As Juniors and Seniors advance past the first edition of the new SATs, new studying and test taking skills are arriving to allow for great scores.
Many students don’t want to deal with studying for this major test. It would be much easier to simply show up on the testing day. However, there are many simple strategies to studying for the SAT that won’t take up too much time.
To start, the most important tip is to step up on test taking skills. Knowing the material isn’t always enough to obtain an above average score, but learning and practicing the skill of test-taking is. This will tie both intelligence and strategy together to receive your best score. College Board’s new Official SAT Study Guide (2016 edition) is the newest studying information available. Though the book seems very intimidating at first, studying can be made very easy using only this guide alone.
However, there is one key step to making the most of studying: test day conditions. A dining room table or bedroom desk (even a bed itself) are great options. However, the distractions that come with these rooms are what can cause a blip in studying. Easy solutions are to silence your cell phone, turn off the TV and make sure parents and siblings will not need to have your attention during this time.
When done with deciding a perfect studying atmosphere, it is mostly important to record your timing. Since the SAT is a timed test, containing a certain amount of time per section, practicing how much time to use on each question is very important. Running out of time on questions that you know how to answer is not a good way to prepare for the test. Instead, make sure to focus on questions you know and leave enough time to answer each question.
With the new SAT comes new strategies. On the previous version of the exam, taking guesses on questions that you don’t know the answer to is a risk. The test was set up so that each correct answer was added to the final score. However, each wrong answer was deducted from the score. The risk was found when deciding whether it would be best to guess and hope the answer was correct, but also the chance of the answer being taken away from the score. Sometimes it is better to leave the questions blank in order for the question to not affect the final score. This is not a problem with the new SAT, where only correct answers count towards your score. All wrong or unanswered questions will not affect the score in any way.
This big change allows for some stress release during the test, so leave no questions blank throughout the test. It is far better to guess and have a chance of a point being added to your score.
There are still some more strategies for the SAT that are more straightforward. However, many students may forget to focus on these simple tasks. Overall, avoid anything that can cause distractions on testing day. Common distractions are being sick, running on an empty stomach or getting little to no sleep the night before the SAT. Wake up early to avoid being rushed, have a good breakfast and make sure to make the testing day the most unstressful to obtain the score that is the best of your ability.