<p>I sometimes have trouble focusing on my work. For example, I am reading a passage, and next thing I know, I have no idea what I have just read. This can be extremely dangerous on the SAT because I just wasted a few good minutes reading nothing. I do get some things from it at times, but for the most part when this happens to me, I don't get what the passage is trying to convey. This occurs more often when I have longer passages and/or passages that are just uninteresting and/or hard to understand to read.</p>
<p>I do feel that when I take my time on sections by myself, not timed, I seem to understand much better; maybe it is the fact that I'm not under a time restraint and I am calm. </p>
<p>This problem also happens when I'm just reading a book. My mind sometimes wonders about other things while I'm reading, so this is one reason why I can't concentrate. </p>
<p>But if anyone has any idea on how to fix or reduce the effect of this problem, I would REALLY appreciate it.</p>
<p>Try reading a lot more outside of the SAT passages. This will give you very good practice. However, avoid reading books such as "Harry Potter" or "Da Vinci Code" to improve your reading skills. Even though they might seem boring, read classics or insightful books. Practice makes perfect.</p>
<p>Don't read the passage all the way through the first time. Read a question, look at the line reference, read only up to that line, answer the question repeat.</p>
<p>That's a new method for me, do you mean when it says "In line ..." read everything up to that and when I see another "In line ..." read everything up to that again?</p>
<p>Yeah, so that way you know just enough to answer the question and you won't have a bunch of extra knowledge about the passage. For example if one of the multiple choices talked about rats in a maze, you'd think 'where the hell did they get rats from'? Well they probably got it 20 lines later on, but you haven't read taht far yet, so that can't possibly be the answer and you can automatically cross it off.</p>
<p>And when you read the passage all the way through the first time, and go back to answer the question you are essentially reading the entire thing twice. Think about it, after you read through the entire thing, and you see a line reference, don't you ALWAYS go back to reread that line?</p>
<p>So basically, you asnwer the question as you are reading through the passage.</p>
<p>1) read question 2)read what you need to according to line ref 3) answer question accordingly 4) look at next question </p>
<p>Weird, when I switched to that method I found myself with extra time at then end, which is somethign I wasn't getting before. Well, not really weird, I can see how people are different.</p>
<p>what i did to help me concentrate was actually writing a inspirational quote on my forearm...most nice procotors won;t mind that you have that on your arm...and everytime i notice my self getting off track i just look at my arm and i get more focus. </p>
<p>actually better idea...just memorize the quote and repeat it in your head when you need to...but that might be your source of distraction.</p>
<p>I'd advise you to read more SAT-like passages from magazines like the Economist or Slate.com. Or really, just do more SAT practice tests. Practice really helps.</p>
<p>A professor he had at a Yale summer program told him Zinc worked-so he believed it. (?placebo). At any rate his verbal score increase 100 points. A friend of mine told me that Zinc may be in some of the prescription stimulants-but I'm not really sure about this.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, I will try to practice more. Also does anyone have any tips on what foods I should eat on test day and during test day? In fact the whole week before? Or... lets just change my whole diet so I can become more energized overall. :D</p>