When Is Math Tutoring The Right Choice

Many students struggle a little bit in math class, just as many people struggle in any endeavor that requires abstract, rigorous thinking. A certain level of struggle is a normal, natural part of education and does not necessarily indicate a need for tutoring. After all, one of the most valuable things students can learn in school is how to overcome difficulty by relying on themselves. However, in certain situations, tutoring can make a tremendous positive difference in a student’s education.

In my opinion, the most clear-cut situation in which a student ought to have tutoring is when that student becomes so frustrated that learning math feels like a hopeless, impossible task. Some symptoms of this situation are regular tears shed during math homework, serious avoidance of anything having to with mathematics, or an ordinarily open, honest child or teen lying about math class or refusing to discuss it. If any of these symptoms are present, the student is clearly in a place where he or she will simply not be able to pull themselves out of their difficulty on their own. A patient, understanding, non-judgmental professional tutor can make all the difference. Of course, math tutoring is not math therapy- when I am working with this type of student, we talk about fractions and variables, not emotions. Nevertheless, a sensitive and thorough tutor can effectively remove the emotional blocks that sometimes prevent success in mathematical success.

Of course, in an ideal world, no one would get to the point where they are utterly petrified by math. There is always a period of time when a student is beginning to flounder but has not yet become chronically discouraged. As I said earlier, I believe strongly that a certain amount of struggle is a valuable part of education. It builds resilience and self-reliance. The trick for parents is to see when their child is crossing the line from wrestling with a subject in a healthy way to losing the match. If a student appears to be putting a good amount of effort into his or her studies, but is nevertheless bringing home anemic test scores and the essential concepts don’t seem to be sticking, tutoring may nip the problem in the bud and prevent the student from beginning a downward spiral.

One situation in which tutoring can be counterproductive is when a bright student is floundering in math class strictly because he or she is not putting in any effort. Has your child’s teacher called you to complain that your child is spending his or her class time launching spitballs? On the one hand, tutoring might actually help with behavior problems if the root cause is that the child is trying to hide a lack of knowledge. On the other hand, if the behavioral difficulties have any other root cause, tutoring can just give the child a further excuse to not pay attention in class. (“I don’t need to listen to the teacher. I’ll just learn this stuff later with my tutor.)

Sometimes tutoring is necessary because finding good math teachers is a difficult task for schools, and they don’t always succeed. On more than one occasion, I’ve had parents call me because, although their child was doing fine in terms of school grades, there was clearly a major problem with the math class. Maybe your child reports that his or her teacher often becomes confused when trying to explain material. Maybe your child has observed that his or her math teacher isn’t fully fluent in English. Maybe you have noticed that math problems your child has copied as part of his or her class notes are often solved incorrectly. You can’t always rescue your child from a bad class, but you can make sure that he or she doesn’t fall behind by hiring a tutor to make up the difference.

The final situation that I will discuss is enrichment for the gifted or simply curious student. It’s wonderful to have a child who wants more math! However, it is important to think enrichment through carefully. Often, the first impulse is just to teach the student more advanced material. That might be fun (and it’s relatively easy for the teacher or tutor) but it’s not a tactic that I endorse. The problem is, if your student gets ahead of his or her class, when the class catches up, he or she is going to be quite bored while the rest of the class learns something that he or she has already mastered. A much better approach is to teach students math that doesn’t normally make it into school curriculums. After all, math is an enormous domain, and standard school curriculums only cover a small portion of the possibilities. By teaching unusual math, it’s possible to keep a child highly challenged without causing future problems. Better yet, that student will then have a wider and deeper range of mathematical experience to draw from than they would otherwise have had. Of course, because this approach to math tutoring is relatively difficult, it is most likely to work with an experienced, professional tutor.

Math tutoring is not a panacea, but it is nevertheless a very useful tool for a wide range of students. There are many more situations in which a parent may consider math tutoring than I have mentioned here. If you are trying to figure out if math tutoring is right for your family, I would recommend thinking about what the root cause of your difficulty is. Would highly individualized attention from an educational professional get to the root of the problem? If so, your student is a good candidate for math tutoring.

When Does It Make Sense to Get An English Tutor

No one would deny that strong English language skills are a critically important tool in America and across the world. Unfortunately, many students suffer from underdeveloped reading and writing skills, weak vocabularies, and questionable mechanics (such as punctuation and spelling). There are many ways to improve English skills, some of which can be done independently and others which work best with guidance.

