6 Simple Tips to Improve your SAT Score
The SAT plays an extremely important role in helping students to gain acceptance to their first choice college.
Students know that to improve their score they need to practice, but what other strategies are there to help increase your chances of getting accepted by your first choice college?
1. Eliminate Obvious Wrong Choices
Both the Sat and the ACT use deliberately incorrect answers to throw you. By getting used to practice tests, these answers will become easier to spot, increasing your chances of finding the right answer.
2. Practice under Test Conditions
Practice is good, but doesn’t always prepare you for the test environment on the day. Try to practice under test conditions as much as possible, this means:
- Find a proctored practice exam
- Timing yourself
- Avoiding music or phones
- Using office College Board questions or official ACT questions
According to the Founder of First Choice College Placement, James Maroney, “The pupils who have increased the most over the years have been those who took several practice tests.” This is advisable, since the more you get used to the test conditions that you will face on the day, the more confidence you will have when the test day actually arrives. A great way to do this is by looking for SAT prep classes in your local area.
3. Work with an SAT Tutor to Identify Problem Areas
For the best chance of increasing your SAT score, you may want to consider using an SAT tutor. Your tutor can help you to identify weakness areas that you can improve, providing a plan of attack for the SAT test.
4. Know what you find difficult
Only the math section on the test goes in the order of difficulty, the reading and writing sections do not. So, on the math section always know where you are: easy question, easy answer, hard question, hard answer. However, since the College Board no longer deducts points for wrong answers, make sure you answer everything.
5. Keep Track of Time
Be sure to spend a few seconds on the easiest questions, and no more than a couple of minutes on the hardest ones. Try to avoid wasting too much time deliberating over each question. In the reading and writing sections which are both passage based, answer the questions you find easier first, then go back and answer those that might take you a little longer, but before moving on to the next passage make sure to guess on the remaining questions and not leave anything blank, as there is no longer a guessing penalty on the test.
6. Keep Relaxed
Allow yourself to relax before the test. Students often perform badly in tests because they are so stressed they forget everything they learned. Be confident in your ability and try not to fret before the test. Being confident can go a long way to helping you improve your SAT test score!
