What mistakes should I avoid when preparing for a college entrance exam?

What mistakes should I avoid when preparing for a college entrance exam?

The most common mistake students make in preparing for these standardized admissions tests is that they don't prepare. They figure they can just go in and wing it and that would represent their best ability possible. Well that's not really true. You really do need to prepare for college entrance exams so that you're at least comfortable with the format and directions on them. Another common mistake the students make is that they try to prepare in too short a time period. In other words, they try to cram all their prep into one or two weeks. Well, that's really not going to work. If anything, it's only going to increase the anxiety the students feel about college entrance exams. Conversely, I've found that some students prepare for too long a period. I would say you never want to prepare more than eight or nine months in advance of the target date. Really, preparing for these standardized tests is like training for a marathon. There's an appropriate amount of prep work that you want to do, leading to the target test date. More is not effective. In fact, it actually results in scores that would be lower than I would have expected.