{"id":3306,"date":"2015-12-07t22:05:11","date_gmt":"2015-12-07t22:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/?p=3306"},"modified":"2015-12-07t22:05:11","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07t22:05:11","slug":"study-habits-top-10-test-takers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/blog\/study-habits-top-10-test-takers\/","title":{"rendered":"study habits of the top 10% of test takers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>sure, everyone knows you should study to do well on a standardized test, but what does it take to get a <strong>top<\/strong> score? are there certain study habits that correlate with better scores?<\/p>\n<p>we wanted to find out, so we surveyed more than 400 magoosh students who scored in the top 10% for the gre, gmat, sat and act. here\u2019s what we learned about the way they prep for test day.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/blog\/files\/2015\/12\/study_habits-2e.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3307\" src=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/blog\/files\/2015\/12\/study_habits-2e.jpg\" alt=\"study_habits-2e\" width=\"672\" height=\"471\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>the big takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>lone wolves get awesome scores. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">98% of respondents said they chose to study alone when asked if they preferred to study solo or with a group. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>top scorers give themselves enough time to study.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 84% of students in the survey studied for a month or longer for their exams.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>spending thousands isn\u2019t necessary to get a high score. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">when asked how much they spent on test prep, 88% of respondents said they spent $300 or less. a majority also reported that they performed better than they thought they would on test day.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>there\u2019s no need to cram. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">71% of respondents said they gave themselves a break the day before the exam instead studying to the last minute.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>scores benefit from the silent treatment.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> when asked if they preferred listening to music while studying, 63% of students said they chose to study in complete silence rather than with any kind of music or background noise.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>top scorers <\/b><b><i>do<\/i><\/b><b> sometimes leave the library. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">68% of respondents said they exercised at least 1-2 times a week while studying.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>it\u2019s possible to score big the first time around. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">68% students nailed the exam the first time they took it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp; <\/p>\n<h2>the survey\u00a0also suggests&#8230;<\/h2>\n<p><b>money doesn\u2019t guarantee satisfaction.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> more than 20% of students who spent over $500 on test prep said that they felt like they performed worse than they expected they would on test day. in contrast, fewer than 9% of students who spent less than $500 felt that way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>paying more might actually stress you out.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a majority of the students that reported paying more than $1000 felt nervous on test day. in contrast, fewer than 35% of students who paid less than $1000 felt that way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>your study efficiency might decrease after 6 months. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">fewer than 5% of respondents who studied between 1 and 6 months performed worse than expected on test day. that number jumped to 16% for those who studied for more than 6 months.<\/span><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-bottom:5px\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<h2>most common advice from top scorers:<\/h2>\n<h5>1. once you know how long you have to prepare, develop a study routine and stick to it.<\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> many students from the survey said it was helpful to work a strict study schedule into their daily routines. it helped them manage the workload and spread their study time out evenly across their few months of prep. at magoosh, we <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/gre.www.catharsisit.com\/study-plans\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">recommend<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> giving yourself 3-6 months of prep time. that\u2019s because studying more than that might burn you out, but anything less than that might mean you\u2019re inadequately prepared for the exam. in addition, make sure you manage your intensity and try not to study for more than 4 hours in a single day.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5>2. dedicate a significant amount of time to learning from each question you miss.<\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">a large handful of top scorers from the survey said that while studying, you should be mindful of the mistakes you make. try and learn from each and every question you miss, and \u2014 above all \u2014 avoid rushing through them. several students also mentioned that keeping a log of their errors helped them learn and move on from each mistake.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5>3. study strategically by focusing your weak spots.<\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> after your diagnostic test, review your answers and identify the types of questions you struggle with most. top scorers from the survey said that while studying, you should single out your weak points, then practice those question types until approaching and solving them feels like second nature. (don\u2019t be alarmed if you start dreaming about certain test questions after a while.)<\/span><\/p>\n<h5>4. timing is everything. <\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">knowing how to approach a question is great, but if it takes you five minutes to get to the answer, that won\u2019t help you on test day. top scorers from the survey said it\u2019s critical to be able to complete questions under intense time constraints. at the beginning of your studies, work slowly and focus on developing technique, but start timing yourself toward the end to prepare for the realities of test day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>we surveyed more than 400 magoosh students who scored in the top 10% for the gre, gmat, sat and act. here\u2019s what we learned about the way they prep for test day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":3307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[194,75,270,271,136,272,227,46,29,43,50,172,273,51,274],"ppma_author":[495],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- this site is optimized with the yoast seo premium plugin v21.7 (yoast seo v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>study habits of the top 10% of test takers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"are there study habits that correlate with better scores? 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