Dad, I barely pass the test our school gave us last week,” protested my daughter. You mean the test they gave your entire grade to measure the school’s standing? I clarified. “Yes, we looked up my student number and I got a 62%. WTH!!!” It was a standardized test, right? You couldn’t study for it and it was given to everyone in your grade, regardless of levels and grades. “Yes,” my daughter confirmed. Well, then you did well. “What? How?” my daughter was confused.

I recall when I wrote the GMAT for MBA admission years ago, my first attempt got me the low 600s. Demotivated. How was it possible that I scored so poorly on this test when there’s nothing in it other than an aptitude for business and I’m already working in the field? I wrote it again and got 20 points more. WTF!

It was totally insane. I spent hundreds of hours studying, preparing and writing sample GMAT tests. Paid for preparatory classes and three test fees only for the system to tell me that I’m stupid. The tests are an exercise in futility, the fees are a fraud and the entire system is a scam, I concluded.

Then I was told that I’m overthinking these tests and that I should allocate only necessary time to the questions and then move on, rather than aiming to ace all the questions. I was told to ‘best guess’ the ones where the answer wasn’t readily obvious. And if I can eliminate 2 or 3 of the poor answers, then a guess would give me about a 50% chance of getting the right one. Statistically, that’s already better than randomly picking an answer. Eventually, I scored in the low 700s and submitted that score to the B-schools.

Then I was told that I’m overthinking these tests and that I should allocate only necessary time to the questions and then move on, rather than aiming to ace all the questions.

I told my daughter, Yes, you have discovered a less-than-ideal system that forces you onto a normative curve. You are doing poorly on these tests because you don’t follow instructions, you spend too much time trying to achieve perfection and you over think. The fact you think at all is punitive and it is reflected in the score you got. I’m proud of you.

“What? So, you’re saying that I’m smarter than the average.” Well, I don’t know about the average and I think you’re pretty smart, but don’t let that get into your head. You’ll be up against some very smart kids in university, especially the international students. But, yes, standardized tests are not constructed for people who like to analyze—which is something you do. The questions are not structured for conditionality; it demands an answer that is black or white. Life isn’t like this and that’s why your ‘round’ thinking doesn’t fit into its ‘square’ hole.

So that test confirmed two things for my daughter. She’s not going to change her thinking but will change the way she approaches standardized testing. And it gave her insights into what to expect when she prepares for her SATs. With that, she’s already further ahead than I was at her age! That’s progress.