If you’re around high school and college age kids this time of year, you know the holiday season is usually preceded by the stress of taking final exams.   I’m always on the lookout for ideas and information that will help my kids navigate these obstacles.

A few weeks ago, I found an article that was particularly helpful.  As I passed it around to a few people in my network (in addition to my kids), I keep getting the comment—“this isn’t just helpful for studying and test-taking, it’s helpful for life!”

I thought some of you might find it helpful as well.

The article is based on an interview done with Anthony Green, a 26-year-old New York-based tutor who works with the richest kids in the country as they prepare for the SAT and ACT exams.  He does all the work over Skype.  Ninety-minute sessions with Green cost $1,500, and many believe he is the best in the country at this work.

What does Anthony tell the kids he tutors? 

Here are the four best insights (in my opinion) Anthony shared during the interview:

Document all your mistakes. They’re worth their weight in gold.  We all like to be right. We all hate to be wrong. Unfortunately, when it comes to studying, this element of human nature really gets in the way.

 If you want to get better at something, you need to relish your failures. You need to understand exactly where you’re screwing up, highlight those weaknesses, document them, and then pummel them into the ground.

Forget to-do lists, and use a calendar.  When’s the last time you made a to-do list for the day and actually finished everything on that list? To-do lists are horrible devices because they allow us to be optimistic and unrealistic about our time constraints.

Instead of using to-do lists, …block out time [on your calendar] for your studies and your tasks. This way, you can’t possibly be unrealistic. When to-do items are just lines on a notepad, they’re not real. When you “slot” them into a timeframe, you have to actually imagine the time that they’ll require.

Schedule study breaks in advance.  The human brain can’t really focus on anything for more than roughly 75 to 90 minutes at a time. If you try to study, or work on any project, for longer than 90 minutes, you’re going to be running on fumes. You need to take breaks.  

Schedule breaks in advance, make sure they’re at least 15 minutes long, and make sure that you never work on something for more than 90 minutes without taking a break.

When you take your breaks, make them fun. Don’t feel guilty about not working.

Ditch the distractions.  If you’re studying, ditch the cell phone. Turn off your computer. Turn off the TV. Clean your desk. Hide everything but the textbooks and notepads that are relevant to the task at hand. When you finish, or when it’s break time, you can pull your phone back out and see if there are any amazing new pictures of Sally’s dinner on Instagram — but leave it for your break.

You might think these ideas just apply to preparing for tests.   Anthony would disagree. Educational principles, neuroscience, motivation techniques, and psychology don’t just apply to the realm of formal education.  They’re useful no matter what you’re trying to accomplish.

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