Perhaps the simplest and best way for anybody to improve their reading, vocabulary, and even writing skills, is by reading widely. I always become concerned if I find out that a student of mine is reading less than one hour a day. It doesn’t have to be a solid hour of reading- breaking it up into two or three chunks is fine. In New York City, many high school students spend at least an hour each day on the train- reading during their commute to school is a great way for busy students to make time for reading. By the way, reading doesn’t have to mean books- newspapers, magazines, and other short forms are equally valuable.

As an aside, reading is not the only way to enlarge and enrich one’s English language skills. Any activity that exposes a person to rich vocabulary and complex ideas is going to be helpful. Here in New York City, we have a wide range of opportunities that are often overlooked. For example, I recommend attending theater, literary readings, and even some of the more sophisticated walking tours. There are easily dozens (maybe hundreds) of vocabulary-rich activities to choose from each day. Many are even free or inexpensive.

Sometimes, I am approached by parents who just don’t know how to get their child or teenager to read more. With young children, the task is easier. First of all, I would suggest creating time for the whole family to read. This could mean reading to your child, having your child read to you, or just sitting near each other while you both read. I would also suggest being very non-judgmental about what your child chooses to read. Comic books may not be particularly sophisticated and reading The Chamber of Secrets for the twelfth time may seem dreadfully boring, but reading is one area where quantity really does seem to be more important than quality. Of course, if you have a moral issue with something that your child selects, you have to step in, but other than that, I would not pressure a child to choose books that appeal to you.

It’s much more difficult for parents to influence whether or not their teenager reads than whether or not their pre-adolescent child reads. If you are concerned about your teenager not reading, you may want to consider finding the right tutor to help you. I have had significant success by forming small book clubs (sometimes just myself and the student, sometimes myself and several students). In general, I arrange these book clubs so that we meet once a week for about an hour. In my experience, starting out with the expectation that students will read about 100 pages per week and gradually work up to reading about 300 pages per week works well. Selecting the right books is obviously critical. In order to be successful, the books selected have to be carefully tailored to appeal to the students involved. This is one of the areas where tutoring becomes more of an art than a science.

Just as the only way to become a strong reader is to read, the only way to become a strong writer is to write. Unfortunately, it is difficult for school teachers to teach writing because grading dozens or hundreds of essays or papers is astonishingly time consuming. For this reason, many students simply do not get the writing practice they need in school. Especially with elementary school age children, parents can do a great deal to encourage writing. Making writing a letter to grandma and grandpa a tradition is one great way to encourage regular writing in a deeply meaningful way.

Some students struggle with writing much more than other students. If your child has a particularly hard time with writing or you’ve recently realized that your teenager can’t put together a sensible essay, tutoring may be the way to go. Because writing can be so personal, I often find that it is much easier for a neutral adult to help children with the editing and drafting process than it is for parents.

As a tutor who has helped quite a few children and teenagers dramatically improve their reading and/or writing abilities, I have come to the conclusion that, in most cases, practice really is the answer. Of course, in situations where dyslexia or some other learning disability is present, additional treatment by a learning specialist is in order. Most of the time, though, the way to get results- often dramatic results- is just to make a habit of reading and writing. Getting there without tears and fighting is where the challenge lies, and that’s where professional tutoring can sometimes make all the difference.

ISEE Test Preparation

The ISEE (Independent School Entrance Exam) is a test used by the admissions offices of almost all independent schools in New York City. There are three levels of ISEE given, which correspond to students applying to lower schools, middle schools, and high schools. All versions of the ISEE have multiple choice math, reading comprehension, and vocabulary questions. In addition, there is an essay which is ungraded but sent to schools. The ISEE is given many times throughout the year, but a student can only sit for it once in any six month period.

As with other standardized admissions tests, doing well on the ISEE requires a combination of real academic achievement and test-taking savvy. In the long run, the best preparation for the ISEE is being a good student and an avid reader. In the medium term, focused test preparation can also be a great help. In the short term, just get a good night’s rest. Cramming is not useful.

Many, perhaps most, students who take the ISEE will encounter at least some material that they are unfamiliar with. Sometimes, they haven’t learned the material in school and other times they have studied the concepts, but the ISEE presents them in a way that they don’t recognize. In either case, as a tutor, my first goal is to teach students whatever curriculum that they may encounter on the test but which is new or unrecognized by them. For many students, this is where they will make the majority of their gains, at least on the mathematics portion of the test.

