Time Management on the SATs

<p>how do you guys generally manage time when taking the SATs? Is there a special method to it or is there not a method at all, does it come naturally?</p>

<p>What I do is repeat to myself:</p>

<p>MY ENTIRE FUTURE DEPENDS ON ME STAYING FOCUSED RIGHT NOW!</p>

<p>At the beginning of the test, and that helps me stay focused. :D</p>

<p>Of course, the future doesn’t really depend much on the SAT but I like to mentally increase the importance of the test to gain a psychological advantage in terms of focus.</p>

<p>That trick doesn’t work for everyone. I did that the first time I took the Chem subject test and it scared the living heck out of me. My heart started racing and I developped a full-on panic attack. So if it works for you, go for it, but it doesn’t work for everyone. A huge weight on your chest is not a good thing - I do better when I have the safety of being able to retake. As in, it’s not such a big deal, I can always retake…</p>

<p>I got 2340 on the subject tests. 800 in chem the second time I took it, with a much better mindset.</p>

<p>On the SAT1s, I had much less time management than on the subject tests. On the subject tests, I looked to see how many questions and figured out how quickly I had to do them, roughly, to be finished in 50 minutes. Then, as I went through the test, if I didnt think I could finish one of the questions in that time frame, I skipped it, going back to it at the end. Those tough problems are much easier to face when you dont have to worry about missing the rest of the test.</p>

<p>Time management is different from being focused.
The best way to manage time is to be good at the material in the first place.</p>

<p>for the Subject tests, the test center had a huge digital clock on the wall that told us how much time we had left.
I found it EXTREMELY helpful. I felt more confident and was able to pace myself better. Because, I know this sounds dumb, but when you’re stressed out sometimes you misread your watch if it’s not digital.</p>