Three words can change your life: “I love you”, “I am pregnant”, “Scholastic Aptitude Test.” Don’t worry. I’m not here to divulge love stories, nor preach the importance of contraception. But the SAT; those are three letters worth fearing. Anything that eats up four hours on a Saturday morning is groan-worthy. But that combined with the stress of making or breaking your future is more than enough to send you into a perpetual anxiety.

At least you aren’t the only high school student trembling with nerves. It’s this fear that sends thousands of students to SAT prep courses, the CollegeBoard website, and SAT handbooks. Some lucky students lack this fear and stress, picking their own path of nonchalance.

As my test date, March 14th, hangs ominously over my head, I’ve begun to look outside the SAT prep book and more to experienced upperclassmen to answer my questions. Cory Hargus got an almost-perfect score.

“The SAT is a pretty big deal,” says Hargus. “I was pretty lucky that I got a 2380. I’m not a big supporter of standardized tests but the SAT is the most important test you’ll take and studying is good idea. Even though the questions are easy, the competition level is really high.”

Steven Schluter can’t remember his exact score but knows his first test wasn’t great.

“I actually really just wanted it to be over with so I could get on with my life,” says Schluter. “The SAT is complete bull. It’s a test to see how smart someone is so it can determine which college they get into. That’s extremely pointless and lame. Your knowledge and skills should not be based off any form of standardized test. It just needs to go away.”

It’s a frustrating pill to swallow. Paying money to spend time studying and testing — it’s really the smartest scam ever thought up. Of course, I’ll still put good money down, because most college applications center on this test. And maybe that’s the worst part: the extreme emphasis placed on this singular test.

There are many ways to approach the crucial test date. Every year there are kids who spend hours with their flash cards, kids who do little to no studying, and kids who find a middle ground. I’m in that awkward middle ground. I don’t have the time to fit that much studying into my life currently (thanks to APs… don’t get me started on those) but I have found time, much like Hargus and Schluter, to fit an SAT prep class into my schedule.

Of course, this is only my first round for the test. Unless, by some divine intervention, I receive a score worthy of my father’s acceptance, round two will most likely involve flashcards. Both Hargus and Schluter recommend taking a class.

“I took one or two prep courses,” says Hargus. “But I thought the book was more helpful. I mostly studied out of the book on my own time.”

Hargus, like many other students, did not rely solely the prep classes. Yet Schluter found the prep classes to be enormously beneficial.

“I actually fell asleep through the first part of the class,” says Schluter. “What can I say? But the few times I actually kept myself awake, the class was decent and informational.”

Schluter also had trouble with the length of the class and fitting such a large block of time into his already busy schedule, a serious downfall of the classes. There are many other alternatives to classes and books. The internet has once again jumped to the rescue of over-scheduled test takers. Many free websites promise to give you the same results as SAT courses.

Earlier in the year, I attempted to use such a website but found the information too easy to forget and push aside. If you can force yourself to focus on such a website and feel like taking a risk, it’s worth doing.

Of course, all of these options depend on how you learn. The SAT is based on knowledge you supposedly already know. But there are tricks in there: little known grammar rules, logically frustrating math problems, and vague essay topics. The test is almost a giant game. Your preparation for this game should suit your own personal needs.

If you need a human instructor, the class is your best option. If you posses the self-determination to force yourself to study on your own, a website or book is a good idea. You might even be the kind of person confident enough to walk through the doors on test day without a minute of effort put into studying.

No matter what path you take, everyone is in the same place on the night before the test. You can try to cram some last minute information into your cerebrum, but the minutes are ticking by, and maybe, at that point, sleep is the best thing. Hargus took a night in, relaxing and kicking back.

“I drank a lot of milk,” he says. Milk. Could this be the elixir of the SAT woes? If so, Jake Alhadeff, along with other lactose intolerant teens, is in trouble. Hargus also suggests not studying. Relaxing is key and studying is quite the opposite. Schluter relaxed in another form.

“The night before, I didn’t study or rest or anything,” he says, “I hung out with some friends until 10 and then went to bed.”

And finally, the dreaded morning. Hargus said he felt confident going in, despite the butterflies that seem to get the best of the rest of us, and confident coming out. Schluter relaxed all the way through the test and woke up in time to finish a few questions.

“After the SAT [during which] I took a nice nap on a desk, I was very happy it was over and I was done with it,” he says. “I really didn’t care about my scores so I didn’t worry about them. I know I didn’t score very well but my overall reaction was ‘who cares.’ Because I really don’t. I did retake the SATs, thanks to my mom, who still didn’t know I was thinking of going into the armed forces. So she wanted me to do better. The truth is I fell asleep again. Yes, I fell asleep in both SATs I took.”

He may have scored low, but I am deeply envious of Schluter. He knows exactly what he wants to do with his life, something which doesn’t revolve around college, so it really doesn’t matter what he got on his SATs. I, on the other hand, am left to wonder aimlessly about my future and hope and pray I get the scores to take me there.

Hargus, who also knows his future, plans on entering into biomedical engineering or medical research, something dependent on not only college but also on a prestigious school.

So maybe it’s not how many flashcards you make, the classes you take or the amount of milk you can drink in one sitting. Maybe, the SAT depends on something higher: your own personal drive and motivation. Great. So now, not only do I have to study for the SATs, but I have to have some sort of spiritual connection with my chi to figure out what I’m going to do with my life. Ah, to heck with it, I’ll just fill in Chuck Norris as my name and hope the rumors that it will get me 2400 are true.