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Students of the SATs often worry about the exams, how best to prepare for them, and often feel isolated with their revision - a ship without a rudder. So, how do you get through it all? One of our experienced SAT teachers, Elena, has been there and done that. Here, she tells the story from her side:

Students of the SATs often worry about the exams, how best to prepare for them, and often feel isolated with their revision - a ship without a rudder. So, how do you get through it all? One of our experienced SAT teachers, Elena, has been there and done that. Here, she tells the story from her side:

Part 1

“Gosh!!! I’m taking the SAT!!!”

As a SAT teacher with ICON+, I take the SAT periodically to update myself on the latest trends. That said, no matter how many times I write the SAT, the prospect of taking an exam never fails to turn me into a nervous wreck. The only way to maintain sanity is PREPARATION.

Part 2

Preparation

I highly recommend Sat2go.com, a comprehensive e-learning platform, especially for students (particularly those who finished high school a few years ago, or didn’t get sufficient knowledge, or simply hate Math!) who feel weak in certain areas of the material. Hundreds of exercises in Math - combinations and probability, ratios, rates, inequalities, data interpretation and many others - help in the revision of the basic formulas and methods and, eventually, increase the speed at which you are able to solve questions.

What I personally like about the site are the sections devoted to identifying sentence errors and improving sentences. The detailed solutions to the practices help us to understand common syntax errors better.

However, I must admit that it takes a lot of time and effort to finish all the online practices. If you don’t want to overload yourself in the last few days before the exam, it’s advisable to start your preparation at least one month in advance.

If you are hungry for more resources, I recommend the Official SAT Guide by The College Board. When attempting the Practice Test Sets, it is absolutely crucial to use the timer for every section. A relatively simple question will appear 10 times more difficult under time constraints. Never underestimate the enormity of time pressure!

The essay is often a concern for many of my students. While the essay does affect the score for the Writing section, it is not of paramount importance. The multiple-choice Writing questions carry more weight and it will be in your best interest to devote most of your preparation on them. What you should do for the essay is to familiarize yourself with popular topics and come up with a generic template that helps structure your argument. During the test, you can “flesh out” the template with appropriate examples that support your argument.
 

Part 3

The Test
 

Tools for the test: 2 pencils, a calculator, sharpener, eraser, admissions ticket and a bottle of water. Good to know in advance: the route to the test center and travel time. The test starts at 8am so make sure that you can make your way there with plenty of time to spare.

Upon arrival, you will see a lot of students. Some of them with huge SAT prep books and perusing a few final practice questions before the exam. Though no one dies taking the SAT, the moments beforehand can seem very oppressive. Those extra few words and run-throughs can certainly work – just make sure it’s not your only strategy!

A bit about the SAT basics for those who are not familiar with its structure; it is a standardized test. That means the test directions, time limits, difficulty of questions do not differ from test to test. Any SAT test consists of three sections of reading, three sections of writing, three sections of math and one experimental section, which is not scored and is used for the SAT makers to try out the questions for future SATs. As you never know which of these ten sections is experimental, you should do your best in all of them. The sections can appear in different order, but you can be sure that the first one will always be an essay.

During the test, there are 5-minute breaks at the end of each hour and the time passes way too quickly. The reading passages are worth mentioning here. There is no way you can read and understand the entire passage, especially when it’s extremely lengthy. There are two solutions: either you become a proficient speed reader (which I assume most of us aren’t) or you target getting all specific questions right first. This is a strategic move as specific questions are generally easier to answer: they contain key words or phrases which can be quickly located in the passage. Since all questions carry the same weight, why not get the easier ones correct first?