<p>I have seen the in-depth guides about how to ace the SAT but what about acing it using old fashion tricks. We all know the SAT doesn't actually measure intelligence and I want to take advantage of that fact. What are some trends in the test that can be used to get the correct answer without us having to know a thing? I'm sure you guys must have picked something up in those expensive prep classes or just noticed some method to the madness. To all you good test takers, what are your methods? I don't mean in terms of knowledge, but in terms of knowing how the test was made and how they want you to answer questions.</p>
<p>Under the writing section for the sentence improvement questions (the first part you see on the big writing section), the answer usually “sounds” the best. So if it sounds messed up when you say one of the answers then that is most likely going to be wrong. _____For sentence error identification questions (the second part with the “E-No Error” as an answer all the time) it is completely opposite and answers lots of times sound wrong BUT are right…</p>
<p>^
I must say that is not always the case. Sometimes even akward sounding sentences are actually gramatically correct.</p>
<p>Interesting observation. Yet for some reason I always get the sentence improvement questions wrong more often than in any other part of the writing section.</p>
<p>whodareswin … yeah their ARE sentences that sound weird but are grammatically correct, but on THE SAT for the sentence improvement questions the answer ALWAYSSSSSSSSSS, not somtimes, not maybe, but always sounds normal and concise…its only on the sentence error identification where MOST answers sound weird but are right…its exact opposite</p>
<p>I guess you want to avoid extremes.
Very rarely they’re answers.
Such as: “Joe always goes to his friend’s house.”
Avoid Always, Never, Everyone, All, etc.</p>
<p>I guess another thing is if the statement can be offensive to another country(?)
If that makes any sense.
For example, “The U.S. has a better technology than Russia.”
It could be offensive to Russians. These are never answers.</p>
<p>In the writing section, if there’s an answer choice with a “being” in it, it’s usually not right. Very rarely it is.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what other things are there.</p>
<p>Let’s continue this. I like this.</p>
<p>Just a quick math tip. The diagonal squared divided by 2 equals the area of a square.</p>
<p>If anyone sorts this into a consolidated list, I hope there are ‘tiers’–basic tips, advanced tips, and ‘tips that may or may not work depending on who you are’. I’m tired of trying to look at SAT books and find really ‘duh’ tips such as ‘use process of elimination’ and ‘bring a snack’.</p>
<p>In math, check to see if it’s easier to plug in the answer choices and ‘double-check first’ instead of working it out the long way.</p>
<p>For the essay, I’ve heard ‘quantity over quality’ (meaning, as long as your examples still make sense and are explained in-depth, you don’t need graceful language and intricate subtleties), and I think that can’t be overstated enough.</p>
<p>There’s an experimental section that won’t be graded, and they don’t tell you which section or where it is. This seems like common knowledge, especially if you’ve noticed missing sections while taking practice tests, but I didn’t find this out until after I’d joined CC/taken my first real SAT.</p>
<p>West coast people get a different essay prompt than East coast people (international probably another as well), and the different prompts may be curved differently (but with a difference of 10-20 points at most).</p>
<p>“I guess another thing is if the statement can be offensive to another country(?)
If that makes any sense.
For example, “The U.S. has a better technology than Russia.”
It could be offensive to Russians. These are never answers.”</p>
<p>This is completely wrong.</p>
<p>No it is not.</p>
<p>It tends to be wrong because ETS hopes not to offend any test takers. However, in the context of SAT critical reading sections, if the passage implies anything like “England’s economy pales in comparison to China’s.” and a question asks about it, then this answer, albeit offensive and extreme, is right. Sometimes the weirdest answers are right, and the fact that test takers cross them off because they seem odd makes some questions hard.</p>
<p>One thing I noticed in CR, is that if the passage is about a minority the answer will never be negative or negative-sounding. At least for the questions that ask about tone, and characteristics of the passage.</p>
<p>Bump, does anyone else have any other tips and tricks</p>
<p>Always go for the moderate semi-ambiguous answers in critical reading. In math, go back and check.</p>
<p>WTH?! I thouht the SAT does measure intelligence. Its a better indicator of intelligence than the knowledge tests that I do (IB) which I don’t do well on, because I don’t do any work. On the other hand on my SATs I do really well and I get in the top 1% of the population which correlates with my IQ score which is in the top 1%.</p>