1. Practice.
Practicing for the SAT is under rated. Everyone is so focused on memorizing vocabulary or math equations, which is all great but if you don't practice than those concepts and vocabulary words won't stick in your head.
2. Test Day Tips
The first time I took the SAT, I hadn't eaten breakfast and I stayed at the desk I was assigned during breaks. This means I was sitting in the same chair for around 4 hours.
The second time I took the SAT I took it at a school I hadn't ever been to before somewhere out in Maryland. There was four 7th graders taking the SAT in the same room as me, which was extremely intimidating. I again hadn't eaten breakfast, I again was to afraid to leave the room, and I also didn't bring any pencils or snacks. DO NOT DO THIS; you will regret it.
3 things you need to do before taking the test:
1. Pack a Snack; A good one. One that say's, Hey that section was hard but here are some goldfish to reward myself.
2. Leave the classroom during breaks.
Leaving the classroom during all your breaks allows you to come back to every couple or so sections feeling refreshed. I promise you, sitting in that same chair for 4 hours will one not only make sitting there taking the test more painful but also make your butt hurt so much. So don't do it.
3. Take the Test somewhere familiar.
Everyone I talk to about the SAT says taking the SAT at their own school or a school they used to go to helps them get focused and do better. This is because your used to the environment and your comfortable working there.
3. Tell your loquacious friends to shove it
If your a Junior a question a lot of your friends are going to ask you, "What were your scores?". In which for your sake and their sake just tell them to shut up because unless their your parent its not any of their business to know your scores. The top way to avoid this question is by either politely changing the topic and saying you'd rather not talk about it because it is a stressful topic or just don't ever talk to the SAT with you friends at all. One of the rules I made up with my friends at lunch is that we don't ever talk about SAT or ACT. We do this because often speaking about our scores can discourage or stress each other out further.
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| Don't let this be you. |
4. Use the Public Library
If I was religious and I needed to choose a God to worship it would definitely be the person who invented the idea of the Public Library because it has saved my life so many times. The public library is a great resource for the SAT's for 3 reasons.
1. Free SAT help books (These books are usually worth around $20-50)
2. A quiet place to study for the test
3. New Street Cred
When you tell people you went to the library to study on your own will they will become super impressed and you'll gain major SAT street cred.
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| Even Obama agrees. |
5. Don't get a Tutor
Tutors for the SAT I believe are a huge waste of money. I had 3 tutors who didn't help me improve my score one bit. The only way to up your score is by self-motivation. The SAT is all about things you know, it just takes some time to realize what the questions are asking. Tutor's are really expensive and you could gain the same knowledge from them that you do from a free book at the library (That is if you have a library card, which you should because the public library is awesome).
6. Get this book.
This book is really funny and has great tips on acing each section. It also has a version for the ACT, which Kendra used to study and also found it useful.
7. Get the SAT Blue Book
I used the SAT Blue Book so I could take a bunch of practice tests and what I found was that the vocabulary on the practice tests were also on the actual SAT. This makes sense because the creator of the book is also the creator of the actual test. So if your following my advice and doing a lot of practice tests than I suggest using this test and really focusing on the vocabulary used throughout those. I mean lets be real if your going to memorize a bunch of words you might as well memorize the ones that have a more likely shot at being on the test.
Also if you go online to college board and register your book they will give you explanations to all the answers on the practice test. No big deal or anything, but I didn't find this out until I studied from this book for 2 years.
8. PRACTICE AGAIN!!!!
Just in case you ignored tip number 1, I thought I should repeat how important practicing for the test is. There are so many benefits to practicing for the SAT. One benefit that helped me the most was that the more I practiced the less scary the test seemed because I got used to the complicated wording the SAT used. Another big benefit is being able to go over what you got wrong and learning from your mistakes because the truth is once you go back and realize that the question you thought was really hard at the time really wasn't actually all that bad.
9. Don't let your number define you.
Whatever you get on the SAT doesn't define who you are. What defines you is how hard you worked to improve your score. This is going to sound cliche, but its the effort that counts.
10. If all else fails and your score doesn't improve no matter how many hours you have studied, move to Canada!
Who doesn't like maple syrup and hockey?
I hope all those tips helped and good luck on your test!! I hope you don't have to move to Canada (but if you do bring me back some syrup and a hot hockey player boyfriend)!
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