The Perfect Score Project

One mom's quest to ace the SAT.

by Debbie Stier and Catherine Johnson

Good Poker Players Make Good SAT-Takers (And Other Quotable Moments)

Why are scholars and best-selling authors, winners of the Pulitzer Prize -- people who have had enviable careers by any standard -- afraid to take a short multiple-choice test whose content doesn't stray far beyond a high-school-level vocabulary and simple arithmetic? Read More

The End of Magical Thinking

After taking 7 SATs as an adult in 2011, I'm changing my tune. Read More

Performance Anxiety: An Esoteric Prompt, High Stakes Pressure, and 25 minutes

I've taken the SAT 6 times in 2011, and my highest official test day score has been a 10 (out of 12).

I've scored three 9's and two 10's (I haven't gotten back the November Essay yet). It is possible though to get an 800 on the Writing Section with a "10" on your Essay (I can attest). Read More

Memory Tricks: Emotion and Repetition

Email exchange with PWNtheSAT while on phone with very nice supervisor of credit report website.

Attempting to get charges reversed:

Me (to PWN): Is this the proper use of specious? Read More

"Fair Test" Procedures for SAT Day

After my terrible SAT experience last Saturday, I decided to look into whether or not any official rules had been broken.

Turns out there is an official SAT rule guide, The SAT Standard Testing Room Manual, which I think is worth reading before you take an SAT (especially Section A, which is only 11 pages long). Read More

Unexpected Variables in Standardized Testing

Given that this was my 6th SAT in 2011, and the first one I can say was a truly bad experience, I guess my odds aren't so bad (I'm trying to look on the bright side). And, I'm trying to find the lessons to impart from my bad experience, so others can hopefully avoid the pitfalls. Read More

I Have a Question: How’d You Do It?

Tell me the story

Whenever someone sends me their scores, I reply back with the same question:

How'd you do it? Read More

Are Solid Academic Skills Enough to Ace the SAT?

Or "Savor the Flavor," as PWNtheSAT said to me yesterday, as I screamed with rage after being messed with, again (and again and again), by the SAT math section. Read More

The Perils of Boasting

This is How It Feels Read More

Deliberate Practice Isn't What Most of Us Do When We’re Practicing

A few months ago I joked, How Long Till the Polynomials? Read More

Is Motivation Innate? Or Can “Drive” Be Cultivated?

Don't even utter the Q word in my presence. Read More

Suffering from “Decision Fatigue”

I usually take it as a sign of something important when more than 3 people send me the same article -- so I did what I do with all the other important articles (i.e. print it out and carry it around the house with me for a month). Read More

What Is “Deliberate Practice” (and Am I Doing It)?

When I started this cockamamie project last January, I thought I'd be all, "Kaplan".....and ...."Gruber"....... Eight months in, I'm like, "Kumon" and "CogMed." Read More

Voraciously Yours...

I'm a glutton when it comes to books. I finish most within a day or two. I read in gigantic eye gulps. Read More

Want to Talk About Math Anxiety?

Today was interesting. I'll start with the end: Read More

Facing the Hard Questions, Bird by Bird

I been collecting questions and making flashcards out of them over the last few months, but now I want to take them down, bird by bird, before I'm "immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead."*

They're all valid and deserve thoughtful responses -- questions such as: Read More

Core Teen Behavior

...My daughter's best friend was extremely upset when my daughter's grade in Physics was a 99% and her's was only a 98%. (Quote from a mother in the comments of this post.) When I hear about these kids, I think I must be running in the wrong circles, because that's not what I'm seeing down here in the trenches. Read More

Walking A Mile In Someone Else’s Shoes

The deeper I get into this SAT project, the more I realize that most of the information I learn is ephemeral. One day, complete understanding of some concept; two weeks later, a hazy memory. Read More

Video Game Addiction: Why Some Students Fail Out of College

I've always been ambivalent about video games.

Here's why: Read More

The Secret to Motivating Teenagers? Don't Ask

I took my kids to Kumon thinking the three of us could bond over math diagnostics. I'd heard great reports about their results and had some fantasy of bonding over Kumon worksheets and english muffins at breakfast every morning

My children had other plans for breakfast this summer. They rejected my suggestion with a fervor that stunned even me. Read More

The Perfect Score Project Bloggers

Catherine Johnson, Ph.D. is an "afterschooling" parent and the coauthor of Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior and Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals.

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