<p>Introduction</p>
<p>This is not, repeat not, a guide for those who want to get a 2400. It certainly might work for that purpose, but I got a 2320 and wouldn't expect any more without actually trying. What this is intended to do is offer a few strategies that might help you get a good-enough SAT score without wasting too much time on stuff that will never be useful outside of the test. Most of what I recommend is either a) easy and quick or b) actually educational in a way that might benefit you down the road.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: If my advice doesn't work for you... not my problem. I promise nothing and really don't care all that much if anything bad happens to you. No guarantees of any kind are offered.</p>
<p>General Advice</p>
<ul>
<li>If you can afford it, take the test once without stressing about it. Get a benchmark score.</li>
<li>Even when you are serious, take it early enough that you can try again if bad things happen.</li>
<li>Buy the Blue Book and take some practice tests. This is also my official advice for last-minute studiers: take practice tests. Try to identify areas where you are screwing up and then fix the ones that you have time for.</li>
<li>Don't stress. Remember, you are better than the test. Being egotistical is useful when test-taking.</li>
<li>Figure out your optimal conditions with regards to food and sleep. Don't trust the conventional wisdom on this - I personally work best without food.</li>
<li>Don't do anything stupid (ie text during the test, annoy the proctor, starve yourself and faint, etc.)</li>
</ul>
<p>CR</p>
<p>If you have lots of time available, IMO the best way to deal with the CR section is simply to read as many books as possible. Read articles online. Read your textbooks. Read an encyclopedia. Read books with words you don't know and get familiar with how they are used. This strategy has three advantages:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You will be exposed to variety of vocabulary terms in context. This is so important because even if you don't know the dictionary definition you can still get a question right if you know roughly the conditions under which you would expect to see a word in a passage.</p></li>
<li><p>You can increase both your reading speed and your scanning ability (see below).</p></li>
<li><p>Reading books is almost certainly more interesting than memorizing vocabulary lists and may provide you with either entertainment or useful knowledge. Or both.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>A note on scanning: I think the real key to the CR section is learning to avoid actually reading the passages. Scanning the passage and randomly reading words can help you gain a feel not only for the facts of the passage but also the tone and intended audience. ETS tends to choose passages with consistent characteristics in diction, so this method seems to work well. It should take no more than 10 seconds to cover a half-page of text this way. Then do the questions and use the keywords you remember to find the appropriate part of the passage.</p>
<p>If you have read a lot, trust your intuition. If the answer feels right, it probably is. You can test your intuition with practice tests. Give yourself less than the required time and just pick the first option that feels right.</p>
<p>M</p>
<p>I personally feel that the SAT Math section is the real critical reading section. The mathematical prerequisites are fairly slim, and my only advice for covering those is to familiarize yourself with the material typically covered in prealgebra, algebra, geometry, and algebra II courses. If you haven't already had all this in school, I personally think that the McDougal Littell / Houghton Mifflin math texts from the early 1990s in the series of Geometry for Enjoyment and Challenge are excellent.</p>
<p>The key is to be very, very careful as you read the questions. Many can be solved quickly just by testing the multiple choice answers. For the fill-in questions, be very careful as you do your work because you don't have choices available to spot a slip-up. Work slowly enough that you don't screw up but fast enough that you have time to check your answers.</p>
<p>For preparation, I really think the best option is to do practice tests. Mark questions where you guess so that you can decide how good of a guesser you are (this is a pretty good strategy for all of the sections). Remember to use the formula sheet if you don't remember formulas.</p>
<p>W</p>
<p>Three simple words:
Screw. The. Essay.</p>
<p>You don't need it. You really don't. Trust me on this. Now, if you take the test and get a three... ignore my advice above. But 7s and 8s are no problem. I got an 8.</p>
<p>Why is the essay unimportant? You have the multiple choice to make up for it. And my advice for the multiple choice is identical to my recommendation for the CR section: read as much as you possibly can. If you have read enough, you can get an intuitive sense for when a sentence is grammatically screwed up. It will just sound wrong when you read it. You can test this the same way as I recommend for the CR. Once again, intuition is your friend.</p>
<p>If you can do that, you can ace the CR and Writing MC without ever memorizing a canned essay example. Will you get an 800? No, but we aren't shooting for perfect.</p>
<p>Conclusion</p>
<p>Was any of this helpful? I don't know. Maybe you learned something, or maybe I just wasted five minutes that you could have spent muttering Direct Hits words to yourself so you can get that perfect 2400. Regardless, try to enjoy life a little. Put the book away for a while and go outside.</p>