There are two primary test-taking techniques that are very useful on the math sections of the ISEE. One of these techniques is called “plugging in”, as in “plug the answer choices into the question, and see which one works”. The other is called “picking numbers” as in, “pick a number, plug it into the question and then plug it into the answer choices, and when you have something that matches, you have the right answer”. Of course, with the students I tutor, I go into these methods in much greater detail.

On the reading comprehension portion of the ISEE, students who read a lot always have an advantage. However, there are certain test taking techniques that benefit all students. One of my favorites is the process of elimination. When faced with a tough reading comprehension question, it often helps students to turn things around and ask themselves, “Which of these do I know for sure is a wrong answer choice?” In this way, they can eliminate the worst answer choices and focus more effectively on the choices that might actually prove fruitful.

Writing the essay is easy for some students and difficult for others. This is an area where practice really is the answer for kids who have a tough time. Also, I feel it is important to prepare students to write on any type of essay topic. In particular, ISEE essay topics can sometimes be uncomfortably personal. I coach students in how to successfully write on topics that they are not particularly comfortable discussing with strangers. The exact approach depends on the student, but one that often works is to write an obviously fictional and humorous response to a deeply personal and serious question. For example, if the topic were to discuss a conflict the student has had with his or her parents, I might suggest writing about the time your mother made you share your bedroom with the pony she brought home two Thursdays ago.

The ISEE is a timed test, and I have found that the time limit is a real difficulty for many students. For this reason, it is important for any student studying for the ISEE to observe the time limits given on practice tests and pay close attention to pacing. Also, it is important for students to be realistic about whether or not they can complete each section of the test. I guide my students in making this assessment - most of the time, students can complete the test, but occasionally it is better to be strategic and leave several questions undone at the end of one or more sections.

At all times, it is important to remember that the ISEE is only one portion of Independent School admissions. Schools look at test scores, but they also look at grades, personal essays, teacher recommendations, interviews and extracurricular activities. It is worth working hard to prepare for the ISEE exam, but it is just one test- it doesn’t determine the path of anyone’s life. Keep it in perspective, and do your best.

Is Homeschooling Right for Your Family?

I’ve been a private tutor in New York City for the past five years, and in that time I have worked extensively with eight different homeschoolers and had contact with a number of others. Some of these families are providing their children with absolutely magnificent educations. Others are doing a very poor job of it. I’ve given a great deal of thought to the characteristics that set successful homeschooling families apart from unsuccessful ones, and I believe I have some useful ideas for helping families determine whether or not they ought to take the plunge. Of course there are both academic and non-academic considerations to take into account with education, but my topic here is to primarily discuss the academic issues.

My first question for any parents considering homeschooling is: Why? There are many possible answers to this question, but I think most of the time, the answers fall into one of three categories. First, there are families who simply feel that they can provide their child with a better education than they could get in any available school. Next, there are families who find themselves in a difficult situation, and homeschooling seems like it might provide a solution (although it was never a first choice). Finally, there are families with children who work (usually as actors) and who can’t reasonably go to regular school, too.

All of these categories contain both successful and unsuccessful homeschooling families, although the most common the pitfalls seem to be different. Among families who want to try homeschooling because they believe they can provide a truly superior education, I’ve noticed one major downfall- parents who assume that their interests form the core of a good education. For example, I had a friend in college who was rather bitter about the fact that her parent’s (both math majors from Harvard) version of homeschooling led her to be rather competent at beginning calculus by the age of 11, but sadly unable to write more than a simple sentence or two until she entered public school in the 6th grade.

On the other hand, I now have a homeschooling student whose parents know they can’t do math or science justice- that’s why they’ve hired me and it’s why they make a great effort to make sure a variety of adults who are fluent in math and science contribute to her education. That child is getting a great education in the humanities from her parents and a great education in math and science from me and other people.

Unfortunately, no one is fully competent in every subject that a child should be exposed to, especially as they get older and material gets more complicated. Have you thought about how you will address all of the subjects that your child should be studying, and not just the ones that are your own personal favorites? Have you considered what the implications are of potentially passing on your own academic weaknesses or prejudices to your child? Do you have a plan to avoid, or at least ameliorate, this potential pitfall?

