Why Students Need to Stop Studying for the PSAT

 I do more than ADHD coaching.  I’m also a tutor.  I work on the Wyzant platform (if you are looking for me) and I tutor high school and college students in English and the humanities.  Fall is a busy time for tutors.  The students have started new classes and it takes about a month to start falling behind or to realize you are in over your head.  It’s also time for college admission essays.  On top of that, it’s time for the PSAT.  I hate the PSAT.  Well, not the test.  I have problems with the test, but I don’t hate it.  I hate how it’s handled.  Many schools just tell students when they will be taking the PSAT and they do that on short notice, unlike the SAT or ACT, which is scheduled and planned for months in advance.  Which isn’t to say that nobody knows it’s coming.  It’s coming.  You’ve known that since 7th grade.  Somewhere between mid-October and mid-November, the PSAT will be given.  It happens every year.  You know what else happens every year?  Requests to help students cram for the PSAT.  Students find out that the PSAT will be given in two weeks or one week or (as happened to a student of mine this semester) two days.  This seems really unfair.  It is certainly shocking.  It definitely causes a lot of anxiety.  But it’s not unfair.  And here’s why it’s not unfair: You can’t study for the PSAT. 

I know, I’m gonna get backlash from that.  But it’s true.  It’s just not that kind of test.  It’s not a test of knowledge; it’s a test of skills.  Now, it is perfectly possible to improve one’s reading, writing, and math skills.  But that isn’t really done by studying; it’s done by practice.  If you want to be a better reader, read.  If you want to be a better writer, write.  If you want to be better at math… okay, study the formulas.  But once you know them, then all you can do is do the math.  What you absolutely can’t do is cram.  There’s nothing to cram.  You can practice and should, but that should just be part of learning.  If you can’t pick out the main idea of a reading passage, there’s nothing that can be done in 72 hours that will change that.  Just like an IQ test, the PSAT measures how you think and process information.

The PSAT is like an IQ test in another very important way.  They’re both meaningless.  The IQ test has no scientific basis and cannot measure how well a person can learn and the PSAT has no scientific basis and cannot measure how well a person has learned.  Really, the only thing the PSAT measures is how well you might do on the SAT.  And that’s all it’s supposed to measure.  That P stands for Practice.  The PSAT is there to help you learn what areas you might want to improve before taking the SAT.  But you can’t study for the SAT either.  Which is why the PSAT is given at least one year in advance of the SAT.  To give students time to improve their skills, not learn new material.
And not doing well on the PSAT or SAT does not predict college (or life) success.  If you want to know how well you will do in college, then look at how well you did in high school.  College isn’t a collection of standardized tests; it’s a collection of classes.  GPA is a better indicator of how well a student will do in college.  But even that… college is different than high school.  In many ways, it’s more flexible and more adaptable.  Students who don’t do well in high school may thrive in college because they get to create their schedule, pick their classes, determine their own path.  And some who do well in high school flounder in college for the same reasons.  What is most likely to help students succeed in college is support.  If a student goes to a college that fits their passions and personality, if a student has friends and family to lean on in the hard times, if a student takes advantage of the services colleges provide, that is going to determine if they thrive.
Let’s take some of the pressure off of our high school students.  Stop studying for the PSAT.  Use those scores for what they are meant for, to see if there are areas where skills can be improved.  Work on improving those skills, if you like.  But the PSAT does not determine a child’s future.  Stop acting like it does.

I Don’t Know Why They Say It Isn’t: Failure Is Always An Option

 Why does failure have to be a negative thing?  Who decreed it so?  Who decided people should always succeed?  Don’t get me wrong; I like success.  It’s great.  I’ll even go so far as to say that I prefer success over failure.  But failure’s fine, too.  Why not? 

