Six Weeks Until the SAT: Start Hyperventilating
Take a huge, deep breath, and then exhale as quickly as possible. Then repeat the process until you feel dizzy and fall over. So, you’ll hit your head and form a blood clot in your brain. Then, you’ll miraculously transform into a megasavant, like Rain Man. Then, you’ll get a 10,000 on your SAT. Then you will die. And then in a few years, a Jonas brother will win an Oscar for starring in a movie about your life.
Actually, that’s probably not going to happen, so, you know, don’t do that. Instead, read these tips!
TIP #1: Self Diagnosis
Take a practice test from the College Board website and take some self-assessments. Make sure the test is timed and try to reasonably emulate test day conditions by taking the test in a quiet room with no distractions. The goal here is to get an idea of where you are and which sections need more work.
TIP #2: Write things. Ha ha!
But seriously, the essay part accounts for almost a third of the total writing score, so yeah, it’s pretty important and stuff. Remember, the SAT essay is about taking a stand and supporting it with a strong thesis and clear paragraphs. State your point and support it with examples and evidence. Be decisive! Just pick a side and go with it. You’re not a politician yet, so don’t be a flip-flopper. Changing your mind in the middle of your essay is a terrible idea that will cost you not only time but also score. Practice writing essays with a stopwatch to get a good idea of how fast you need to write. Obviously, 25 minutes is not enough time to create your own War and peacebut if not at least better than Twilight…well, maybe you can boost your score in some other way.
TIP #3: Practice Makes Prepared
If you ever get a fortune cookie that says, “Practice makes perfect,” throw it away. First of all, that was a proverb cookie, and they are not that good. Second, “practice makes perfect” is misleading. Raise your hand if you’ve ever spent weeks practicing perfectly for a piano recital, but then get so nervous on stage that you urinate and then have a nervous breakdown, pull out all your hair, and cuss out 8-year-olds. in the front row. . Well, as he lowers his hand, he thinks about this: If you want to practice until you’re perfect, why not do the same section of the SAT over and over again until you’re perfect every time? Because that would be useless. Practicing with a “practice makes perfect” mindset isn’t necessarily bad, but it could blind you to the real benefit of practice: being prepared. You want to expose yourself to as many different question types as possible so that on test day, nothing on the SAT surprises you. You want to inoculate yourself against the pressures of a timed exam by taking timed practice tests. You want to be prepared for whatever the SAT throws at you so you can catch it, set it on fire, and throw it in your face, cackling like a wild hyena being tickled by a feathered octopus… or whatever. .
TIP #4: Take a class…somewhere
Everything you need to know for the SAT you learned in school. But everything you learned in school is a lot. The big, big secret behind SAT prep isn’t necessarily to teach you even more things, but to show you what things you already know are the most important. Imagine for a moment that the SAT is an open book test. How would you know what to bring? If you really wanted to cover all your bases, you’d want to bring every textbook you’ve ever used in school, right? But that’s, like, a lot of stuff. A proper SAT prep program (wink, nudge) will help you toss out books you don’t need and put stickers on important chapters so you can refer to them quickly and easily for the test. Don’t drown in a sea of irrelevant knowledge. That will only confuse you and slow you down on test day. You have six weeks before your test. If you take a class now, it will end a week before your exam. On the big day, everything will be fresh in your mind and you will be able to take on that beast like a boss. Yes, like a boss. Alternatively, if you don’t want to take a class or get a tutor, don’t forget that your favorite test prep center sells a solutions manual for the College Board Official SAT Study Guide (2nd Edition) to help you better understand each question. . !
TIP #5: Research
Do some research on the colleges you plan to apply to and find out what their policies are regarding score reporting. Many schools like to help students by using a “super score,” which is the combination of all the highest scores in each section. If you know your schools are helping you in this way, it can take some of the pressure off. On the other hand, if your school doesn’t accept a superscore, be aware that the College Board now offers “Score Choice,” which allows you to choose which scores you want to send to colleges. Again, knowing this can take some of the pressure off. No problem.