<p>I'm doing SAT prep sessions at my school and made some SAT tip sheets. Can you guys look over what I wrote and offer any suggestions/ better tips?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>sorry for the bad format (converting Word to a forum post is not pretty)</p>
<p>Taking the Test on Saturday</p>
<ol>
<li> Get a good nights sleep the night before the test. You may also want to do some small review the night and morning before the test (answer a few questions, look over grammar and a few formulas, etc)</li>
<li> Have everything ready the night before the SAT</li>
<li> Make sure you wake up on time, eat a good breakfast, and bring your calculator, watch, and pencils to your testing center.</li>
<li> Also bring snacks (you are encouraged to eat them during the breaks)</li>
<li> USE YOUR BREAKS to rest, eat, freshen up, and get ready for the next section of the SAT.</li>
<li> You get two 5 minute bathroom/food breaks and one 1 minute stretching break. Use those breaks to rest and get ready for the next section.</li>
<li> BRING A WATCH and watch your time in each section</li>
<li> Its a 3 hour and 45 minute test</li>
<li> Tests Math, Critical Reading, and Writing skills</li>
<li>Math:
a. Covers: Algebra and geometry (as well as graphs)
b. 3 Sections of Math: 25 minutes, 25 minutes, and 20 minutes
c. Calculator is a useful tool but can do more harm than good</li>
<li>Critical Reading:
a. Covers: Sentence completions, short passages, and long passages
b. 3 Sections: 25 minutes, 25 minutes, and 20 minutes</li>
<li>Writing:
a. 3 Sections: a 25 minutes essay, 25 minute grammar section, and a 10 minute grammar section</li>
<li>*** They also include one experimental section that does not affect your grade (you do know what section this is)</li>
</ol>
<p>IMPORTANT INFORMATION
o The SAT is a standardized test. So there is a standard way to beat it
o One goal: get as many points as you possibly can
o Each Q is worth same # of points so answer as many Qs as you can
o Make educated guesses, not blind ones. Use process of elimination
o Keep the SAT in perspective. It is only one factor in many in your college admissions process</p>
<p>Basic SAT Info</p>
<ol>
<li> The SAT is an important factor in college admissions
a. It can help you get into a good college
b. It can get you some really good scholarships</li>
<li> SAT is a standardized test. So if u know the proper tricks and strategies (and practice them), you can dramatically raise your score</li>
</ol>
<p>General SAT Test Tips</p>
<ol>
<li> Memorize all directions before you take the test</li>
<li> Become familiar with the format of each section of the SAT (that means take practice tests)</li>
<li> Go through the test quickly but thoroughly</li>
<li> Watch your time. Make sure you dont spend too much time on a problem</li>
<li> Dont overstress, but dont get cocky or distracted either</li>
<li> Focus on your progress and no one elses</li>
<li> Dont spend too much time on one question</li>
<li> 3 question types:
Questions you can answer quickly and easily
Question that you think you can answer but will take you a little more time to figure out
Questions you have no idea about</li>
<li> Use the three pass system to tackle the Qs
1st time through a section: answer all the easy questions.
2nd time through a section: answer the questions you are pretty sure you can answer
3rd time: try to figure out the really confusing questions.<br>
*Remember, this is a timed test. So answer as many questions as you can (as long as you dont wildly guess)</li>
<li>In general, questions get harder as you get farther into a section</li>
<li>You dont have to (and probably shouldnt) answer all the questions. You get a point for each question correctly, no points if you dont answer and ¼ point deducted if you answer incorrectly. So if u have no idea what the answer is, dont blindly guess (but DO make educated guesses).</li>
</ol>
<p>Sentence completions
o Read the sentence
o Fill in the blanks with your own words if you can (sometimes you wont be able to)
o Read ALL the answer choices. Pick the best answer.</p>
<p>What do you do if you dont know the answer?</p>
<p>o If you know for a fact that 2 of the answer choices are wrong, you should guess
o You may be left with words you know the meaning of and answer choices you dont know the meaning of. </p>
<p>So what do you do if you do not know the meaning of the word?
- Make up a definition
- Go with your gut and see if the word feels right in the sentence
- This may backfire (you need to practice a few questions to see whether this will work or not)</p>
<p>Short Passage Questions</p>
<p>1) Each passage is about 10-15 lines long
2) Read the Italics
3) Read entire passage (looking for the main idea, tone, and point of view)
a. Main idea- reason author wrote the passage (its purpose)
b. Tone- what the author feels about certain issues
c. Point of view- what the author believes about certain issues
4) Answer the questions. </p>
<p>(LONG PASSAGES)</p>
<ol>
<li> Read the italics to get general idea of passage</li>
<li> Scan questions, looking for the first question that refers to lines in the passage (skip all other questions for the moment)</li>
<li> Read question, making sure you know what it is asking for.</li>
<li> Find the word/lines cited in the passage. Trace back to the beginning of sentence and read sentence</li>
<li> Decide whether you think u have an idea what the answer may be.<br>
If you dont read the sentence before and/or the sentence after. Use your own discernment on this (The sentence before and after method words about 90% of the time. Occasionally, you will need to read more of the passage to get your answer. In that case, you may want to just come back to the question later )
Go back to Q and read ALL the answer choices.