Most pro-failure posts are going to go on about how great failure is because that’s how you learn.  And it absolutely is.  That’s pretty much the only way to learn.  But what if you fail and it turns out that it’s not a learning opportunity.  It just didn’t work out.  That’s okay, too.  Not everything in life has to matter.  Not everything has to have value.  Sometimes, stuff just happens.  Sure, it’s wonderful if you can learn from a failure and use it to motivate you to improve.  Yeah, you go!   
When I went for the written portion of my driving test, back in the days when we used dinosaurs (do you know how hard it is to parallel park a Brontosaurus?), I failed.  That’s it.  I took the test and I didn’t get enough answers right and I failed the test.  I went back the next day and retook the test and passed it.  Not the best story.  I didn’t learn a lesson about perseverance or determination.  There was no montage of me staying up all night, surrounded by books with titles like, “The Law of the Road” and “Driving and You,” drinking too much coffee, falling asleep with pencils in my hair.  I didn’t have an emotional breakthrough as I discovered that, yes, test anxiety is real and I have it!  I don’t think I even studied again.  I just shrugged it off, came back the next day, and got my permit.  No, it wasn’t material for an After School Special or Lifetime Movie.  But it also wasn’t material for an After School Special or Lifetime Movie, if you see what I am saying.  It was just something that happened.  I don’t know why.  Maybe I was distracted or nervous.  Maybe I didn’t read the questions (or answers) correctly.  Maybe... I can’t even think of a reason.  I just didn’t pass.  It wasn’t meaningful or tragic or inspirational.   
Life is filled with so many giant, life-changing events, but not everything has to be one.  It’s okay to fail and have it mean nothing.  Unless you are skydiving, you should feel free to fail.  Most of the time, it isn’t going to matter.  Sometimes it will be good.  It will mean that you’ve learned something and that you have the opportunity to change and explore new paths and possibilities.  Embrace those moments!  They can change your whole outlook on life.  They can be what drives you.  They can be the best things that ever happen to you.  Or it will be something you never really think about again. 

Why does this matter?  Because fear of failure stops people from doing things.  Things they want to do.  Things they need to do.  Things that will help them grow and will allow them to live the life they want to live.  People are afraid to fail because someone said failure is bad.  Again, I don’t know who, but it must have been someone important because now almost everyone agrees failure is bad.  But most people can’t tell you why.  Just simply because it isn’t success.  But what if we stopped thinking that?  What if we strived to do our best for the sake of doing our best and not for the sake of succeeding?  What if we tried things and didn’t worry about the outcome?   
Yes, of course, there are times when success really matters.  I hope that my surgeon and my banker and my veterinarian are all very successful.  But does it really matter if you don’t pass a test when you are allowed to retake the test as many times as you want?  No.  Not really.  Does it really matter if you lose at bar trivia or at a pick-up basketball game?  Does it really matter if you look stupid when you dance?  No, none of that matters.  Go try something new.  If you fail at it, that’s okay.  If you don’t learn anything when you fail at it, that’s okay, too.  You can pick yourself up and try again or you can just move on to something else.   

In Favor of Procrastination: Why Putting Off Tasks Makes You More Productive

 Rather aptly, I keep putting off writing this post.  It’s been sitting on my to-do list for more than two weeks.  And I am supposed to write a post at least once a week.  So my social media coach tells me.  (Yeah, coaches have coaches) I’ve had the skeleton to this post, but I just haven’t gotten around to turning that into a full post.  

 

Procrastination gets such a bad rap. But like most things in life, it is neutral.  It’s all in how you use it.  Procrastination lets you know that you are not working at your peak performance. Putting something off can let you come back to it with renewed energy and fresh eyes.   Forcing yourself to plow through something when you have lost focus is not going to produce the high-quality results you want.  Sometimes plowing is a necessity.  Sometimes there are deadlines or other people are waiting on you or you plow through the boring parts to get to the good stuff.  But if it’s not a necessity, then stick that work in a drawer and come back to it.  Let your mind think about something else.  Take that break or work on something else.  When you come back to the original activity, you will be able to really see it.  It’s like when you spend half an hour looking for your keys, only to have someone else find them, sitting out in the open on a table you’ve walked past a dozen times during your search.  The more we look at something, especially if there is an urgency or emotional element, the less likely we are to really see it.   

