Common sense tips to help raise your SAT/ACT score

Test Preparation
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I’m a test prep tutor. One aspect of what I do is watching students during practice drills. I cover the verbal sections of the test, but much of this can apply to math on the SAT, or math and science on the ACT.

  • Elimination is important. Get rid of two wrong answers. Think about why a remaining answer is wrong, rather than why it’s right. If you can’t think of why an answer is wrong, you’ve probably got the right answer.

  • On both tests in all sections, questions generally progress from easy to medium to hard. An easy point is worth as much as a hard point. Don’t waste time on hard questions at the expense of easy ones. Don’t get hung up on questions that you are struggling with.

  • For Reading, does a student spend too much time reading a passage? That’s a waste of time, because he has to go back and read a lot of the passage again anyway when he’s answering questions. Set a steady reading pace, using your pencil to force your eyes along, and aim to read a passage in under three minutes, especially on the ACT.

  • In English, does the student actually plug the answer back in to ensure that it works? I’m amazed at how many don’t do this. This can also apply to Math.

  • Also in English, the student will get points by trying the shortest answer first to see if it works. It will NOT always be correct, but it’s a good place to start. The English section favors concise answers.

  • For SAT math, remember how to use your pencil to do basic things like multiply and divide. I’m surprised by how many kids have forgotten these easy skills.

  • In ACT math, it’s usually the last ten questions that are the hardest. A hard point is worth as much as an easy point. Maximize the easy points and don’t panic about getting to the final questions that you might get wrong anyway.

  • For ACT Science, it’s often best to go right to the questions, which are primarily based on the data points provided. Skim the passage as needed.

  • Does the student spend too much time on one question? It’s time to move on. You’re missing chances to answer several easier questions when you get stuck on one hard question.

  • Does the student go back and check the answer when he’s already circled an answer? That’s a waste of time. I pause the timer to make them aware of that. The goal is to keep moving. Tough questions can be marked to review later, if there’s time.

  • Does a student focus on EXACTLY what the question is asking for? I can tell when they aren’t focusing on the main point of the question. I pause the timer and ask him to tell me what the most relevant words are in the question. That helps him pinpoint an answer more quickly.

  • Does the student simply put the pencil down when they fill in the scantron, and fail to review questions, or simply never mark any to review in the first place? That’s a good way of losing points. If you have enough time left over to sit around while others are still working, you have enough time the review answers.

  • The flip side of that is don’t overthink. If you felt confident when you answered, your instinct was probably right. Too many kids go back and change right answers to wrong ones. The trick is to not “justify” wrong answer choices.

  • Having a guessing letter, if you’re truly stumped, is useful. Use the same letter, and never leave a blank. A blank is always wrong.

Here are my thoughts on the most common reasons kids mess up on tests that they expect to do well on.

  1. On the ACT, running out of time is the most common reason kids don’t do as well as they hoped to.
  2. They think they know the subject already, so don’t need to prep. (I tutor the verbal sections, and many of my students come to me after bombing reading and/or English on one or two tests. They think they already know those things, so they don’t study much.)
  3. They don’t pay enough attention to the earlier, easier questions (questions generally progress in difficulty) and don’t realize they’ve done them wrong, and spend too much time on the harder questions that they might get wrong anyway. They fail to understand that the easy point is worth as much as the hard point. Get as many easy ones correct as you can.
  4. They rush at the end, ESPECIALLY with the ACT. Then they do any number of things: panic because they think they are not getting the right answers on the hard ones; careless bubbling in by putting the wrong answer in the wrong number, or by just messing up; not eliminating answers or not checking answers; leaving answers blank because they figured they would go back and do that one later.

Being good at math, or English, or just taking tests at school doesn’t mean you’re good at taking the SAT or ACT. It’s not like a regular test in school.

Definitely sleep well, eat breakfast, and bring nutritious snacks. I tell my students to bring protein bars, sandwiches and bananas. Bring a drink, but not soda.

Have all your extra pencils and batteries with you. Get a cheapy digital watch and use it, but make sure it’s not going to make any noise.

Perhaps most importantly, have a balanced perspective. These tests will not determine the course of your life. There are plenty of tests dates, and plenty of test optional schools. Going to college relies first and foremost on the student having a REALISTIC list of schools to apply to.

Being aware of these simple things can lead to a higher score and doesn’t rely on innate intelligence or hours and hours of test prep. Feel free to add your own tips.

EDIT: See more tips from me in the posts below.

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Bumping for students taking the ACT this weekend.

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Great tips. Thanks! Testing was a stressful thing for my S20 and I am aiming to take the pressure off of his younger brother. Oh, the poor firstborn!

