I Panicked for Two Days.
Dylan took the SAT test for the first time on Saturday.
As far as I know, he didn’t prepare at all. It’s really easy to prepare these days, with Kahn Academy’s self-directed test practice, but I never saw him access that site. In spite of my begging him for two years to practice for it, and then pleading for the past six months, and then – finally – on my knees asking him to just work for half an hour a day for one week… he didn’t bother.
Since he didn’t practice this past summer for half an hour a week (like I suggested), I showed him something that I read that said his test scores could go up by 90 points if he would practice for just six hours. He said, “I did,” whenever I asked him, but I never saw him put down his cell phone long enough to do any practice.
So two days before the test, while Dylan was playing games on his PS4 and face-timing his friends, I stopped sleeping. I kept worrying that I wouldn’t hear my alarm on test day, and then Dylan (who has four alarms of his own) wouldn’t get to the test. I had suddenly realized that my husband would be out of town with Shane – and on regular school days, I counted on Shane to be my “back-up” alarm.
Of course, Shane never wakes me up. In fact, I never sleep through my alarm. I start waking up around 4:30 in the morning on days when I am worried, and if I do get back to sleep, I always hear my alarm anyway. But I panicked for two days.
Things weren’t going smoothly for Dylan. He lost his $110 graphing calculator. Coincidentally, Shane lost his $110 graphing calculator, too. So, two days before the test, I ordered a brand new (now only $70!) graphing calculator for Dylan to use, with overnight delivery.
It arrived mere hours before the test, and Dylan told me that it’s a terrible idea to use a new calculator for the SAT (as if he knew something I didn’t). “I’ve never seen one like this before,” he said – at 10:00 the night before the test.
“Learn how to use it tonight,” I said, knowing he wouldn’t listen.
Then he plugged it in, and threw the batteries in the recycling pile. I am not sure how the calculator works, but it seems like it might need batteries.
So on the morning of the SAT, I put in the batteries. I’d been up for half an hour, and Dylan’s room was still dark. There was no sound, no movement. Nothing was happening.
I remembered the day that he slept through his alarms and didn’t take his learner’s permit test. That was fine – there were other chances – but was he really going to do it again for the most important test of his life?
I’d asked him to put some brain-healthy snacks in a bag – but he didn’t do that, either. So, while I was working on his breakfast and watching the clock – and still hearing nothing upstairs – I put together a bag of fruit, nuts and peanut butter crackers. I put in an iced espresso and pineapple juice. I filled up his giant water bottle.
And I stared at the clock.
I wondered: do I wake him up, on the day he’s most supposed to act like an adult?
When the clock hit 7:30 and he was supposed to be downstairs, I still heard no sound.
I zippered his lunch bag and sighed. I slowly turned – and there, suddenly dressed and ready, was Dylan.