“I get it; I get it!”
After the academic uncertainty of the past six months due to the coronavirus, Paris students are buckling down to take the first official SAT of the school year this coming Saturday, August 29th. Many of my students have had the discipline and courage to complete intensive SAT sessions with me over the summer in order to make up for lost time. Even so, in my discussions with students over the past week, I have run into the same issue in managing their expectations for Saturday’s exam. I have named this phenomenon the “I get it; I get it!” illusion.
In coaching students for the SAT over the past six years, I have noticed that students go through different phases of incomprehension and partial comprehension before truly understanding any type of question for the SAT. While these stages prove true for every section of the exam (including the Reading, Writing and Language, No Calculator Math, and Calculator Math sections, as well as the optional Essay), they ring especially true for the two Math sections of the test. At the beginning, many students are uncertain as to how to approach most SAT Math problems. Their hesitation makes sense, since many of them have only studied Math in French at school. We begin our sessions by learning how to do each type of problem that they are missing. Next, students attempt these problems on their own in their homework assignments. After that, they come back to our sessions and have questions about the ones that they missed. I explain their mistakes to them, and at this point enters the “I get it; I get it!” illusion.
As I am halfway through my explanation of a given student’s mistake, he or she interrupts me to say, “Oh, I understand it now! It’s easy!” If I had a dime (or let’s say, a ten centimes coin) for every time a student says that and then proceeds to get the same type of question wrong again, I would be a millionaire by now! The reason why this trend occurs is simple : students assume, rightly or wrongly, that they will never miss a question again once they have seen the answer explained once. They say, “I get it; I get it!” Impatiently, and want to move on. I “get” their frustration, too. I mean, there is a lot of ground to cover for SAT preparation, and they don’t have much time. On top of their classes with me, they have school homework to do and tests to study for. However, I have learned that it takes students making the same mistakes over and over again, and being corrected each time, in order for them to really “master” a given type of SAT problem. I call this “Failing up.” Failing is okay, and it’s part of the process. On the other hand, where students err is in believing that they will only fail once for each type of problem.
The risk of this way of thinking is that students assume they are ready to “master” the SAT and get the scores that they need way before they are actually ready. The result? Disappointing test scores, and weeks of additional coaching sessions with me that should have been scheduled from the beginning. These occurrences can be avoided by “trusting the process,” which means completing the 20-30+ hours of SAT coaching that I recommend (depending on the difference between students’ current and desired scores) right up until that last hour, and taking an honest look at practice test results along the way.
Like most things in life, there is no shortcut to SAT success. However, by trusting the process, I believe that more and more students will get the scores that they need this year, and will go on to achieve the collegiate and professional success that they are dreaming of!
Keep dreaming big,
Meg