My SAT prep/test taking advice and tip

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>someone you might have seen this already, i posted a majority of it on the OCT sat thread. but i wanted to bring all of this together and hopefully, it can help someone. and just throwing out a disclaimer, i do not promise that these tips will help you, try them out and practice, and see what works for you. </p>

<p>writing section-essay
1. don't try to be fancy...just make the essay structured and simple.
example of how it should be structured (i'm gonna try to reproduce this to the best of my...memory)</p>

<p>1st paragraph:
restate the prompt and tie it into your two examples. introduce your examples. thesis.</p>

<p>use the PIE formula for each body paragraph.
P point: state the point of your paragraph
I illustrate your point with examples
E explian your positio, both what it means and how your example supports it.</p>

<p>the second body example should connect to the thesis.</p>

<p>body 2</p>

<p>topic sentence should refer back to the thesis and the first example
another PIE paragraph.</p>

<p>conclusion:
summarize the main points of the essay or explain the implication of your thesis. "in the light of the above example, it is clear the change is not always for the bes. the examples of industrialization and nuclear technology demonstrate that change, while in some ways beneficial, bring about a number of negative consequences."</p>

<p>tip on picking your example...stick with like 4 people and learn them well.
example, learn everything you can about Henry Ford and his Company, then Steve JObs and apple, BG and microsoft, and Randy Pausch, professor famous for his "last lecture". learn their life and try to tie it into your prompt.</p>

<p>a essay about success and happiness...randy pausch (battling cancer) and ford (making cars avalible.)
technology/learning from difficulties (Jobs and Ford)
deception turns good (microsoft, and Ford with the start of his company)
questions the ideas of authority (Ford and Jobs vs IBM)
motivation (Ford (there seems to be a pattern) and Job)</p>

<p>those don;t have to the four people, but you see how it can help.
other people: Thomas edison, wright brothers, neil armstrong, </p>

<p>try not to bother with personal history, someone else's life is probably more exciting than yours, unless that's not true. </p>

<p>use western european history instead of us history unless it fits really well, same with using american literature instead of european. </p>

<p>also refer to some interesting books. Old man and the sea, even harry potter, LOTR. </p>

<p>historical events taht could be used.
Greece, Spainese armada, Socrates (person), Alexander (person), Gladiators (historic perspectives), fall of rome, black death, Columbus, 1666 fire of london, GW rules of Good behavior, declaration of independence (american revolution could be used, despite me saying that you shouldn;t use american history), waterloo, </p>

<p>Critical reading:
here is the reading that i did for someone else...it;s actually summarized..i could do it under 6000 characters...lol</p>

<p>reading has 5 different types of questions.</p>

<p>filled in the blank, 2 words or 1 word</p>

<p>short single passage
single paired passage
long single passage
and long paired passage.</p>

<p>know the difference because you are going to tackle them differently. </p>

<p>filling the blanks: gotta know your vocab...not more to it. know the meaning of the words, starting with all of those in the blue book. then barron's 3500 or soemthing like that. for two word problems, find the relationship between the two words. negative positive, vise-versa, or positive-postive, negative-negative. find the relationship and match them with a set of words that also match. not more to it, if you know the words, you are better off not using any strategy.</p>

<p>SSP: underline anything that is important to you. espcially changes in idea, or mood/attitude. (this goes for all questions) know the point of view of the author and whether it changes or not. know the topic sentence, there is bound to be a question about it. know the conclusion...to be honest, if it doesn;t ask you for a meaning of a word...you don;t even have to read the middle parts. </p>

<p>spp:
this one, take everything from SP and then compare the two. are the two passages backing each other up, are they dissagreeing or are they agreeing on some points but not other? know how they relate to each other. pay attention to deltas (or changes) of these:
1 attitude
2 relationships
3 view, contents, rhetorics
4 similarities and difference
new view/ old view is very important, usually a few questions on it. </p>

<p>lsp: try to do the question that ask you to define words first. treat it like ssp. you will have about 14 mintues to do them.
1 scan the introductory material, mark useful info...date it was written, who wrote it. this give you an idea of the point of view.
2 read the crucial parts and take notes
3 read the questions and all information related to the question, correspond to the part of the pasage
4 the 5 option and choose the best one.</p>

