The SATs are a weapon in your arsenal

“The SATs are a weapon in my arsenal.” Repeated Julia laughingly.   Julia, a junior at Mercy High School in Middletown had scored a 700 in reading and 650 in math. She was looking at colleges that generally wanted a combined 1250-1300. I pointed out that the SATs were now a weapon in her arsenal because six months earlier Julia had been complaining about how she was terrible at the SATs and how these tests would hurt her admissions chances at colleges of interest.

As Julia started improving, she would laugh at my suggestion that “the SATs were her friend”. “The SATs will never be my friend.” She would say. So I changed the metaphor. “Someday the SATs will be a weapon in your arsenal.”   That day was the day that Julia opened up her computer and rejoiced about her SAT scores. She even conceded the point that the SATs could be her friend.