The Power of Habit

Conditioning for an academic performance such as this requires that you learn how to connect with your many types of intelligence: analytical, visual, logical, corporal, verbal, intuitive, and emotional.

When you retry problems you missed on a practice test, do you feel you have learned something by merely getting it right on a second attempt? Or just in reading the answer explanation? If so, then you are merely “problem collecting,” because there really is no second attempt when it comes to standardized tests. Only first tries count—first tries of problems you have never seen before. In other words, these tests are by nature performative, not content-driven.

It is the difference between looking at a problem as an object—to be collected until you have enough of them to succeed—and analyzing how you performed on a problem—like an athletic coach watching a video of a scrimmage, assessing what worked and what did not. When you learn to treat every problem as the Superbowl, US Open, or World Series, with the eyes of a coach and the conditioning of an athlete, success is assured.