The Evil Test Writer

Here's an image I encourage my students the picture in their heads: The Evil Test Writer.

The Evil Test Writer, as I tell my students, is the person writing the SAT or ACT whose sole purpose in life is to torture SAT and ACT test takers with mean traps and dirty tricks.

There are a number of traps and tricks an Evil Test Writer sets. For example: overloading a reading passage with burdensome vocabulary words. Or, presenting information in a math word problem out of logical order.

I encourage my students to picture this nasty person as the Big Boss in the video game who must be taken down.

Not unlike video game success, SAT and ACT success is pattern recognition through repeated practice. The more experience you have going up against the Big Boss, i.e. the Evil Test Writer, the more likely you will recognize how they try and draw you away from the right answers with smoke and mirrors.

Personifying the test as the Evil Test Writer helps motivate students. When they are able to craft a concrete vision of the enemy trying to divert them from their path of success, they can channel their focus and energy on the question in front of them.

Next time you gear up for an SAT or ACT test or practice, envision the success you have as you take down the Evil Test Writer by recognizing their traps and tricks.