Saturday, August 4, 2012

SAT: How to Study for the SAT

How to study for the SAT? How to beat the SAT? SAT the monster, the giant, how can it be overcome? Having to take on the SAT is like the story of David taking on Goliath, at least that's what it seems like before you have really prepared yourself.

"PLEASE SHARE YOUR SAT TIPS. I'm aiming for 2000 and my current sat score is 1700"

Please note: I am not the most qualified person to be giving you tips on the SAT. Although I did receive a 2300 (740CR, 770M, 790W) I did not fully master the SAT, hence the 100 points away from a perfect score. But I will do my best my friend, because I remember how desperate I was before I began studying and I had NO CLUE what so ever on how to study.

If you read my reply on the comments, you will noted the importance of determination, motivation, and perseverance. I don't know what grade you are in, but if you just take even 2 weeks but ideally 1-2 months to study hardcore, I mean HARDCORE, you will get the score you want.

I'm sure you know about this website, but if you don't check it out! College Confidential. Press college discussion and it will take you to the forum and on the left side you press SAT/ACT prep for tips on studying for the SAT. It will take you to here: College Confidential SAT/ACT Prep. This is where I found all the help I needed. I didn't need a tutor, they are WAY overpriced and unless you are rich, they are not worth your money. I'm not saying they don't help, they do, but if you don't have the money, there are many more efficient ways.

I'm just going to list all the helpful threads I found the College Confidential. I DO NOT TAKE ANY CLAIM ANY OF THESE MATERIALS. As you can see, the thread starter is the person you should thank. I will simply share what I found the most helpful and hope that it helps you.

Compilation of all SAT guides on College Confidential: here you find all the threads that might be helpful for studying for preparing for the SAT.

Noitaraperp Critical Reading Tips: CRITICAL READING section. You employ these tips and it will help you a bunch. But listen to me, you can't simply read this and believe that you will improve, no! You need to put it into practice. You know what a Blue Book is right?? The SAT official study guide which as 10 practice tests. You go through all the practice tests, and I mean ALL OF THEM. You time yourself accordingly and take it under real test day conditions. You take the tests SECTION BY SECTION and after each section go to http://www.collegeboard.com/html/satstudyguide/ to find the answers. Read explanation for EVERY QUESTION even if you got it right. This is how you understand what collegeboard is looking for in an answer. 

WRITING: Sparknotes SAT Writing Section Guide this is all I need for the writing section

VOCAB: If you can afford it buy the Direct Hits 1 & 2 SAT vocab books. MEMORIZE all of them. Know them like the palm of your hand. It won't guarantee you a 100% on the vocab, but it will increase your score significantly.

MATH: There is really no trick to this. As I mentioned before, get this SAT Official Study Guide and do all the practice tests section by section. After each math section, and read the explanations online. But honestly, the online explanation by collegeboard website was confusing... so use this Khan Academy SAT Math explanations. As you can see it only goes up to test 8. That is because it is based on the 1st edition. On the 2nd edition, I'm not positive because it's been a while but I believe test 4 on 2nd edition is test 1 on khan academy. I am sure you can figure it out by yourself.

Finally this helped me the most! aussietechie's SAT 2080->2340 SAT guide... it really just summarized it up for me after going through threads after threads.

You know if you are willing to read through all these threads, take notes, taking ALL the practice tests, read all the explanations carefully, maybe even RETAKE the practice tests, especially the math, you will increase your score. Your score will be proportionate to your effort. If you need help in a specific section, let me know in the comment and I will try to give you specific tips. Good luck and work at it! Believe in yourself!!!! 

It will help a ton if you get a big piece of paper and write in big font 2400, 2300, 2000, whatever your dream score is, it will seriously motivate you when you are tired and you look up and see the sign.

I also have this quote by Abraham Lincoln on my wall:  Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.   

2 comments:

  1. Hey man! Saw your post on DA Forum and I sent you a PM, but just wanted to say nice job with the blog! Do you have an e-mail I can contact you at?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice to meet you! I shot you a reply! I'm very glad

    ReplyDelete