29 Tips for Acing the SAT

First off, I just have to say this: I'm glad it's you taking the SAT on Saturday and not me. Well, the great AP class debate rages on, and I've been slightly overwhelmed of late trying to sort through all the mail; so, while I've been buried sorting comments, opinions and experiences that families have had with their AP classes. I just looked up and realized that a whole bunch of you are going to be taking the SAT this Saturday. I realize that it's last minute, but I thought I'd give you some of my tips and suggestions for acing the SAT. Yeah, I know that some of them are obvious, but I've got to include them all in case they're not obvious to other people. Oh, I included one very important fact at the end, so be sure to read all the way through.

So, in the best order I could think of to put them in, here they are:

The day before the test (Friday)

Be sure you've got everything together the night before that you're going to need in the morning, like ID, pencils, directions to the test center if you're not familiar with where it's at, and some stuff to eat. Try to relax by watching a movie or getting some exercise. Get to bed early, and be sure you set two alarms. One in another room so you can't keep hitting the snooze button and get up in plenty of time to get to your test center. You don't want to be locked out because you were a couple of minutes late (yes, it's happened before)

On Saturday, before the actual test

Eat breakfast. I know, you've been told this a million times, but studies show that it does make a difference. Also, don't forget to bring the stuff you brought to eat so you can have something to keep you going. You can eat it on the breaks.

Breathe deeply and try to relax.

OK, once you begin the test, here are some tips for you about the test in general

The questions are generally arranged from easiest to hardest. There are two schools of thought on this. Some people feel you should work backwards, so you hit the hardest problems first, when you are the freshest. It's not a bad strategy, but my main concern is that you'll make a mistake in filling out the answer form, in which case you're royally screwed. So, if you think you can handle it, you might try it, otherwise, work from front to back.

Pay attention to the time: limit your time spent on any one question so you don't have one problem hijack your entire test. Remember, each question is worth the same number of points so if one problem stumps you, just skip it and move on to the next one. If you have time, come back to it later.

Skip anything you really can't answer or don't have a clue on. However...

Make an educated guess if you can weed out one or two answers. Look, here's the way they put the test together: they first create a question with a correct answer. Then, they put together an answer that sounds correct, but isn't. Then, they fill the remaining three answers with something related, but not close.

So if you can eliminate quickly the three more obvious wrong answers, you've now got a 50/50 shot of being right. Pick one, quickly move on to the next question, and then come back and review later if you have time.

Do not waste time, even if you finish early, by laying your head on your desk or flirting with the girl or guy next to you…there will be time for both later, but for now, you've got to stay focused on the task at hand! Instead, go back and recheck your answers one more time, or work on any problems that you had to skip previously.

Also, be sure to read each question completely, and re-read if you're not comprehending. For reading stuff, the answer will always be contained within the passage. And, if you're not sure of the meaning of a word, try to use the context to figure out what they're talking about. When you're reading a passage, don't skip from one to another. Answer all the questions related to that passage before you move on to the next one.

Answer the sentence completion questions first…they'll take you less time than the passage-based questions.

Math Section

On the math section, be sure to read the directions first. Also, keep in mind that you do not have to memorize formulas...they'll provide them for you. You just need to figure out which one is the correct one to use in that situation. Further, all figures will be drawn to scale, unless they tell you otherwise.

Hot Strategy

Now, if they give you some question like:

If Tom is twice as old as Linda, and Linda is 4 years younger than Karen, and Karen is one-third as old as Brian who will be twice as old as Tom next year, how old is Tom now?
(A) 26
(B) 22
(C) 18
(D) 14
(E) 10

Many students will rip their hair out trying to put together different equations to solve for this. (In fact, you probably wrote down T = 2L and L = K + 4 as you were reading the question, but then started to get lost with all of the letters.)

To solve this algebraically would be ridiculously complicated. Instead, understand what the question is asking, and then reason your way to the answer. The question asks us, "How old is Tom now?" You need to realize that Tom's age has to be one of the five answer choices, so let's just pick one of them and work backwards.

We'll start with Choice C, 18, because it's in the middle.

Now re-read the problem assuming that Choice C is correct. If Tom is 18 and he is "twice as old as Linda", that means that Linda is 9. Now we learn that "Linda is four years younger than Karen", that means that Karen is four years older or 13. Next, we find that "Karen is one-third as old as Brian". Well,

this might appear to be a bit confusing, but let's think about it logically - If Karen is one-third of Brian's age, that means that Brian is 3 times as old as she is. We might need a calculator for 13 × 3 to get to 39. Finally, "Brian will be twice as old as Tom next year". Next year Brian will be 40 (he is 39 now) and Tom will be 19 (he is 18 from the beginning of the problem). So, is 40 twice as much as 19? No, so we'll need to try another number. The second time around this goes much quicker. Let's choose Choice B, 22. If Tom is 22, Linda is 11. If Linda is 11, then Karen is 15. If Karen is 15, then Brian is 45. Next year Brian will be 46 and Tom will be 23. Is 46 twice as much as 23? Yes - there's our answer.

Correct answer : B and you saved A ton of time