It’s confirmation bias!

Every tutor hears it: “She’s a straight-A student, but she just can’t seem to test well.”

Most tutors wave this away with grade inflation. And sure, that exists. But I always want to ask my colleagues, “If you don’t think being a good test taker can be taught, aren’t you admitting failure up front before you charge $200 an hour? Isn’t that just a scam?”

I am not just a seasoned tutor, I am also a parent. No one could convince me my son’s success comes from “kids these days have it too easy, grump, grump.” I know you see your child working hard, and so do I. Today’s students face more pressure, heavier course loads, and higher expectations than we did.

It is not just parents who are upset that classroom success does not always transfer to the SAT or ACT. After every exam, I read the SAT and ACT subreddits. Again and again, students insist, “They tested me on something I had not studied!” Press a little deeper, and the story changes. They had seen the content. What threw them was the way the question was asked. The familiar showed up in an unfamiliar form.

The real answer to “Why is my good student a bad test taker?” is not grade inflation; it’s confirmation bias. Good students rely on well-practiced routines. Under time pressure, the brain grabs the first familiar method, not the method the problem actually calls for. Humans aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel every time they solve problems!

Let me show you what I mean.

A geometry question came to the party dressed as an algebra question.

The system has no solution. What is the value of a?

A diligent student sees a system of equations and immediately starts solving it, because that’s what they have done a billion times. They go to their “system of equations” brain folder and pull out some tools: substitution, elimination, and maybe graphing.

But the problem told them there is no solution, which means the tools that are meant for solving a system of equations, not dealing with all systems of equations, won’t work!

The irony is, the student already has the tool they need: remembering that lines with no solution are parallel, and parallel lines share the same slope.

The math isn’t hard. The answer is just 2. What makes this question hard is that it is counterintuitive!

Backing into averages

A student has an 87% in her algebra class. The class final is 30% of the total grade. She wants an overall average of at least 90%. What is the lowest score she can earn on the fifth test to reach her goal?

Typically when students have worked with averages, they are tasked with finding the average from the test scores. However, with this question, the student is given the average and has to work back into the test score needed.

I always laugh when I see this question. This is exactly the sort of thing I did. I was a “Good Test Taker / Bad Student!” in high school.

Ok, not really. I graduated near the top of my class, but I could have done more. Since I was really good at taking tests, I would work out how little I needed to do to get an A. Not exactly valedictorian material. Trust me, though, when I say, I made sure not to pass that onto my child. I can also teach your child to be a good test taker!

Just like with the parallel lines, your good student already has the knowledge to solve it. It’s just algebra!

87(.7) + x(.3) = 100(.9)

Punctuation flipped.

Many students enjoy reading classic novels; because they provide both challenge and insight.

Which choice best corrects the sentence?
A) No change
B) which
C) so
D) Delete

Your good student sees punctuation and steps onto the well-worn path: pick the mark that connects two clauses. But here, the punctuation is already in place. The test is asking a different question: with a semicolon there, does the second half stand as an independent clause?

Just like with the parallel lines and the averages, your good student has the knowledge they need. They know a semicolon joins two complete sentences. They know “because they provide both challenge and insight” isn’t complete on its own. The fix is to delete “because,” making the second half an independent clause. The answer is B.

But seriously… Writers don’t pick the words to go with the punctuation, they pick the punctuation to go with the words. Your child may be the best writer in his class, and still find this counterintuitive. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is. I spend far more time explaining this to students than I do punctuation rules. I ask sincerely, if a student can punctuate his own writing correctly, is this really testing his ability to punctuate?

These three examples—parallel lines, averages in reverse, punctuation flipped—show the same pattern. Your child doesn’t lack knowledge. They know the slopes of parallel lines, they know what an average represents, they know how semicolons work. What trips them up is confirmation bias: their brain rushes down the well-worn path they’ve practiced in class, when the test is really asking them to step sideways. The SAT and ACT reward flexible thinking, not rote habits.

That’s where I come in. My job isn’t to reteach eighth grade math or freshman English. It’s to help students clear the bramble, notice when they’re on the wrong path, and learn to use what they know as tools instead of rules. That’s what I call cognitive agency—and it’s the difference between a good student who struggles on standardized tests and a good student who thrives.

On a more personal note: this kind of obstacle shows up even more often for students with ADHD and autism. Most tutors, instead of explaining it through the lens of confirmation bias, will dismissively say, “You just need to pay closer attention to detail.” As a person with ADHD, I hated hearing that. Pay attention to what detail? My students with autism hate it too. They feel tricked and betrayed when a problem looks like one thing but turns out to be another.

But something changes when I explain that the bait-and-switch isn’t a trick, rather it’s the very thing the test is measuring. Suddenly, they thrive. At Ampersand Prep, we see unusually high average score increases, in large part because once I reframe the test this way, my neurodivergent students make huge gains.

If this sounds like your child, I invite you to set up a free Cognitive Agency Strategy Session. Even if you don’t choose to work with me long-term, you’ll walk away with:

• An ambitious yet realistic goal score.

• A study framework that breaks the memorize-and-forget cycle.

• A clear decision on whether the SAT or ACT is the better fit.

Schedule here: https://calendar.app.google/wbHTzQEx5jhboCp77