Most standardized tests produce quite respectable scores, scores adequate to get you into grad school, if you can get anywhere from half to two-thirds of the questions correct. The canny test taker carefully examines the test scale and the requirements of the schools he will apply to in order to discover his real task, which is the number of questions he must get right. The issue in test taking is test management. Learning how to manage what skills you have in order to maximize your performance is the first secret. Combining a relevant management strategy and modest practice, say, on no more than three official sample tests, turns out to be the best attack, and for most students a guarantee of success.
Management strategy is crucial because the test is timed.
The same question that seems both trivial and elementary becomes a nighmarish riddle when you are under the clock. It is time pressure that is the essence of the standardized test. The knowledge required is nil, all questions, easy and hard, are worth the same, so the test will rank you according to the number of correct answers obtained within a timed period. Thus the first and greatest secret of test taking is, not to finish the test, but to maximize the number of correct answers. The naive test taker or the ill advised one tries to complete all the questions.