Hi I would like some opinions on whether it is good to do slow SAT prep starting sophomore year beginning at a regular pace to give SAT end of sophomore year /summer or is it good to do intensive Sat prep 2-3 months before the actual SAT ?
My son took the ACT in May of his sophomore year and did prep on his own starting about 8 weeks before the test. I imagine you could do the same thing with the SAT.
Depends on what type of studying is more effective for you. In any case, you should start prepping for the PSAT no later than summer before your junior year. This will also serve as good prep for the SAT. Getting familiar with the patterns/types of questions and time limits/management are pretty critical and is the lowest hanging fruit to maximize your score. Drilling full timed practice tests a couple of months before the actual test is a good use of time.
@gibby 8 weeks seems like a very short time for prepping unless the student is really already doing very well.
@pearl0607: Yes, my son was doing well in school, and he is a good test taker. FWIW: During his test prep, he set an egg timer to 5 minutes less than the allotted time for each section. This made his brain “think faster” out of necessity. At first, it was frustrating because his scores were in the high twenties, but during the last several weeks of test prep, something clicked, and he began to score in the 33-34 range. During the actual test, he felt like he had so much extra time (and he did because he was used do doing each section with 5 minutes less time) that he was able to check-over all his answers and ended up scoring a 36. So at the end of sophomore year, he was done with test taking.