The Night Before the Test
You’ve been planning for this; you’ve studied and practiced and studied some more, and now the thing is tomorrow. The big test, those all-important pages that will determine your future education. You crack open your study guide (for the last time, hopefully) and start to review.
You notice a question that stumps you for a minute or two, and you go review that topic. And since you’re reviewing that, you might as well double-check a few other things. How many practice quizzes will it take for you to beat your top score? And while you’re checking answers, you see the vocab list and realize that you don’t know at least half the words on it. Panic! You studied and studied, memorized all kinds of vocab, but what if none of it is on the test? What if they ask about that algebra concept you never quite mastered? There’s not much time left! But at least you have the nighttime hours to cram as much knowledge as you can into your head. So you’d better put on a pot of coffee and get down to studying, right?
Wrong — and stop, just stop. Take a deep breath before you do something you will most definitely regret when you wake up, mind in a fog, to a drool-covered test booklet and an empty answer sheet at the end of section 3.
Most tutors and teachers agree that there is only one thing you absolutely must do the night before a big test: get a good night’s sleep. Sleep is essential for peak cognitive function — scientists don’t know exactly why it’s so important, but it’s clear that without regular sleep (around 8 hours a night for most people, more for adolescents and teens), the brain simply does not work properly. Sleep deprivation is a faster way to kill a laboratory rat than starvation, and extended sleep deprivation is considered torture (it was used, for example, in Stalinist Russia).
So, why would you volunteer for sleep deprivation the night before the SAT (or the SSAT, or the ACT, or a math midterm, or…)? You’re signing up your brain for the initial stages of actual torture! It may be tempting, but just don’t do it. No amount of extra studying is worth the drop in performance you’ll see because you chose cramming over sleep.
What you should do the evening before the test is relax. If you must review, choose word roots over huge lists of vocab words, and choose quick strategy review over last-minute practice tests. But, even better: have a nutritious dinner and watch a fun movie with your friends before getting those 8+ hours of sleep. You’ve been planning for this; you’ve studied and practiced. You’re ready. Why stress?