How to Prepare for the SAT Reasoning Test

Friday, October 3, 2008

The time has come for you to...write your SATs in order to get into a university of your dream. What do you do?

Panic and jump off a cliff.

No. That's the EASIER and LESS PAINFUL way out, actually. Nope. Instead, College Board tortures you with a 3 and something hours test that takes a while (understatement) to prepare for.

Anyways, here are my tips for you.

1. Take a diagnostic (including the essay!). Figure out what you're weak in. For instance, when I took a practice test, I had no trouble with the math section (out of the 50 practice tests I did, I had maybe a few questions I didn't know how to do). On the other hand...I bombed Critical Reading and Writing.
   
2. When you've figured out what you're weak in, focus on those sections (but still do the entire test when you're practicing). For instance, I sucked at the sentence completions. My vocabulary was probably the size of a pea when I first started. What do I do? Memorize vocabulary like a madman. (We can get into the details of each section later)
3. Practice...and practice. I did almost 50 practice tests! Plus, I had little packs of exercises from other books such as Peterson's and Barrons.
4. People say cramming doesn't work. It doesn't, unless you combine it with more studying. Just because you've studied for 3 months for your SATs does not mean you shouldn't cram some more on the night before. Several vocabulary words I looked at the night before were tested.
   
5. Eat well, sleep well before the test! Make sure you have an egg on the morning. It really helps.

Believe me! I got amazingly well. If someone wants to see my score report, message.