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Thanks @Lindagaf !I only wish that D21 had time to go back and review some questions on the ACT! Lol!

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I think the single best tip we read was to focus on your mistakes. Take the practice tests and then see every mistake as an opportunity to bump your score higher the next time.

My daughter also marked any questions that she wasn’t positive about, or - for math - questions that simply took too long. She then looked up the questions on YouTube and found free explanations. In some cases, she was solving the full math problem when the solution was MUCH simpler (and faster.)

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Hey, I also have a tip!
So I took the test 3 times, first I got a 31, then a 32, then a 34.
Basically if you treat the science section as a reading portion, it becomes way less daunting and easier to tackle. All the info you need to get the answers down are on the page, so it’s not like you have to do too much to solve for it. Also, a basic tip for any section is to cross off common sense stuff that you know is wrong. If you have any extra time, just fight off how tired your brain is and go through the packet a second time and check all your answers. But don’t check too much or you might begin to change too much, and change stuff that was right before.
Hope this helps :slight_smile:

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Great tips! I used many of these and they definitely helped raise my score.

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I recently posted this on another thread:

I’m a test prep tutor and I’ve seen a lot of high GPA kids do poorly on these tests.

For many kids, it’s not that they don’t understand the questions or content. It’s that they repeatedly do silly things that tank their score. It doesn’t necessarily indicate a learning disability.

I watch what kids are doing when they are taking a timed test section. For example, yesterday I worked with a super smart guy who hovered with his pencil near the right answer for seconds before circling it. That’s a time waster. He circled correctly, and then went right back to look at all the answer choices again. More time wasted.

Then he moved on to another question, crossed out one choice, skipped that and moved on to other questions. He eventually went back to the question where he had crossed out only one answer, and then circled that answer! It was, of course, wrong. He should have spent more time eliminating answers on that one question, then moved on. The net result was that he ended up rushing to complete the section, and rushing isn’t helpful.

This is pretty typical behavior of a lot of students who, IMO, overthink these tests. They think the tests are harder than they are. So they do okay when they do practice tests at home, but come test day, they do let the pressure get to them and it’s probably silly test taking “hygiene” that prevents a higher score on test day.

Students need to understand that these tests are not like regular tests. They are designed to confuse.

Parents and students would do well to understand that these tests may be standardized, but are not true indicators of ability or intelligence. One student I know is probably the smartest kid I’ve ever met. He applied TO to a school well-known for that. He majored in something a lot of CCer’s would possibly turn their noses up at (think along the lines of medieval studies, etc…), won an international award in a highly competitive intellectual pursuit, graduated summa cum laude, won a nationally known postgrad scholarship opportunity, and got a great job at a fantastic creative company.

These tests aren’t about intelligence. They are about trying to put students into groups of percentages.

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Hello, do you think you can help with SAT (reading, writing), I am sorry I cant pm you.

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Great points! Also its very helpful to use a stopwatch, especially if its already built in to a digital watch. That way you are able to know exact times instead of spending time guessing/figuring it out

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I’d add one more. Check your calculator. My kid took the SAT and the function key was on. Took a while to figure out something wasn’t right.

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@ Lindagaf : Hello, Any tips to improve SAT - reading, writing ?

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One tip I have for reading… remember ONLY one option is correct and the other three are absolutely wrong. The answer may be hard to find at first, but it will always be in the passage somewhere. It really helped me to keep that in mind. With enough practice, you’ll figure out the best way to identify where the answers are. Eventually, I could kind of predict what they’d be asking about as I read through and annotated the main points within the passage. For writing, go through your mistakes and practice them until you completely understand them. Continuous practice is important for improving both reading and writing, but writing is more commonly regarded as easier to improve.

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What is the best way to improve a math score, especially if there is a lot of the math that you haven’t covered in school?

My daughter is in the 11th grade this year and in an ACT prep class at school. So far they have done a practice test for reading, English, and math. She took the ACT in 7th grade through Duke Tip and had an 18 composite with a 21 in science, 20 in reading, 14 in English, and 15 in math. Not great but I think the average score at our school when they give the test in 11th grade is around 18, so not too bad for a 12 year old. On the reading and English practice tests she had above 30, don’t remember the exact scores, so a good bit of improvement. I think her math score was in the low 20’s though and she honestly doesn’t know how to do a lot of the math.

They got out for covid when she was in 9th grade so missed at least 2 months of Algebra I. Alabama changed their math standards so now they have Algebra II with statistics instead of Trig. I’m not sure if they will have trig next year with precalculus but regardless, considering that you need to have your scores by mid-senior year there will be a good bit that hasn’t been covered.

