My Tips for Scoring High on SAT

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

I am a junior in high school.
Why should you believe me?

I recently scored a 1590 (800 Math 790 Verbal) single-sitting.
I promise I’m not a prodigy or anywhere close.

In order to understand how the SAT can be beat, let’s first examine the SAT itself.
The SAT is composed of a Verbal Section, a Math Section, and an Essay Section.

Let’s ignore the Essay Section for now.

The Dreaded Verbal Section:

Let’s start with Reading.

The Reading Section basically just tests comprehension i.e. how well you understand the passages tested.
Most passages tested - if not all - are articles.

SO READ ARTICLES!!
Common sense, right?

Personally, I excelled on the Verbal Section because (1) I am a political nerd so I read tons of news articles, and (2) I am an avid debater.

Hint: Debate, Mock Trial, DECA, PUBLIC SPEAKING, etc. are hacks to increase your Verbal score quickly and relatively painlessly.

Writing:

The Writing Section tests grammar & comprehension.
The Reading Section tips will help with the comprehension part.

As far as grammar goes, I see 2 main approaches.

  1. Drill. Learn when to use colons, semicolons, commas, etc.

Or, the approach I favor,
2. Read. Read a variety of articles, books, whatever interests you. Just by reading, you will absorb knowledge and learn how to appropriately revise your writing, which will serve you well in life even beyond just the SAT.

MATH:

Yeah, this one isn’t as easy to beat quickly. FORTUNATELY, the upside is that, whereas you must possess a certain intellect and analytical ability to excel on the VERBAL Section, anyone can beat the math section with enough effort and time.

  1. Learn the tricks that College Board tests (they don't really change). HOW? Buy the College Board SAT Prep BOOK. Do as many OFFICIAL Practice Tests as you can.
  2. Work on speed by doing the above. This will leave you enough time to tackle the challenging questions.

3.Brute Force.
Use common sense and plug-in answers into question.
Note: this won’t work on grid-ins.

FOR EXAMPLE:

Question: (insert any question here)

Answer Choices:
A. 217 + 2a +6
B. 108 + a + 6
C. 108 + 2a + 6
D. 108 + 2a + 2

Just based on looking at the answer questions, it is apparent that the answer is probably Choice C.

Why? Look what each has in common.

Bottom Line: Do College Board OFFICIAL Practice Tests (and read news articles)!!

Thanks for reading everyone!!

I wrote this because I am just frustrated by repeatedly seeing brilliant kids score poorly on the SAT. The SAT does not measure intelligence. Your score does not determine your worth.

Questions? Comment Below.

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Also, do the grid-ins first, then flip back to the multiple choice. If you run out of time, you have a much better chance of guessing correctly on the multiple choice. One thing you forgot to mention is that all this reading must be started early. Like, elementary-early. Reading, in addition to increasing knowledge and language skills, also increases reading speed, which helps on every section of a timed test. But, you can’t gain those skills overnight. Encourage reading from a young age, and that’s when the benefits kick in.

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@ski_racer you are absolutely correct; the sooner the better to get started with reading. However, I believe even a limited exposure to news articles even a few months before the SAT could make a significant difference in the total Verbal Score. Furthermore, I was mainly suggesting this for high school students in the process of preparation. I do agree with you, though, that sooner is better.

As far as the Grid-in first strategy you suggested, with all due respect, I am actually going to have to disagree because I believe doing the multiple-choice first (the traditional method) is much more effective. This is because the latter grid-in questions are rather time-consuming and require out of the box thinking. I would rather miss 1 or 2 grid-ins then miss 5 or 6 multiple choice questions which could be done in the same amount of time.

I guess to each his (or her) own.

4

I like your tips and I think they are good ideas. I think, however, that you need to add a caveat to your Reading tip.

Read a lot of GOOD writing. There are good writers on blogs and Facebook and Tumblr, but they are outnumbered by the bad ones. Reading a lot of blogs will train your subconscious spelling/grammar mind into believing that bad writing is good writing.

My kid did very well on his practice tests for reading but he consistently missed questions on comma usage. A lot of informal writing uses commas to denote places where someone pauses in conversation. It’s an understood rule of modern online discourse, but it’s not proper English.

Read good writing. It will help you discern the differences between bloggy diction and newspaper diction.

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Our son got an 800 on the math section using a hybrid of the advice here. He started with multiple choice but skipped the last three multiple choice and went to the grid-ins. Finished the grid-ins and then went back to the last three mult choice. The multiple choice gets progressively harder and those last three take more time. The grid-ins also get progressively harder so the first few are super easy. You don’t want to miss the easy grid-ins because you’re spending so much time on the last three (hard) multiple choice. If you use this strategy, you are sure to get to all of the easiest problems.

