SAT Prep | Proven Test-Taking Tips and Strategies
There are many ways to familiarize yourself with the format of the SAT. Familiarization is a great way to help alleviate test day anxieties. The following list has ways to help you become accustomed to the SAT.
Become comfortable with the SAT’s format: When practicing, simulate the conditions of the actual test. Pace yourself. Stay calm. After repeating this process a few times, you are boosting your chances of performing well on test day. Success breeds confidence, and your successes here will give you much more confidence on test day.
Read all of the possible answers: If you believe you know the correct answer to a question, it is best not to assume that your answer is automatically the correct answer. Read through all answer choices to ensure that you are not making an error by jumping to conclusions.
Use the process of elimination: Examine each answer to a question. Eliminate as many of the answer choices as possible. By eliminating just two answer choices, you have given you’re a better chance of the getting the correct answer out of the remaining three answer choices. Guess only if you can eliminate at least two answers. Remember that wrong answers are always penalized.
You don’t have to answer every question: You are not penalized for not answering every question. Questions left blank are not counted. Maximize this advantage by using a smart guessing strategy to questions where you are unsure of the right answer. Always keep in mind that if you are truly stumped, you do not have to answer, especially because ¼ point is deducted for every wrong answer on multiple-choice questions.
Work quickly and steadily: You will only have 20 to 30 minutes to work on each section. Working quickly and steadily helps you avoid focusing too much attention and time on any one problem. Use the practice exams in this book to help you manage your timing.
Learn the directions and format for each section of the test: Familiarize yourself with the directions and form of each of the different test sections. This will help you avoid “direction shock” later on during the test, when you might read directions that were better read at the start of the test. Shocks like these cause nervousness. Nervousness causes mistakes. And these kinds of mistakes are completely avoidable.
Work on the easier questions first: The questions for each section of the SAT are arranged in ascending order of difficulty. The easier questions are at the beginning of each section, while the more difficult ones are at the end of the section. If you find yourself working too long on a single question, make a mark next to it in the test booklet and continue with the next question. After you have answered the remaining questions, return to the ones you skipped.
Mark answers carefully: Be sure that the answer sheet oval corresponds to the question and answer of your test booklet: Because the multiple-choice sections are graded mechanically, marking one wrong answer in this way can throw off your answer key and thus ruin your score. Be extremely careful.
Eliminating obviously wrong answers: Sometimes an SAT question has one or two answer choices that appear odd or out of place. These answers may be obviously wrong for one or more reasons:
• Impossible to achieve given the problem’s conditions
• Violation of mathematical rules or principles
• Simply illogical
Being able to spot obviously wrong answers before you finish a problem gives you an advantage because you are able to make a better educated guess from the remaining choices. This works best when you find yourself unable to fully solve a problem.
Working from answer choices: Turn the multiple-choice format to your advantage by working backwards from the answer choices to solve a problem. This strategy is not applicable to all questions, but it is helpful when you can plug choices into a given formula or equation. The answer choices often narrow the scope of responses allowing you to make an educated guess based on eliminating choices that you know do not fit the problem.
