AI is good at describing problems. Naming the mechanism. Laying out the factors.
What it’s less good at is the part that actually helps you.
We asked AI about something that derails high-potential students more than almost anything else: anxiety, perfectionism, and the gap between how a student performs in practice and how they perform when it counts. Three questions, three AI answers, three responses from Wes.
The AI answers are, in places, genuinely impressive. And in other places, they’re a diagnosis with no prescription.
As always, we’ve included AI-generated summaries of each answer for readability. To see the full original responses, click here.
Note: We had a parent ask AI these questions on March 11, 2026. The answers have likely changed since then — hopefully for the better!
Question 1: How do anxiety or perfectionism affect SAT or ACT performance?
AI Summary
Anxiety and perfectionism can meaningfully affect SAT and ACT performance, but students can manage these effects with the right strategies.
- Perfectionism and anxiety create real pressure that disrupts focus, especially when a question feels unexpectedly hard
- Perfectionists spend too long on individual questions, throwing off pacing
- Anxiety occupies working memory, making familiar problems feel harder
- Anxious students often overcorrect — changing answers they already got right
- Solution: practice tests in realistic conditions, focus on the current question, develop a pacing plan
Wes’s Response
The diagnosis here is genuinely good.
Anxiety eating into working memory isn’t a soft observation, it’s a documented cognitive mechanism, and most advisors don’t get that specific. Overcorrecting on answers you already got right? Also real, also underappreciated. This is a competent, even expert breakdown of how the problem works.
Then we get to the solution, and it all falls apart.
“Simple mental strategies such as focusing on the current question.”
“Confidence tends to grow when students develop a clear plan.”
Elite students are not in the market for “confidence tends to grow when.” They’re in the market for fixing the problem. They’ve heard that confidence is good. It didn’t work. What they need is someone who understands the specific mechanism making their specific situation worse — and has actually solved it before.
Correctly identifying the problem and then shrugging at the solution isn’t advice. It’s a diagnosis with no prescription.
Question 2: How is test prep different for a 2e student versus a typical high achiever?
AI Summary
Twice-exceptional students require more individualized test preparation than typical high achievers, but the right strategies can help them perform at a high level.
- 2e students have high ability alongside a learning difference such as ADHD, dyslexia, or another cognitive variation
- Pacing needs vary — some process quickly but lose focus; others need more time to read and analyze
- Executive function challenges may require structured approaches for time management and attention
- Reading strategies may need to be adapted, especially for students with dyslexia
- Students with accommodations should practice using them under realistic conditions
- The goal is to leverage strengths while supporting areas of difficulty
Wes’s Response
Everything here is correct. These are real differences, accurately described.
And yet after reading this, you are no better equipped to actually help a 2e student.
That’s the problem. The answer gives parents just enough information to feel informed, without giving them anything they can act on. Knowing that “pacing needs vary” does not tell you how to address your child’s specific pacing problem. Knowing that “individualized coaching can make a meaningful difference” is the most correct and least useful sentence in this document.
The right answer to this question is short: hire someone who actually knows what they’re doing with these kids. That’s it. That’s the whole answer.
The rest is furniture.
Question 3: My child aced the practice tests but fell apart on test day. What happened?
AI Summary
Students who ace practice tests but struggle on test day are usually dealing with differences in conditions, pressure, and environment — all of which can be managed with the right preparation.
- Home practice conditions are more comfortable and flexible than official testing environments
- The stakes of an official test create psychological pressure that practice doesn’t replicate
- Sleep timing and scheduling can affect performance if practice habits don’t match test day
- Digital testing environments may differ from what students practiced on
- The fix: practice under conditions that closely mirror the real thing — same timing, same start time, no extra breaks
Wes’s Response
This is pretty much right. These are the real reasons, and the advice is solid.
Good luck doing any of it without a coach.
Seriously — “practice under realistic conditions” sounds simple. It isn’t. Most students don’t know what realistic conditions actually feel like until they’ve been walked through it. Most parents can’t replicate the psychological weight of test day in the living room on a Saturday morning.
Knowing what to do and being able to actually do it are not the same thing. That gap is exactly what coaching closes.
Here’s the pattern across all three answers: the information isn’t wrong. The mechanisms are real. The factors are accurately described.
The problem is that knowing what’s happening and knowing what to do about it are two completely different things. And for anxious, perfectionistic, twice-exceptional students, the distance between those two things is exactly where families get stuck.
That’s not a gap you close with a summary.
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