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@ninakatarina You are absolutely right! Sorry for not clarifying; I specifically recommend news articles and other such writing.

@homerdog Hmm… that sounds like an interesting concept. I am glad it worked for your son. However, I think the bottom line is that students should be well-versed at SAT math so they don’t have to worry about time and can focus fully on accuracy. The SAT, especially SAT Math, has an unforgiving curve. There is no margin for error.

Also, I just want to clear one more thing up.
The SAT is not by any means an intelligence test.
Work hard, learn the tricks, and you will prosper.
Don’t give up.
Your SAT score plays a substantial role in most college admission processes.
Minimal score boosts can increase your chances immensely.
Is that fair? Probably not.
Use it to your advantage.

Note: All advice in this discussion assumes that the students to whom this applies are struggling on the SAT DESPITE strong academic foundations.

7

I think that many of the tips and suggestions here would benefit many people. Here are some things that helped me:

Bring a watch. You wouldn’t want to risk having no clock or a clock that is right behind you (which would be uncomfortable to look at every once in a while).

In the reading section, thinking about all the passages you need to read through may be overwhelming. I personally do not look through the entire section and find the hardest/easiest one I want to work on. I know some people do it but I feel like for me it wouldn’t do anything except waste time flipping through the pages. XD

((Here I would like to mention that you should do what you feel will help YOU. Maybe a tactic worked for many other people but if it doesn’t work for you, don’t force it!))

I think one of the worst things that can happen is that sense of panic when you feel you are running out of time. When I did some practice test in the beginning I felt anxious about time a lot that that alone made me take longer to find answers to questions.

I decided that diving the time given between each passage would be a good idea, and it’s what I did on the official SAT test I took. This ensures that I do not spend too much time on one passage and end up with very little on another.
On some passages I usually finished a few minutes before and so I could use that time on passages on which I need that extra time.

I agree with the others about the reading/writing section requiring practice and lots of reading. I think that APLang really helped me with the reading section as it was kind of like the AP exam. (as in the kinds of questions)

Through practice you can understand whether you are spending too much time or too little time on reading the passages. I believe I usually read the passages in max a few minutes which allowed me more time on the questions.

I would read through the passage and then reference the passage as I go through the questions as necessary.

As for math, I would recommend learning “shortcuts” for questions. That is, questions don’t have to be answered a certain way; they don’t care what method you used to find the answer. So if you can find a much faster way then that’s great for you!
There are some prep books out there (I think Princeton had one?) that focused on this kind of thing and I think it greatly helped.

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@Phoenixwhat Those are some great tips. Personally, to train, I bought a special watch for the SAT that had preset times for each section. It helped me A LOT with my preparation. However, after a student takes all 8 OFFICIAL Released SATs, they should be so well-versed, that they don’t have to worry about time.

Personally, for the Reading Section, I read the questions first, then I quickly read the passage, before finally answering each question. If you find specific evidence for each question - even the ones that don’t ask for evidence - then you should not miss any questions.

You are absolutely right about the math “shortcuts”. However, I strongly advise that students DO NOT use any Prep Books other than Collegeboard’s Official Book. Turns out they can actually do more harm than good. Stick with CollegeBoard; I promise it’s all you need.

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@Optimism2018
Oh wow I wish I had that watch!

The only prep book I really used was this one that didn’t have practice tests (as you know they can be rather inaccurate in comparison to the actual test), but was for students who were aiming for those high scores. It was basically just filled with tactics and the such.

I don’t know if the College Official Book has that kind of stuff since I never bought it …if it does, then I definitely agree with your statement!

How early did you begin studying for the SAT? I think that there are too many students who think they have enough time and end up not being able to study as much as they wanted to…
I believe I started familiarizing myself with the structure of the SAT and did my first practice test the summer before 11th grade…
I think if you have strong academic foundations you should still make sure you are familiarized with the structure and what to expect. It would not be pleasant to lose points because a student forgot how to fill in the Grid-Ins…

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@Phoenixwhat

Oh, if your Prep Book was just for tips and such, then that is fine.
Yes, the Official Collegeboard SAT Book did include that kind of stuff, as well.
I started studying for the SAT actively in the summer between my sophomore and junior year.
However, I think taking the Sophomore PSAT helped give me a rough idea about the format of CollegeBoard test, which was very helpful.
What you did is absolutely fine (similar to me).
Yes, I agree you must familiarize yourself with the format.
That’s why you need to take Official PRACTICE TESTS :slight_smile:

11

Great tips.