It gives you time to consider a problem or come up with a more creative solution.   Thinking about something else can sometimes spark ideas.  Archimedes was tasked by the king to figure out how much gold was in the royal crown.  You see, he thought the metalsmith had cheated him by mixing the gold with silver.  Archimedes pondered this conundrum but was unable to come up with a solution.  He grew frustrated and decided to put the problem aside and go take a bath.  Hey, who doesn’t like a nice bath at the end of a hard day?  Archimedes filled the tub and when he got in it, water splashed over the side.  He yelled, “Eureka!” and went running, naked, from the bathhouse and down the streets, screaming about water displacement, volume, and oh, how the king was going to love him.  Okay, that probably never happened.  But that’s the story and it has a good moral.  Go take a bath.  Or go for a run (clothed, please).  Or play a game.  Or just sit and observe the world around you.  You may not come up with a physics axiom, but you might be inspired to find what you need to move forward. 

Procrastination reduces stress by letting you know that you need rest and rejuvenation.  Your body and brain can only take so much.  Stress reduces efficiency.  Let’s say you spend 3 hours working on something, but you are forcing every step of it.  You’re working at maybe 35% efficiency and it keeps getting lower as you plow through.  But what if you worked at 35% efficiency for half an hour and then said, “Forget this, I’m gonna go take a bath.”  You soak in the tub for half an hour and then you come back to your work, rested and with a positive outlook.  Now you’re working at 80% efficiency.  And yes, you took half an hour off, but that only lowered your overall efficiency to, like, 62%. No, that’s not 100%. That’s not even 80%, but it’s a lot better than 35%. 

Procrastination can tell you if you are prioritizing your work correctly and help you work more efficiently. Sometimes we put things off because we tell ourselves that they are not that important. And here’s the thing: sometimes that’s true. And that’s good to know. We push to the foreground those things that have deadlines or where someone else is involved and waiting on us. Because cleaning the kitchen can be done after that assignment that is due in the morning.  

 

 

 
Of course, it’s only procrastination if things get done in the end. If things aren’t getting done, that’s not procrastination; that’s not getting things done. Which is a whole different topic which we will cover in another post. When I get around to it. Procrastination can be overused and that makes your life more difficult. But let’s not say all procrastination is bad. Because it isn’t.  Before trying to force your way through the procrastination, see if that procrastination isn’t trying to tell you something. Maybe it’s time for a rest or time to change subjects for a while or time to just sit and think. Listening to your procrastination can help you to work smarter. 

Break it Down, Build it Up

You’re chilling on the couch.  Maybe playing a game, maybe watching YouTube, maybe just daydreaming.  You have something to do.  It might be big or small.  You know how to do it.  You have everything you need to do it.  You have the time to do it.  You even want to do it.  But for some reason, you just can’t make yourself get up and do it. 

This is a common scenario for people with ADHD.  You may even struggle with this every day.  The advice most often given is to break it down.  Stop seeing what you have to do as something that is huge and overwhelming.  Break it down into its smallest parts.  If you have to clean the kitchen, then the first step is to go to the kitchen.  No big deal, right?  You go to the kitchen all the time.  So, you get up and go to the kitchen.  Now all you have to do is take the dishes that are sitting on the counter and put them into the sink.  You can do that.  That doesn’t even require you to take more than a few steps.  After that, you might as well rinse off the dishes and put them in the dishwasher.  Oops, that was too big; you hear the couch calling you back.  Okay, then just the glasses.  Some of them have milk in them and you just know those are going to stink if you leave them.  Just the glasses.  Hey, that went well, so might as well work on the bowls.  So on and so forth and before you know it, you’ve gotten the dishes done.  And that’s the hardest part of cleaning the kitchen.  Now you just have to wipe the counters, maybe sweep the floor.  But, hey, after doing the dishes, these things are nothing, hardly any effort at all.  And when you are done, you get to sit in your nice, clean kitchen and have a bowl of ice cream while you play Pokemon or Candy Crush, with nothing hanging over your head.  That sounds great!  And it is great.  It is a tried and true method.  There are studies and research that will bear this out as an effective method to get things done. 
But it’s not the only method.  Breaking things down only works if the problem is that you are feeling overwhelmed by your task.  And that’s not always the reason for procrastination and avoidance. 