<p>LPP: you;ll have 15 mitneus or less to answer them. i;m gonna give you some tips, but these also applies for the other types of passage. LPP is easier than LSP but more conprehensive so i can talk about more the important points.</p>

<p>1 go through the question. figure out if they correspond to the first passage or the second or if they are comparing the two.
2 read passage one, answer the question,
3 ready passage two answer the P2 questions
4 answer the conbining quesiton.</p>

<p>importantly, if it asks you to look at certain lines, the answer will usually be in the sentence before it or after it, but it will ALMOST never be contained in the lines it asks you to read.
ex "what does the examples in line 45-47 refer to" of course it's gonna be refering to the topic that was in front those examples. </p>

<p>when reading the passages, never skip, always skim if short on time.</p>

<p>Math:</p>

<p>unfortunatly i don;t have a lot of tips for math...you just have to know it. just know the rules and a lot of practice, not much secrets to it.</p>

<p>i usually work on the math starting with the most difficult question and working backwards.</p>

<p>that's it for now, writing MC comming up.</p>

2

<p>I have a tip for math - If you ever get a question that has a circle inside a square, first thing you should do is try to flip the pieces so they cover a fraction of the square - it will save you time like it did for me on the psat.</p>

3

<p>damn, sorry for the last one being so long, didn’t realize.</p>

<p>writing is one of my favorite sections just becasue there are a lot of tricks to it.</p>

<p>Major points of testing:
Singular and plural. Noun (N)1 + N2+ verb these kinds of forms.<br>
parallel structure
Adjective, adverd…their differences and usage
logic subject-S+V+O+Ving/Ved or S + V+ O, Ving/Ved S=subject V=verb O= object
Pronoun, Pronoun, pronoun</p>

<p>types of questions on the writing.<br>
improving sentences
find the error, the underlined kind,
imporving paragraph</p>

<p>that’s about it i believe.</p>

<p>Improving sentences-------i will just introduce some commonly tested problem that people make mistake on…this list is not exhaustive. make only about 2 mistakes here on the whole test</p>

<p>don’t just go with what sounds the best. look for grammar mistakes.</p>

<p>if any of the choices contains the word Having or Being, it is WRONG…99% of the time.
UNLESS having of being appears at the begining of the sentence. Blue Book P 537 #8 and the unless exampl: P536 #1</p>

<p>if the part after the comma is underline, look at the first word, make sure it matches the first word of after the comma. that was not clear in the way i worded it.<br>
ex: having (its the first word so it’s okay) polited blah…, (person) was experinced blah blah.
the fist part, if performed by a person, it has to be a name after the comma or the subject. p 557 #12 persuading, it has to be the book or essay…not the effects.</p>

<p>pronoun, one and you…easy</p>

<p>not tested very often but made sure there is a conjuction that joins two clauses. (as you can see i’m very bad at grammar and these are just hard facts i remember)</p>

<p>process of elimanation.</p>

<p>look at all the options. majority rules…if there are a lot of choice that is similar, the form is most likely correct. look for the one that doesn’t really change the words just the order. so pick one that is alike with the original. if a b c are eradically different, choices will be D or E and pick the one that is most alike, if both are alike…pick the shortest choice. so majority, word choice, and length. but sometimes the answer is hidden in the minority. if one major mistake is made in 3 or more choices…most likely A C and E will make these mistakes, your choice will obviously be D or B…pick the one most alike or by shorter length.</p>

<p>let’s move on to the underline…fix the mistake. -----these are easy, you should only miss a most one of these on the whole test…only one section</p>

<p>if a verb is underline…look for the noun. and make sure it matches up singular or plural. it is almost never the closest noun that it’s refering to. ex: 539 #20 the verb is refering to a noun almost 3 lines above it. actually you can even say that if the underlined verb does not match up with the closest noun, then it’s rightly placed, if it does match up, it;s probably wrong. </p>

<p>two people…jane and tom want to a scientist when they grow up…commonly tested…they want to be sciencetists. make sure you check the plurual even when it;s refering to two seperate objecst. </p>