In my experience, families who consider homeschooling because of a difficult situation are perhaps the most diverse group. These are also some of the families who have the most trouble making homeschooling work, for the simple reason that they are already under some sort of intense stress, which makes everything more difficult. The questions I would pose to these families are: Why do you think homeschooling will improve your situation? Do you realistically have the time and energy to devote to this important project? I have seen families who were forced into homeschooling make it work very well and I have also seen homeschooling degenerate into something quite awful.

My favorite example of a family that was forced into homeschooling by circumstance but made it work well for them is a family consisting of an aunt and uncle who adopted their very troubled and severely school-phobic nephew. By the time they adopted their nephew, he had already learned to associate school with failure and responded to it with a mixture of indifference and aggression. It was bad enough when he was a prepubecent child, but as he entered adolescence the situation became absolutely untenable. For this student, homeschooling has been a wonderful second chance that has allowed him to begin learning without having to carry the baggage from his previous failures around. He has made enormous progress in the years since I began working with him. I truly believe that he could not have made this amount of progress in any other environment.

On the other hand, I once participated in the homeschooling of a boy whose mother was terminally ill. The situation was even worse than you might think because she was on medication that made her quite literally and dramatically insane. The poor woman had many frightening hallucinations and became so fearful that she sometimes didn’t allow her son to leave their apartment for stretches of several days. Although homeschooling by a team of professional educators allowed him to more or less keep up academically, the emotional cost of being isolated from his friends and the outside world while he was trying to deal with his mother’s illness made a terrible situation even worse. I truly believe that it would have been better for him to go to school. Even if he had failed every subject, just getting outside of the house and seeing his peers would have been an improvement.

Finally, there are families with a professional child. In these situations, the relevant questions aren’t so much about homeschooling, they’re really about the child’s career. Can this individual child handle a career? Is the desire for a career truly coming from the child? If the career doesn’t carry over into adulthood, will he or she have the skills necessary to make a life in another way? I’ve only known one professional child personally, and she was a charming 8th grade girl who truly loved acting. I homeschooled her while she was performing in an off-Broadway play. She was quite driven to succeed in all aspects of her life, and she was able to do remarkably well in terms of keeping up with her academics as well as her career. I had a lot of admiration for the way she handled all aspects of her life. I also respected the fact that her parents supported her desire to pursue a career in acting, but they absolutely did not push her. Her situation was close to ideal. On the other hand, she told me some disturbing stories about other professional children that she knew who were essentially coerced into pursuing acting careers that they did not want for themselves. Obviously, that is a deeply unethical choice for parents to force on their child. Homeschooling is really beside the point.

In my experience, homeschooling families generally do pretty well (and often extremely well) when they enter into homeschooling with their child’s interests truly front and center. They often run into problems when homeschooling is more about the parents than the child. Ask yourself why and how you want to do this before you start. Be as honest as you can with your answers. The way you think about your child’s education will undoubtedly change over time, but if you keep those questions in mind, your chances of making the right choice for your family is quite good.

Improving Biology Education

Everybody agrees that education is important. Likewise, it has become a commonplace to say that we aren’t educating the nation’s children as well as we should. Improving education is an exceptionally complex task, but one part of the problem is that we’re having trouble as a society defining what a “good education” actually is. This is a particular problem in subjects that are politically and emotionally charged. One of the most acrimonious areas of education is the one that is also nearest to my own heart: biology. Allow me to lay out some thoughts on what a sound education in biology ought to look like, and what the benefits of this might be on both the individual and the societal level.

First, and perhaps most importantly, it is critical that all sciences, including biology, are taught as a process and a way of thinking, rather than a set of facts that are “true” and must be memorized. For example, one of the more startling ideas in biology is that much of the weight of an oak tree has actually been pulled out of thin air. If someone just told me that, and I had no idea where the information came from, I’d think they were a bit loopy at best or trying to sell me a bill of gods at worst. [i] Equipped with an actual understanding of the scientific inquiry that went into this discovery, I not only believe it, but more importantly I understand and remember it as well. Now, replicating even the simplest of the experiments scientists used to unravel the question “How do plants gain weight?” would be difficult in the average classroom and probably not the best use of precious time. But looking into case studies like this one is a fabulous way to learn about both scientific facts and scientific thinking.