@Optimism2018 - if you don’t mind can you share your score in PSAT sophomore - knowing your final SAT score this given an idea on how much improvement you made between PSAT/Soph and final SAT.

I am currently a sophomore and planning to study for SAT over summer. My soph PSAT score in verbal is not up to mark and I want to improve. (I got 640 in verbal, with 760 in math; didn’t prep much for the PSAT and hoping my verbal scores can be improved to 750+ next year in SAT). Apart from reading articles - any other specific reco for improving in grammar and English writing section? - writing and grammar sections are my weak points.

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@hs2020kid WOW! A 760 math!! Nice!

I scored a 1430 my sophomore year (720 English, 710 Math)
As a junior, I scored a 1480 (740 English, 740 Math)
Fingers Crossed for NMSQT!!

Honestly though, I think it depends. If you took the PSAT in 2017 October, then you took the same test as I did. Which questions did you miss specifically? Why did you miss the questions you did? Was it time management, content weakness, dumb mistakes? If it was content weakness, have you mastered that content since?

The good news is that Writing & Grammar is the easiest section to improve on. 640 is still relatively high, so there is hope. Of course, if you are scoring 760 Math on the Sophomore PSAT, you will easily get 790 or 800 on SAT Math.

Once you answer the questions above, I may be able to help more.

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@Optimism2018 thanks for the info. Yes I took the same 2017 Oct PSAT. I missed (got incorrect) on 12 questions in the writing and language section which killed the score. Among 12 most are of the type ‘expression of ideas’ or ‘standard english convention’ - but honestly I was running out of time. Think am a bit slow processor when it comes to language arts (in math section I had time left to check the whole thing in one more time). I am also prone silly mistakes especially when under time pressure. So think my main issues are time management and content weakness in effective use of grammar. Havnt yet made any effort to fix any of them yet…but I just started a grammar course (self study) planning to complete this and then go thru book by Meltzer for reading (which I never worked on earlier) and take a practice test in earlier summer. If my practice test score is still weak…planning to take some measures in summer. Any tips on how to build on ?

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@hs2020kid Look, I am going to be perfectly honest here. This is the way to get a 1600 or extremely close to it.

This is what I recommend you do for all 3 sections, especially writing.

  1. Take the Sophomore PSAT (which you did).
  2. Go over the mistakes you made and review them until you are sure you understand (1) why you chose the wrong answer, (2) why the correct answer is undeniably correct, and (3) why you are definitely going to choose the correct answer the next time you come across such a question. It is not necessary to write anything down (I didn’t), but it is key that you take the time to complete these 3 steps.
  3. Fix all Content Weaknesses. Use the internet. Ask a (smart) friend or teacher. Practice on your own.
  4. Buy the OFFICIAL SAT Practice Book with 8 Practice Tests.
  5. Take Practice Test 1. Ideally you should not miss too many questions because you completed Step 2.
  6. Repeat Step 2
  7. Take Practice Test 2. You should miss less than you did on Test 1, preferably close to none. If this is not the case, reevaluate and complete Step 2 more thoroughly.
  8. Repeat Step 2.
  9. Take Practice Test 3. You should miss less than you did on both Test 1 and Test 2, preferably close to none. If this is not the case, reevaluate and complete Step 2 more thoroughly.
  10. Repeat this process for all 8 tests. If you do this process correctly, you should be scoring around perfect by the time you take tests 5 and 6.

Different people, depending on how strong or weak they are in certain areas, will take different amounts of time to complete Step 2. If you are missing a significant amount of questions on the next practice test you take, you know you did not do Step 2 as thoroughly as you should.

Also, DO NOT worry about time management. Every practice test you take, you will gradually get a bit faster. I recommend that you don’t even time yourself for tests 1 and 2.

Note: Step 2 took me roughly 2-5 minutes per question I missed, plus practice in case of content weakness. If you are missing a lot of questions, Step 2 should take you a lot of time. By the time you take tests 3 and 4, you should not be missing as many questions so Step 2 should not take as much time as before.

Targets for you @h2020kid:

Practice Test 1: 1430
Practice Test 2: 1480
Practice Test 3: 1530
Practice Test 4: 1550
Practice Test 5: 1560
Practice Test 6: 1570
Practice Test 7: As close to 1600 as possible.
Practice Test 8: Again, As close to 1600 as possible.

If you are meeting these targets, then I recommend that you save Test 8 until one week before your real test day.

There is no need for a Prep Course or another Prep Book besides the Official one (unless it is to master content).
All you need is perseverance and concentration. It sounds painful at first, but it’s really not that bad.

Also, don’t try to do this on weekdays. Do it either on weekends or breaks so you aren’t rushed / stressed.

Good Luck Studying! :slight_smile: