focus on the task at hand and what really matters: achieving their goals.
Let’s be honest, it would be impossible to go back to living exactly like we did in the 90s; but we can make significant changes today that allow us to gain control over our attention and focus. While the most important element in every study plan is self-discipline, making changes in habits and mindset can make a huge impact on what our students can accomplish.
For more study strategies, tips, and tricks to help your students make the most of their ACT®/SAT®-prep, be sure to subscribe to our blog so you are always up to date with our latest test-prep news and advice!