Once we start thinking about biology as a process of acquiring knowledge about living things and biology education as an opportunity to understand that process and hone critical thinking skills at the same time, we will be in a much stronger position to improve science education than we are in now. At that point, we’ll be well placed to reliably turn out scientifically literate high school graduates and also to tackle teaching more politically charged aspects of biology education.

Without question, the most politically charged aspect of biology is evolution. It is also among the very most important scientific ideas ever elucidated. If we present evolution in the classroom as “ great man, Charles Darwin, discovered evolution, and now we know that people descended from apes without the help of God” we have only ourselves to blame if 65 % of American citizens are creationists[ii]. Evolution education might not be quite that bad in most schools, but I’ll warrant that it’s not too much better. What do we lose if evolution is understood by only a minority of Americans? Well, from an aesthetic point of view, it seems a shame that so many of us don’t understand one of the big ideas about how the world works. From a practical perspective, it’s just plain scary that most of the farmers who use antibiotics to help their livestock gain weight and most of the patients who don’t follow their doctor’s instruction when it comes to taking antibiotics don’t understand the role they are playing in promoting the evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

One frequent complaint I hear from students in high school biology classes is that there is so much memorization. This is more closely linked to the failures of our educational system than you might think at first. True, there is a significant amount of new vocabulary that students must learn if they are going to be able to speak, think, read, and write about new concepts. However, a biology class should never feel like a pile of memorization to slog through. The most important thing we can do to change this is to focus on the how’s and why’s of biology rather than just the conclusions that biologists have drawn over the years. In this way, students will be making connections and developing big picture concepts rather than just memorizing niggling little facts. An important result of this type of education is that years after high school is over, a student who actually developed a genuine understanding of biology is far less likely to be the person frivolously abusing antibiotics.

Another way to greatly improve this situation is to eliminate pure survey classes and require students to study one or two areas in much greater depth. One model that I have seen work quite well at the introductory high school level is to have a traditional survey-style class supplemented by two significant research projects. One of the research projects was a hands-on experiment (or series of experiments), much like a traditional science fair project. The other was an in-depth library-based research project, much like a term paper more traditionally seen in history classes. These types of projects are not without costs. Most notably, they are very hard on the teacher. It takes a tremendous amount of time and energy to coordinate a hundred (or usually more) projects, each on a different topic. This is daunting for a teacher even under the best of circumstances and can be impossible in more difficult situations. Nevertheless, the benefits are clear and significant. Not only do these types of projects give students an opportunity to develop a real understanding of scientific thinking, but they also give the students a library of interlinked facts to refer to when they are trying to make sense of the big picture in biology. For example, a student who chooses to do a research report on handedness and brain asymmetry in humans will undoubtedly learn about neurology, evolution, and epilepsy as well. As an added bonus, if the projects are structured properly, students get much needed practice making visual and oral presentations and writing non-fiction papers. Rather than just throwing up our hands and saying that this type of education is too difficult to organize, we need to structure our schools (and exert peer-pressure on parents) so that this type of higher-level learning becomes feasible.

A good education in biology should be a routine part of the education that every American student receives. We need to structure curriculums and classrooms so that science is taught as a process and method rather than some sort of received truth. This type of science education is an important part of teaching students to have strong critical thinking skills and for ensuring that they have the tools to not simply negotiate the modern world, but also thrive in it.
[i] In the 17th century, Jean-Baptiste van Helmont carefully measured the weight of the soil in a large pot. Then he planted a willow seedling in the pot and allowed it to grow for 5 years. Then he once again carefully measured the weight of the soil and the willow plant. The willow had grown into a tree weighing over one hundred sixty pounds but the soil had lost much less than one pound of weight. He hypothesized that plants got most of their weight from water. Much later, as scientists became generally more aware that air is made up of matter, they began to suspect that plants might grow largely by absorbing material from the air. In the 1950’s, scientist used radioactive isotopes to label water and carbon dioxide that plants took in and finally demonstrated that the carbon in plants comes from atmospheric carbon dioxide while the oxygen and hydrogen come from water molecules. Of course, there were many experiments studying the question of where plants get matter from in the years between these two particular experiments. Some of them are quite interesting and accessible, but they are nevertheless beyond the scope of this footnote. To learn more, you might want to start by looking up Stephen Hales and C.B. van Niel.