Pick the best answer</li>
<li> Repeat process for rest of citation questions</li>
<li> Go back to the questions you skipped (the ones that did not cite lines). You should be able to answer these questions. If not, you may need to read some more of the passage</li>
</ol>
<p>Quick notes:
- This trick gets some getting used to. It may take a couple passages before you get the hang of it.
- This is a very effective time saver (and you wont fall asleep). But you need to practice it before the test so u can answer questions quickly and accurately.
- This does not work on all passages or all questions. You have to figure out whether it will work on the passage. If it doesnt , read the passage in large but manageable chunks.
- Again, practice makes perfect!</p>
<p>Math tips</p>
<ul>
<li>Bring a calculator but dont use it so much that it slows you down</li>
<li>Know the directions before the test (like how to fill in grid ins)</li>
<li>After youve read the problem, ask yourself, What is the question asking? and What do I know?</li>
<li>Dont spend too much time on a single problem. If you think you can solve a Q but it is taking too much time, skip it and come back to it later.</li>
<li>Use the three pass system (1st time through section, do all the easy questions. 2nd time the ones that are harder but doable. 3rd time, tackle the really confusing and impossible ones)</li>
<li>Make sure you look at all the questions (A question may look hard but you may be able to figure it out later)</li>
<li>Do practice problems to familiarize yourself with the test</li>
<li>Review math concept you are fuzzy on or do not know well. A condensed review is on page12-26 of the SAT Preparation Booklet</li>
<li>Practice makes perfect</li>
</ul>
<p>Grammar Tips</p>
<p>Basic info
- 2 sections on grammar: one 25 minute section and one 10 minute section
- 3 types of grammar questions (pg 27- 30 from SAT preparation booklet)
o Improving Sentences
o Identifying Sentence Errors
o Improving Paragraphs</p>
<p>How to study
- Studying the is the fastest way to raise your score for the SAT
- Read the grammar sheet I gave you. Know it by heart by the time you take the SAT. (Know why the incorrect sentence is wrong and the correct sentence is right)
- Do practice sections. Will not take long (half hour at the very most) and your score will benefit greatly from your small investment
- Look over the questions you got wrong. Figure out why you got those Qs wrong. If you can do that (and make sure you dont make the same mistake twice), your score will dramatically rise
- If you have time, do another practice section (only 10 minutes half an hour) to make sure you fixed your mistakes</p>
<p>Tips for Improving Sentences (pg 27)
1. Read the sentence quickly but carefully.
2. The underlined portion is either correct (and your answer is A) or needs to be replaced with one of the answer choices<br>
3. Read the sentence softly to yourself, replacing the underlined portion with an answer choice. Some answer choices should sound wrong. Eliminate those. Pick the one that sounds the best and is grammatically correct.</p>
<p>Tips for Identifying Sentence Errors (pg 28)
1. You are given a sentence with certain parts of the sentence underlined. A letter is beneath each part that is underlined
2. One of the parts contains a grammatical error or just sounds bad. The answer to the question is the letter below the incorrect part of the sentence (Or if there is no error, the answer is E)
3. Read the sentence softly to yourself (listening for what sounds wrong). This is most likely your answer.
4. Know your grammar sheet by heart so you can quickly find the error in sentence.
5. PRACTICE. Practicing this part of the SAT is extremely easy. Do some practice problems and figure out how to fix any mistakes you made. The more problems you do, the easier it will be for you to find the errors and get a better score.</p>
<p>Tips for Improving Paragraphs (pg 29)
1. Look at 1st question. In the paragraph, read up to the sentence cited in the Q.
2. Repeat for rest of Qs. **sometimes u need to read sentence after to answer Q</p>
<p>For the equating section, you wrote down "you do know what section this is", but I think you meant "you do not know which section this is"--I'm pretty sure we're not informed as to which one it is. Can the equating section only be Math or Critical Reading or can it also be an experimental Writing section too?</p>
<p>haha that's pretty bad. thanks for catching that</p>
<p>anything else wrong to the point of idiocy?</p>
<p>I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure the experimental can be writing as well</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips!</p>
<p>i wish for once the experimental section is the ESSAY part. :D that'll really be cool.</p>
<p>bump read this please</p>
<p>I doubt that will ever happen, becuase they will not want to read 2 essays for each test taker. That would be too much. LOL.</p>
<p>A point of yours that I disagree with: I don't think it is wise to answer questions on CR passages that reference lines without reading the passage. Very often, the information that you need to answer the question comes from the tone or purpose of the passage, which you can't get by reading a few lines. The only ones that strategy works for is the ones that say: "in line X, word Y most nearly means..."</p>
<p>These tips are awesome. Thanks for the work!</p>
<p>you very much!</p>
<p>JTC007, for the majority of the passage I ahve done, it works. After answering all the questions that cite lines, I've read about half the passage and have just enough information to answer tone/point of view questions</p>
<p>holy crap. thanks a lot</p>
<p>Yeah JTC, Vtran is right, it works. I use the same method.</p>