Is there a way to learn how to do the math for ACT quickly without having covered all of the areas of math?

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Why does she need to do it quickly?

Being honest, an ACT score from 7th grade will bear little resemblance to an ACT score taken in her junior year. No college will be interested in it, and she has done a ton of growing and learning since then. I generally recommend students take the ACT or SAT in the spring of junior year.

Invest in a few math sessions with a private tutor, and don’t rush her to take it. There are no bonus points for taking it early in junior year. There’s no advantage to taking an official paid test as a practice or “baseline.” There are tons of free official practice tests. She should take the test when she feels very prepared to take it. Between now and her applying to college, there will be at least seven or eight chances to take the test.

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YES. Not quickly, but in plenty of time for an ACT in the late spring or summer, with a retake in early fall, if need be. Based upon a recommendation from a pro tutor’s online review of the Official ACT Prep Guide (whose main value is that it has five retired ACT tests - you don’t need to buy the latest year, because they usually only put one new test in for the next year’s version), my son used the two book series Best ACT Math Prep Books Ever to prepare himself for the ACT math section. They did seem to offer a comprehensive review of high school math.

The important thing about the ACT is using old ACT tests that are legally in the public domain, to prep. This will help guide her through what she needs to self-study using the math prep books (and Khan academy) for math, but also is the ONLY thing she needs for the science data interpretation section, and possibly for the English and Reading sections, too.

I would recommend getting her a copy of The Official ACT Prep Guide (can be a cheap one from 2019, as long as it’s not marked up). Also get her the math books recommended above. Have her do a science and an English section every weekend, and grade them, and self-teach the answers. Have her do a chapter of the math books every weekend. Once she has worked her way through the math books, then she should start also doing a math section every weekend, grading, and reviewing. Don’t worry about speed yet on the math - first she should learn the material. Realize that there will be some very hard questions at the end of every math section, and if it’s not covered in the math prep books, don’t worry about it. If she’s doing fine on the Science and both English sections by spring, then she doesn’t need tutoring for those at all. She will probably benefit greatly from a special tutor for the ACT math at the end to prep her for techniques for taking the test, but if she cannot teach it to herself out of the math prep books, then you’ll have to get her a weekly tutor for math.

Once she’s worked her way through all 5 tests (and the one for free on the ACT website, assuming it’s not already in the book), you can find more legally released retired ACT tests on Reddit. Just google it, and you’ll find it. Many of them have explanation guides, in addition to answer keys.

If she doesn’t have the ability to make herself self-study for the English/Reading/Science sections, too, then you’ll have to get her a tutor for that, too.

It’s really a shame that the high school math curriculum where you are is so weak, and then on top of that, all the learning time that they lost during Covid. My son’s math score (34) was his lowest score, but he put himself through a very comprehensive review of high school math in preparation for it! He was totally ready for Calc BC his senior year. Hopefully, if your daughter can do this, she not only will do well on the ACT - she’ll also have actually learned the math that she was supposed to learn in high school.

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What I meant by do it quickly was that in order to take the test in the spring and do well she will need to learn a lot of math, at a faster than normal progression.

I realize that the 7th grade score is not really significant, was just showing that she has progressed since then based on her practice tests.

I will look into finding a math tutor, not really sure who that would be but surely there is someone. I honestly probably need to find a math tutor for her and my 8th grade son anyway. They have the same teacher this year and are both lost and the teacher refuses to help, she is determined to finish the book whether the kids understand or not.

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My older son had the official ACT Prep Guide(which he didn’t use nearly enough), but it seems to have gone missing. I will check on the best ACT books and the official prep guide. She has a pretty busy schedule right now, but she is thinking she might want go to Auburn(yuck) with hopes of being a veterinarian, so she knows she will have to raise her scores to get enough scholarships to pay for college.

I think that will be good to have books that help to learn the math rather than just the tests because when she takes a test and doesn’t know how to do most of it she feels stupid and that makes things worse. There are probably people that tutor in math around here but I don’t know of any special ACT math tutors, I will have to see what I can find.

We are in a rural area so academic options are more limited. She has an amazing Chemistry teacher but hasn’t had many good math teachers. I had an amazing math teacher when I was in high school, but even with that I didn’t do great on the ACT math section, there was a lot we had not covered. We will try the books and see how that goes and if necessary try to find a tutor.

Thanks for the advice.

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I will message you re math tutoring. I am not a math tutor, btw.

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My nephew HS junior scored 36 on is first try no professional test prep. The strategy was taking one test each week and worked on wrong answers for the entire summer. When it’s time to take the official test he already went through 12 practice tests. His hard work and discipline paid off.