Things You'll Need:
- #2 Pencils, lots of them
-
Step 1
START EARLY. Do not start preparing for this test the night before or even a week before. Start months before. This is not a test that you can cram for. Although some people can just "wing" it, most people need to prepare. Leaving your academic future to prayers such as "oh God, please let me do well" does not yield promising results.
-
Step 2
PRACTICE. Never has the saying "practice makes perfect" ring truer. SAT questions have very specific formats, so getting used to them is very helpful. Get practice books. Ask your guidance counselor for old tests and/or practice tests. Do as many as you can with your brain exploding.
-
Step 3
TIME yourself when you are doing practice tests. Time is the ultimate enemy for many students when it comes to SATs. Particularly, in the math sections, many students find that they are able to answer all of the questions, but do not have time to finish. Practicing the questions will help you work faster and timing yourself while you do each section will tell you if you need to work faster or maybe even slow down and not make silly mistakes.
-
Step 4
DO NOT GUESS if you have absolutely no clue how to answer a question, skip it. You get deducted .25 or 1/4 of a point for every wrong answer on the SATs. There are 5 choices for every question, so guessing only gives you a 20% or 1/5 chance of getting the correct answer. Statistically, guessing is not the best strategy.
-
Step 5
GUESS IF you can eliminate one or more of the choices of being wrong. This means you are sure that the choices are wrong, not that you guessed which answer is wrong. If you can do that, then go ahead and guess. Let's say you eliminated 2 choices as being wrong, and you're left with 3 choices. You have 1 in 3 or 33% chance of being right. Since you get deducted 1/4 of a point for being wrong, then it is to your advantage to guess at that point. Many students, however, eliminates the right answer and guesses amongst the wrong answers. This is why it is crucial that you are sure that the answers you eliminated are in fact the wrong. Again, if you are unsure, skip it. You can always come back to it.
-
Step 6
VOCABULARY. There is no short cut for this, unfortunately. You have to study a lot of words. Write the words down. Many students find that they remember words better if they write them down. Make sentences for the words to help refresh your memory of what the word means. Do not worry to much about spelling since you just have to be able to recall its meaning when you see it on the test.
-
Step 7
READING COMPREHENSION. Always read, or at least skim through the questions first. This will give you an idea of what to look for in the passage. You do not need to read the entire passage to answer the questions. Many questions will give you a line reference. Go to that line reference and read a couple of sentences before and after, and see if you can answer the question. This strategy takes practice, so do not be discouraged if you cannot get the right answer right away.
-
Step 8
MATH. You actually can get to the right answer without knowing how to do the problem. Sometimes, good old fashioned trial and error works. Try it with practice problems first. This will help you identify the types of problems where trial and error works. Also, some of the formulas that you need to solve math problems are given to you at the beginning of every math section. Feel free to refer to those if you are stuck.
-
Step 9
WRITING. You can improve your writing score tremendously by doing practice questions. SAT tests the same grammar rules over and over again. If you are looking to improve your writing score, do practice questions.
-
Step 10
ESSAY. You essay should have a concise thesis. A thesis is the main point of your essay. Give clear examples to support your thesis. You do not have to write a book to get a good score. In fact, usually, shorter, more to-the-point, essays get better scores.
