former newt

my parents have always been crazy about i do in school. while i usually put in just enough effort to maintain A's in my classes, i do acknowledge the fact that i don't work as diligently in my studies as some kids my age. my parents didn't give me too much trouble about that before...until the standardized tests happened.

early my junior year, i took the ACT for the first (and still only) time. i did minimal preparation. i read through some of Princeton Review's Cracking the ACT book. that's about it. didn't even take a practice test. so when the test came along, i was suitably nervous. however, even though while taking it thinking i did horribly, i managed a 32 composite score. my parents were happy, at least for a while.

my family has a lot of friends...i mean a lot. my parents know more people than colleges have in alumni. so naturally they know people with kids who are infallible scholars with perfect scores on their ACTs and SATs. slowly but surely, my parents lost their satisfaction with my 32 score.

soon came the SAT. same thing happened in this case: i did minimal preparation and thought i did horribly and got a 1410 composite score. again, my parents were happy temporarily. thoroughly sick of my parents' attitude toward my scores, i recently decided to study for the tests. however, i've noticed an unfortunate trend...my scores are dropping.

the second time i took the SAT my score dropped 50 points...for the second SAT i studied a hell of a lot more. on practice tests i've been taking for the ACT i've also been getting progressively worse. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!!

the more i study, the worse i do....and that isn't good. my aim for the ACT is a 34 composite, but at this rate i'll be dropping to a 29 or something! my parents are getting more and more adamant about my doing even better on the tests, so this is, again, not helping at all.

so. got any advice for me?

(PS: sorry for the rambling, but i needed to get it off my chest...)