<p>I also highly recommend a hard run/exercise the day before so that you sleep well.</p>
<p>lol, how did my post end up here</p>
<p>There are lots of articles/posts about great ways to prepare for the SAT or ACT in terms of courses, reading, etc.</p>
<p>What I don’t see is people talking about how to prepare the day of and the day before. Getting up early and taking a test is not best suited to teenagers’ body clock, so part of this is tricking your body clock so you do your best on this test anyway.</p>
<p>Here is the plan I developed for my DS</p>
<ol>
<li> Carbo load the night before</li>
<li> Do at least some test prep work the night before</li>
<li> Go to bed early and get a good nights sleep (you might be tempted to grab a few extra hours of prep time, but research shows that your brain consolidates memories during sleep, so by all means do some prep before you go to bed, but make sure you get a good nights sleep)</li>
<li> Get up extra early so you can do the following steps</li>
<li> Do some exercise to get the blood flowing to your brain so you really wake up. Exercise has been shown to improve mental performance.</li>
<li> Eat a breakfast with protein in it (protein is brain food and will keep you awake)</li>
<li> Do some review (only 10 or 15 minutes, just so the first test you see and work on isn’t the real one. Make any mistakes on the practice one.)</li>
<li> Consider having a caffeinated beverage- again to keep you awake - but if you don’t usually use caffeine it might be too much for you</li>
<li> Bring a mid-morning snack (and perhaps a caffeinated beverage) to have during the break to keep your blood sugar levels up (you may need to keep it outside of the room)</li>
</ol>
<p>I can’t rave about my son’s scores in doing this, but I do think he did make a couple fewer stupid mistakes in math - he had always tested in the 720 range but made stupid errors. His last SAT Math score was 780 - only one mistake!</p>
<p>bump for those taking the test tomorrow</p>
<p>Nice post thanks</p>
<p>bump for new test takers</p>
<p>bump for new test takers</p>
<p>Thanks for these tips!!</p>
<p>A high carbs dish would be pasta, right?</p>
<p>a high carbs dish would indeed be pasta lol. like what you’d eat before a track meet or xc race.</p>
<p>bump for September test takers</p>
<p>No September test takers…or are there? Good luck to everyone who’s gonna take the Test and to myself .</p>
<p>You’re supposed to eat almonds, salmon, and/or oranges before big exams because they “make the brain sharper” and help you remember stuff, supposedly.</p>
<p>Never really worked for me but there’s a lot of scientific evidence to back it up, so it cant hurt, right?</p>
<p>I agree with many of the steps here, but I’d to hear examples from others who followed this with improved result. Anyone?</p>
<p>I went on a run before the SAT. Nothing hard. Just 25 minutes.
It helped me stay sharp. I didn’t make any stupid mistakes. But the Essay shocked me. I shouldve reviewed my research for it like 20 minutes before the test. And I misbubbled on the reading section. But that’s being stupid. Not because of the run. </p>
<p>But no dumb mistakes on math or writing so it works for me. </p>
<p>For people who don’t want anecdotal evidence it’s scientifically proven I think. Excercise(not vigorous) gets the blood flowing and body primed</p>
<p>It won’t teach you anything new but it’ll kept me from making dumb mistakes (except misuibbling)</p>
<p>bump for new test takers</p>
<p>Dress in layers in case you sit by the drafty door or too close to the heater vent.
Use the bathroom before you go- YOU Know what I mean, wink, wink.</p>