“I took the SAT test some weeks ago. Unfortunately, the school that I was assigned to was being painted, so the entire hallway and room smelled pungently of paint and turpentine. There was also football practice going on outside that day …”

So goes the quote from Michael Kashiktchian on his LiveJournal blog.

I’m reminded by this quote of another student I tutored a few years back. His SAT test was administered in a school gym where they had divided the area with a modular wall. Throughout the entire test, he could hear kids playing pick-up basketball on the other side of the wall, yelling and giving each other “high-fives”. We constantly stress that our ePrep students practice for the SAT under simulated conditions, and with good reason. Take practice tests with pencil and paper giving yourself the exact amount of time alloted for each section. Sit in an upright position such as the kitchen table and allow yourself some distractions. You cannot control the environment you will encounter on test day.