[ii] Angier, Natalie. The Canon. New York: Mariner Books, 2007
[1] In the 17th century, Jean-Baptiste van Helmont carefully measured the weight of the soil in a large pot. Then he planted a willow seedling in the pot and allowed it to grow for 5 years. Then he once again carefully measured the weight of the soil and the willow plant. The willow had grown into a tree weighing over one hundred sixty pounds but the soil had lost much less than one pound of weight. He hypothesized that plants got most of their weight from water. Much later, as scientists became generally more aware that air is made up of matter, they began to suspect that plants might grow largely by absorbing material from the air. In the 1950’s, scientist used radioactive isotopes to label water and carbon dioxide that plants took in and finally demonstrated that the carbon in plants comes from atmospheric carbon dioxide while the oxygen and hydrogen come from water molecules. Of course, there were many experiments studying the question of where plants get matter from in the years between these two particular experiments. Some of them are quite interesting and accessible, but they are nevertheless beyond the scope of this footnote. To learn more, you might want to start by looking up Stephen Hales and C.B. van Niel.

[1] Angier, Natalie. The Canon. New York: Mariner Books, 2007

Advice for the SAT Bound Student

The SAT is perhaps the most feared and misunderstood test in our culture. It’s not an IQ test, but it helps to be smart. It’s not a content test, but it helps to know your stuff. Many people with great scores never studied for it, but almost anyone can do better with practice. In some ways, it is a deeply flawed exam but it nevertheless tells colleges something useful about their applicants. More to the point, it is here to stay. As a tutor who works with many standardized admissions exams, including the SAT, I have thought about the test quite a lot over the years. Here is my advice for how to handle this quintessentially American coming of age ordeal.

First of all, let me be very clear: the single best way to prepare for the SAT is to be a good student over the long haul. No tutor or prep class can replace the benefits of paying attention in all of your classes and doing all of your homework (thoughtfully). It’s even better if you choose more challenging classes rather than easier ones. And of course, reading is critical. The books assigned in school are not meant to be a complete reading diet for any student; achieving highly in many areas, including the SAT, will be much easier if you read independently and voraciously. Being a good student and an active reader have many benefits that go far beyond getting a good score on the SAT. But it is also true that you are unlikely to get the foundation you need to score highly in any other way.

Being studious is the best SAT preparation that anyone can do, but if you are reading this, you are probably looking for more specific ways to prepare. In the medium term (roughly one to six months before the test) the best thing to do is to set a schedule for yourself and practice taking SAT sections and whole SAT exams regularly. The amount you study will depend on how busy the rest of your life is and what your goals are, but a decent rule of thumb is to do one SAT section a day, five days per week and to take one full-length test per month. Of course, grading yourself and going over the answer explanations for the questions that you got wrong is as important as actually taking the practice tests.

But what about test taking tricks? Many people are under the impression that the key to doing well on the SAT is to know a bunch of magic codes that somehow crack the test wide open. While there are genuinely valuable test-taking techniques, they aren’t magic. They also aren’t secret. I would summarize the most important techniques as follows:

1) Especially for math problems, view the answer choices as an important tool to help you find the answer.

2) If there is a variable in a math question and variables in the answer choices, you can plug your own number into the question and generally figure out the answer.

3) In many sections, the early questions are easier than the later questions. If a late question seems easy, be suspicious that there is a trap that you haven’t noticed.

4) The process of elimination is your friend.

5) For the essay, make sure that your essay has paragraphs, a beginning, middle, and end, and try to fill up most of the space you have been given.

6) Pace yourself. Don’t linger on a particularly tough problem.

I know that these suggestions aren’t as specific as you might like. To fully elucidate and explain them is outside of the scope of this article. However there are several ways you can get more detailed explanations. The least expensive option is to get a few SAT test prep books and begin a course of independent study. If you are not disciplined enough for that to work well or if you learn better through verbal discussions with another person rather than reading a book, you may want to consider tutoring. Working with a good SAT prep tutor is much like working with a good personal trainer: you get very specific, individualized advice and you also get built-in accountability and motivation.

No matter how you prepare for the SAT, remember that your SAT score can be important, but it will not define your life. College admissions depend on far more than just your SAT scores, and where you go to college will hardly be the most important thing about your life. While I admire and encourage hard work and high achievement, excessive worry and cramming is simply counterproductive. Likewise, if you score well on the SAT but don’t put in the necessary effort in other aspects of your life, your SAT score won’t get you that far. Study hard, but maintain a sense of perspective.