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SAT Prep

8 Essential Tips to Boost your SAT Reading and SAT Writing Scores During the Summer

test taking hand-250x300Okay, so it’s summer – and many of you have just scrubbed off the last of the school year in the shower.  We know all you want right now is to be out in the park with friends – we want that too!  But we also know that October is right around the corner, and for many of you, that means the next SAT.  And we know that the verbal sections of the SAT (particularly the reading comprehension, simply because the answers are necessarily more equivocal) are often the most difficult to study for in a short period of time.  So to ensure you don’t find yourself at the beginning of the next school year, juggling all your new classes while simultaneously cramming for the SAT, we’ve compiled a few suggestions for the summer, so that you can begin studying with plenty of time to spare.  If you can set aside just two or three hours a week to study, you’ll be well ahead of the game.  Here are our top suggestions:

 

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Should I take the SAT or the ACT?

CalculatorPhotoAnswer a few questions about yourself and get an idea of which one may be a better fit for you…

As you’re likely to have noticed, the SAT has generally predominated in discourses about standardized testing for college admissions.  This is because traditionally, colleges have used the SAT as the gauge by which to evaluate candidate admissions.  But in recent years most colleges and universities have begun to accept ACT scores from applicants – some in addition to SAT scores, and others in lieu of them.

Of course the best way to determine what your scores might be on either test is to put yourself through some practice tests (I would suggest they be both full-length and timed, so you can get a sense of your endurance levels and the speed at which you work).  Read More »Should I take the SAT or the ACT?

Average SAT Scores for the Class of 2012 Remains Steady

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More than 1.66 million students took the SAT in 2012, the largest group to have taken the test, and according to the College Board, the most diverse as 45 percent of test takers were minority students. This year’s scores averages are virtually unchanged from previous years.

Average SAT scores for the class of 2012 in critical reading and writing each decreased by one point; the average scores for math, however, remained steady. Read More »Average SAT Scores for the Class of 2012 Remains Steady

5 Ways to Learn SAT Vocabulary with (Apparently) Little Effort

My experience with helping students study for the SAT is that vocabulary tends to fall by the wayside. Students generally come to me needing verbal help because they’re worried about comprehension in the Critical Reading sections or because they think their grammar skills aren’t up to par. But consider this: there are three Critical Reading sections on every SAT exam, two of which begin with five or six questions that are specifically vocabulary-based (these are known as “sentence completion” questions), and one of which begins with eight. In addition, each of these Critical Reading sections contains at least 2-3 questions that require you understand the vocabulary involved: the College Board will either ask you about a word as it appears in context (“In line 34, the word “cloudy” most likely means: a) muddy b) overcast c) nebulous d) lackluster”), or it will present you with answer options that contain some demanding words (“The author of passage 1 would most likely assert that the position of the theorist in line 19 is: a) atypical b) perspicacious c) haughty d) unpretentious”).

Read More »5 Ways to Learn SAT Vocabulary with (Apparently) Little Effort

Which of the SAT Subject Tests is best for you to take?

(If you’re having similar difficulties deciding between the SAT and the ACT, by the way, check out “SAT versus ACT: The Test-Taker’s Guide”).

First, a word to all you history buffs out there who are currently scheming to just take both U.S. History and World History and wash your hands of the matter: most colleges that oblige you to take Subject Tests require they be in different subject areas.

Before deciding, you should first make a list of all the colleges you’re considering.  Then spend some time checking (and double-checking!) their requirements Read More »Which of the SAT Subject Tests is best for you to take?

What About Those SAT Subject Tests?

So you’ve been studying for the SAT for what seems like years now, and your critical thinking, grammar, and math skills are on par with the pros.  And yet, you’re finding your dreams of becoming an on-site biologist who studies homeostasis at the Congo River basin have not quite been furthered by all of this study.  So how do you show the colleges you’re interested in – well – what you’re interested in?  Or that you’re a much more well rounded student than the SAT (or ACT) might have them believe?  Further, when do you get a chance to prove to the world out there that everything you learned in your World History class actually “stuck”? Read More »What About Those SAT Subject Tests?

4 Dos and 4 Don’ts in the Days Before, and on the Morning of, the SAT

So you’ve been studying for the SAT for what feels now like your whole life… You are now officially in the home stretch, and you’re ready for it to be over – and believe me, I’m ready for it to be over for you. But this also happens to be the week in which I get the most questions about strategy: what, exactly, should you be doing in those final days? The answers are in ways very similar – and in other ways very dissimilar – to what you’ve been doing so far. Below is my list of top dos and don’ts in those final hours. Read More »4 Dos and 4 Don’ts in the Days Before, and on the Morning of, the SAT

8 Helpful Hints for the SAT Essay

The SAT essay is – for good reason – always one of my students’ hugest concerns. I say “for good reason” on a number of grounds. In the first place, students sit down to the SAT writing section after years of high school English classes that have instilled in them the process and practice of writing a meticulously organized exposition – one that takes multiple drafts, demands countless hours of editing, and occasionally requires a sleepless night or two. Suddenly they are faced with a 25-minute window in which their first instinct is to squeeze that whole working-and-reworking process into a significantly shorter period of time. Of course, this isn’t humanly possible – nor will it be expected of you. In the second place, the essay is the only section of the SAT that is scored – let’s admit it – subjectively. Read More »8 Helpful Hints for the SAT Essay

How Many Times Should I Take the SAT?

Just about every senior-year student I’ve worked with has had friends who have taken the SAT as if it were a monthly ritual to be resignedly endured, until he or she was finally able to crawl painstakingly to the mailbox for the very last time to check his or her scores, too exhausted to celebrate the outcome. Those same students most likely had friends who took the test the first time, left the test location and went directly to the public pool (the weather’s always gorgeous when there’s a test to be taken), and were never seen at a test administration site again. Most likely you’ve known students, too, at both ends of the SAT “numbers spectrum.” So where do you fit it? Read More »How Many Times Should I Take the SAT?