About two years I set up a tutoring business to help kids who are struggling academically. When I think of the Institution of School, I keep coming back to Oscar Wilde’s comment, “I think highly of the institution of marriage, but who would want to live in an institution?”

I also hate standardized tests, and I have made it my mission in life to learn as much as I can about these educational abominations and to teach their tricks and deceptions to the students who perform poorly on them.

Occasionally I will see headlines announcing how certain colleges are starting to reject these assessments in their decision-making. Hooray! Bates College, you go, girl!!!!

My mentor Ken Macrorie wrote a book called Twenty Teachers where he interviewed a collection of teachers to look for common denominators as to what made them effective. He stated that when he made the decision to decide what teachers to interview he looked at what “good works” their students were producing.

This has been my mantra, my touchstone as a teacher. And its philosophy runs counter to the methods of high stakes testing that dominate the world of education today.

I know. I know. You’re agreeing, but what are universities to do if they are processing thousands of applicants?

Let’s just say that when I teach a classroom of students, I want them to create “good works,” but when I help students to prepare for the SAT we focus on its tricks and we practice, practice, practice.

I once had a tennis coach who said that human beings can be good at whatever endeavor they choose to devote their attention to. The problem for most people is choosing the trade, sport or endeavor they want to master.”  He also declared that most people refuse to practice.

At first I was skeptical of his message. However, when I became an assistant pro at a local club, I noticed that my students would pay the pros for lessons and clinics but would rarely practice. All they had to do was go to the local Walgreen’s and purchase a can of balls and then ask a friend to practice. It’s not rocket science.

In America we are always looking for shortcuts to excellence or to riches. The reality is that there is no shortcut. One always has to pay his dues.

How should one prepare for standardized tests? Go to the local bookstore and buy a preparation book (or two) and start doing practice tests. Look a your mistakes. Read the explanation that follows the test.

Forking out a grand to Kaplan or the Princeton Review is a waste of money.

Pay your dues.