Sometimes we don’t get things done because they are already too small.  We tell ourselves, “It won’t take but a minute to load the dishwasher.”  And because we believe the task is so simple and not at all time consuming, you put it off because we can always do it later.  We can save it for the last minute because that’s all it will take.  We break it down in our minds until it is so small that it becomes insignificant.  In that case, the answer can be to make it bigger, more complicated, more urgent.  Now, we don’t want a list that says, 1. Rinse dishes, 2. Put dishes in dishwasher, 3. Wipe down counters, 4. Sweep floor.  Here, it might be more effective to have one item on the list: Clean kitchen.  This will allow you to get a more realistic time frame.  Before you told yourself that each of those activities would take just a minute or two.  But seen as a whole, you know it’s going to take 45 minutes.  This also allows you to see the larger impact that the activity has.  Not having a swept floor is a small thing.  Not having a clean kitchen is bigger.  You can’t cook in a dirty kitchen.  You don’t even want to walk into a dirty kitchen.  Now, it has more urgency because it’s something you need to get done before you can do other, more pleasant things, like getting a bowl of ice cream and sitting down to play Angry Birds or solitaire.
Sometimes you need to break things down, but sometimes you need to build things up.  There’s no one solution that is going to work every time.  Circumstances change and the solution with them. 

Hey, You! I Have Something Important to Tell You

Yes, you. You, the person with ADHD who just happened upon my blog. I want to talk to you. I want to tell you that this is really happening to you. Your life is very difficult. It’s harder for you than it is for others around you. You aren’t making it up. You aren’t exaggerating it. You aren’t milking it for sympathy. This is actually happening to you. And I’m sorry because it sucks. It’s hard and painful and, yeah, it just sucks. But please understand: It sucks; you don’t. You are doing an amazing job. Really above and beyond. You are trying so hard. And it shows. Right now, it might feel like your life is falling apart around you and you are holding it together with duct tape and safety pins. Wow! That is so great! You are amazing! You have the strength of a thousand! And I am really, really proud of you. If nobody has told you what a spectacular job you are doing, let me. You are doing a spectacular job. You are fighting through a hundred different obstacles just to make it to the end of the day. And you do it. It isn’t always pretty, but you are holding it together. You deserve a pat on the back. Give yourself a pat on the back. Now, I want to invite you to imagine what you could do if you had more than duct tape and safety pins. Imagine what you could accomplish if you had a toolbox full of tools at your disposal. Imagine the heights you could reach, the worlds you could build, the dreams you could live.

I cannot be too clear about this: There is nothing wrong with you. In fact, if you have ADHD, it’s likely that you’re a pretty cool person. You are probably caring and funny and just a joy to be around, in general. You’re fine, so stop trying to fix yourself. You can’t fix what ain’t broken. And trying is only causing you pain. What you can fix are the mental and physical environments in which you live. You can change how you think about yourself. You can change how you approach life. You can change what it means to be successful, productive, and happy. You can take control of the world around you and adjust it to fit you.  
And I really hope you will. I hope that you will take control of your world because you deserve more than duct tape and safety pins. You deserve the best in life. You deserve to have your dreams come true. And you deserve to rest. Really, you must be exhausted. Life shouldn’t be this hard. And when you realize that you aren’t the problem, it will start to get easier. Love yourself for who you are. Because you’re so damn lovable.  

You are freaking awesome!  I just thought you should know. 

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Welcome to my new blog!

 Hi!  I'm Jennifer.  

Let me tell you a little about myself.  I am an ADHD coach, working primarily with high school, college, and adult students.  I am also a digital nomad, traveling North America with my Jeep, my gypsy trailer, and my bunny rabbit, Thor.  

ADHD and other executive functioning disorders run in my family and have been part of my life since I was born.  I went to Towson University (no worries, nobody else has heard of it either) and got my degree in English with a specialty in Writing.  I started out my career as a tutor for special education students.  I could see that my students needed help with more than understanding Macbeth.  I went on to teach GED classes at a correctional halfway house.  While I was there, I met many students who were there becuase they had needed help at some point in their lives and they didn't get it.  I wanted to be that help.  
I enrolled in the ADDCA Coaching Program.  I have finished my classwork and expect to finish my field work in June.  I'm very excited! 

 In this blog, I will share with you information, insights, and opinions about ADHD.  I welcome any questions that you might have and I will answer any that you send me or leave in the comments.  I will probably also talk a little about my adventures and my bunny.  Welcoming people to your blog is the virtual equivalent of inviting someone to your living room.  Please treat it like that.  Make yourself comfotable, but I would appreciate it if you would use a coaster.