The Cambridge Accelerated Philosophy of Test-Taking

1. Test taking is a craft. In order to be successful, it requires: preparation, execution, and some degree of imagination. 

2. There's a big difference between being a "bad test taker," and having bad test-taking habits. Test taking is a skill. Some are naturally better at it than others, but that doesn't mean that those skills can't be acquired and improved upon. You shouldn't concede that you are innately a "bad test-taker" until you've made some effort to see if you can improve by eliminating some bad habits.

3. Tests are performances. You should always aim to have your best performance. For some students, their best performance means 1600 (or 1520 on the PSAT or 36 on the ACT), and Cambridge Accelerated has successfully helped students to reach that potential. For other students, their best performance means something more moderate; however, the preparation and the mindset are the same for both types of students. You want to aim to have your best performance.

4. If you don't prepare, don't expect to do your best. You may perform "good enough" without preparation, but (99 times out of 100) lack of preparation will yield results that are below your highest potential. So, whether you decide to study with Cambridge Accelerated or with another test prep company, or to just buy a book and practice on your own, we encourage all students to do some form of preparation. "Just seeing how things go" rarely shows us exactly what we want to see.

5. Standardized test scores are only one part of a larger picture when it comes to college admissions, but they are an important component of that picture. Students need to be master test takers in order to gain admission to highly selective schools. (Some would argue that mastery of test taking is not only essential for admission to selective schools but also a key component of academic success at those schools as well.) Even if a student is not looking to gain admission to a highly selective school, these tests are used as a measure of distinction and as a means of determining scholarship at most colleges and universities. Bottom Line: A higher score improves a student's options. Period. 

6. A student's GPA does not necessarily have any direct correlation to his or her standardized test scores, but ideally they should correlate. Sometimes a student's test scores don't match their GPA. This is not necessarily cause for panic. Test taking is a specific skill set that sometimes comes naturally but sometimes needs to be acquired. Standardized tests are as much about performance as they are about knowledge, hence the Cambridge Accelerated motto: Scientia Effectus, which translates to knowledge performance. To say that students should automatically be good test takers because they are academically strong is like saying that because a school has such an advanced English and Literature department, every student should be naturally excellent at public speaking - another performance skill.

7. Acquiring test-taking skills is something that comes into play a little further down the road, no matter what anyone thinks of the SAT (or ACT). The LSAT, GRE, GMAT, MCAT, etc. are part of the continuing education landscape. Most people would find it at best risky and at worst unreasonable to take one of those tests with little or no preparation and expect to do their best. It is only logical that this same reasoning applies to the SAT. The good news is that test taking is like riding a bike. Once you learn how to prepare and perform well in a test situation, you don't revert to not knowing how to do it. You may need to knock off some rust and review some concepts later, but you won't go back to not knowing what to do. It's a lifetime skill.