One of the biggest obstacles for students preparing for standardized tests is knowing where to start. There's no clear map to follow, and the thought of slogging through a 400-page prep-book or embarking on a comprehensive math or grammar review is intimidating. On the other hand, people tend to gravitate to things that come easy to them, avoiding things that don't. That approach might make you feel good, but it's not efficient or effective. As a result, students tend to either procrastinate, waste time studying topics that are rarely or never tested, or just get overwhelmed and give up.
Yes, test prep is a mountain, but it's scalable. You can get to the peak. But like any trek, it's easier with a guide, and it's easier when you take it one foothold at a time. So how do I determine the best path to take? Well, I'm a former options trader, so I value leverage. What does that mean? It means multiplying effort - the same way a crowbar or a pulley works. Like most things in life, there is more than one way to solve a standardized test problem. But not all methods are created equal. You can use scissors to cut your lawn, or you can use a riding lawnmower. Both get the job done, but I know which one I'd choose.
I subscribe to the 80/20 Principle, which states that 80% of the outputs stem from 20% of the inputs. In practice, the ratio is often even higher than that. Applying this to test prep, another way to think about it is that 80% of the results come from 20% of the techniques, effort, and time. So, given two perspectives on a problem, or two methods to solve it, I opt for the technique that can be applied to more than just that one problem. I want the all-purpose tool, not the specialized one.
A great example of this in practice comes from “Saving Private Ryan”. In the Battle for Ramelle, the 101st airborne find themselves in a David vs. Goliath situation, out-manned and out-armed, defending a critical bridge from the German Waffen-SS and their feared "King Tiger" tanks. The "King Tiger" was a marvel of complicated machinery, and the costliest German tank to produce at the time (approximately $4.2 million in 2018 dollars). It required over 300,000 man-hours to manufacture, and hundreds more to train a soldier to use. It was a complicated, special-purpose tool, with a simple, fatal flaw - the wheels ran on tracks, so they wouldn't get stuck in the mud. Blow the wheels off the tracks, however, and the tank was paralyzed. A strength became a vulnerability, and the enemy soldiers became sitting ducks. The 101st airborne exploited this weakness with simple, standard issue tools that they combined in a clever way:
“You take a standard G.I. sock, cram it with as much Comp B as it can hold, rig up a simple fuse, then coat the whole thing with axle grease. Now when you throw it, it should stick. It's a bomb that sticks, a 'sticky bomb'"
- Captain Miller, "Saving Private Ryan"
A $4.2 million behemoth, rendered inert by a $20 slingshot. Brilliant. To me, this is a metaphor for the test. No matter how intimidating a problem looks, it will always exhibit a standard flaw. It has to. It's a standardized test, after all. So we don't need the million-dollar solution. We can beat it with simple tools and a little creativity. Follow the unofficial motto of the U.S. Marine, the most feared soldier in the world: "Improvise. Adapt. Overcome."