<p>I've been tutoring SAT since January this year. At one point, I had a class of around 45 students, but now I have just a couple since it's the summer and I'm not that interested in teaching SAT currently.</p>
<p>I thought I'd just throw [url="<a href="http://chrissu1226.myweb.hinet.net/web/sattips.pdf%22%5Dthis%5B/url">http://chrissu1226.myweb.hinet.net/web/sattips.pdf"]this[/url</a>] out there. This is the complimentary copy of SAT suggestions I distributed to different people during the school year. For my SAT class, I went into far more detail than this and created a curriculum of around 50 pages - but these are the big highlights. If it helps, feel free to help yourself ^^!</p>
<p>Addendum for the SAT Writing MC - (I never did figure Error ID out. GAH i suck at those (it's the only reason why I never got a 800 in Writing...='[), but at least I had Sentence Completions and Paragraph Correction as perfect).</p>
<p>80% of SAT Writing is pure Grammar. But it's not basic grammar either, it's SAT Grammar. There are only around 16 basic grammar structures that the SAT asks you on, so your best bet is to buy Barron's Writing Workbook and learn the grammar there. Through practicing and assimilating the grammar in that book, you will be able to tackle most SAT Writing questions without too much difficulty. That is the big key, I believe, to SAT Writing.</p>
<p>For Sentence Completions, do a "vertical read" method. First, figure out what makes the five choices different from one another, and eliminate those that are obviously wrong (usually, it's 2 obviously wrong approaches and 3 "maybe right" ones). Often, you can tell by the first word (for example, if it's subject-verb agreement and you know the subject is plural, you can immediately eliminate all the answer choices that begin with "reads" and leave the answer choices that begin with "read"). Save the time of going through each answer choice and debating which one it is!</p>
<p>For Paragraph Corrections, read to get the "gist" of the passage, not to correct every single grammar mistake in the paragraph. The paragraph is poorly written on purpose and even if the questions ask you to correct a certain spot where there's sketchy grammar, they'll reprint the sentence so you barely have to re-read the paragraph. Spend no more than 1 minute on the paragraph - read to get the "feeling" for it, not for technical errors. The majority of paragraph correction questions have to do with transitions, intro/conclusion, logic in sentence structure, pronoun antecedent, and flow in the paragraph. Often, they ask to evaluate which sentence would best add to the overall message, which sentence detracts from the overall message, or ask you to pick the best intro/conclusion. Thus, just reading for the "gist" of the passage is sufficient to answer the questions. Don't get too caught up in the paragraph itself.</p>
<p>Overall Addendum - I don't know whether if I emphasized this in the study guide, but a big, big component is to do practice tests. Many students have asked me whether there is a quick way to scoring high on the SAT - there really isn't. Nothing comes without a cost. Take the time to read up on the tips, but at the end, it's really up to you and how much you choose to practice. The SAT is highly predictable, and the more exposure you have of doing practice, the better you will do. It's that simple. But practicing does not mean whipping out your SAT book and just madly putting down As, Bs, and Cs - practice means doing the tests, circling the answers you got wrong, and figuring out at the end WHY you got those questions wrong. If you just skim over them, then you're just enforcing the things you already know through your practice tests, but not taking the time to figure out what you DON'T know. Tips will only get you a certain way, the rest is up to your own **sweat, blood, and tears<a href="ok,%20maybe%20not%20that%20dramatic%20%5E%5E%22">/b</a>.</p>
<p>Also - please don't ask me for copies of my real curriculum. I haven't got them in .pdf format yet and I'm not planning on organizing my lecture notes for awhile. I spent a month developing the curriculum and I'm not ready to give it out in a mass distribution yet.</p>
<p>This study guide is the prototype to everything - the first big "tip sheet" I tried to type out - so hope you'll find it useful!</p>
<p>I'll also include a list of books I found useful in SAT prep. </p>
<p>SAT (general tips) - PR SAT I, Rocket Review, Blue Book
SAT (reading) - McGraw, Rocket Review
SAT (math) - PR SAT I, Math Workbooks, Blue Book
SAT (writing) - Barron's Writing Workbook, practice
SAT (practice tests) - PR's 11 Tests, Blue Book (save for last - right before the test. don't splurge them all!), online CB.com prep (if you want to pay for it).</p>
<p>I didn't really like Kaplan and Barron's. I thought Barron's went overboard and Kaplan was too common-sense-ish. That's why they're not up there.</p>
<p>Good luck! :] You'll only go the "fun" once ;) SAT Test-taking is an artform in itself. =p</p>