<p>pronoun…make sure it matches up…this one can’t be helpped, just have to be aware. and use the right pronoun…we or us…this is when your ears might help you. </p>

<p>adverbs…again becareful</p>

<p>alike appears alot and is often underlined…leave it alone, it;s always right. </p>

<p>i know you learned a lot of choices but don’t get too trigger happy, this is when No error fools you. </p>

<p>improving paragraph------part of the long writing section…that section should be done sentence first, then paragraph and then the underline. the test is designed so that 5 mintues is called just when you start the paragraph and you get stressed out and make a lot of mistakes…so avoid it and do it earlier.</p>

<p>paragraphs is tricky, not much you can do…one thing is important, most of them you don;t need to read the passage. just go right to the questions. if it give you a line number, it’s porbably asking you to correct to fit the context and not just for mistakes. if you have written any essay or read and good writing, you should be fine here. not much to it.</p>

<p>i know i have been really quick and not very comprehensive, so if you have question PM me. and is not a system and won’t improve your scores automatcally. use this with other advice…like xiggi’s. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE…then you’ll have a feel of how it works.</p>

<p>have fun and i hope it helps.</p>

4

<p>when you are practing for the sat…</p>

<p>barron 3500 for the vocab…learn them it will help…don;t find shortcuts…just learn them</p>

<p>use the blue book for practice question and PR 11</p>

<p>but don;t just go through the test. do it in a lateral way. today i’m gonna practice improving sentence…IS problems in test1 and test2 and so on and so forth. then underline…do it by types of questions…that;s why i break it up. this way you will get a knack for it and notice the commonly tested questions. and see how you improve. practice till you give your magic number. with enough practice you should do very well.</p>

<p>writing MC…you should absolutly miss no more than 4…even thou i do but i shouldn’t. 2 in improving sentence 1 in underline and one in paragraphs. that; the number you are looking ofr.</p>

<p>Essay-7 8 or 9 is all fine…but if you can get it higher good for you. </p>

<p>math-if youa re good at math, you shouldn’t miss more than 2 or 3. know the concepts!!! then you’ll be fine. target number is less than 4 or 5.</p>

<p>reading is thougher, everyone is different so it’s harder to judge. this is the wild card, if you are good at it, then you will get a good score…if you are bad…start improving. everyone hates the SAT becaseu it’s a learnable test…so start learning it. miss up to 8 on this section.</p>

<p>and if can accomplish the goal i set above…you will score in the 2050 to 2150+ range…depending on your luck. </p>

<p>so again…good luck everyone</p>

5

<p>what do you mean by 'flip the pieces"?</p>

6

<p>ditto on what do you mean by flip the pieces…i get consistant 800s on practice sats, and i’ve never had to…flip the pieces???</p>

<p>also i really wouldn’t suggest the barron’s 3500…the more vocab you know, i understand the cr will become easier for you. but with good resources like direct hits and pr hits parade, etc. etc. that all of us CCers are so fond of (…of which we CCers are fond? damn it grammar is messing with my mind), you should have enoughd direct and indirect hits that you really shoud be able to find out the two or three words you didn’t know that were on barron’s 3500. i mean come on they call themselves a minidictionary…my poor kid taking the sat will have to memorize the actual dictionary the way this is going…</p>

7

<p>i went through just the “hot” words from Barron’s and it helpped. </p>

<p>and when you are looking at vocab list like in barrons. don’t just go list one…two…three…</p>

<p>becasue if you do it that way, you will always know what Abase means but not Zephyr…you get annoyed after 3 list and farther down the alphebet, the worse it gets.</p>

<p>so before you even start, make a day plan…50 list…50 days…break them up. day one 3 and 47, day two 19 and 25, make it random but make sure you get all the list. if you have less time than that, just do more a day, but make sure it’s well seperated, this way you’ll actually get through the whole thing.</p>

8

<p>flip the pieces - i.e.
if you get a circle inscribe in a square or vice-versa, and there are shaded parts, and you have to find the area of the shaded parts or the nonshaded parts, always try to flip the shaded parts over so they cover a fraction of the square or circle so then you can just find the area of that figure and multiply by the fraction that you found after flipping.</p>

9

<p>bump</p>

<p>hope this might help someone.</p>