admin Posted on 6:25 am

SAT is six weeks away: hyperventilation begins

Take a deep breath and then exhale as quickly as possible. Then repeat the process until you feel dizzy and fall. Then you will hit your head and form a blood clot in your brain. Then he will miraculously transform into a megaavant, like Rain Man. Then, you will get 10,000 on your SAT. Then you will die. And then in a few years, a Jonas brother will win an Oscar for starring in a movie about your life.

Actually, that probably won’t happen, so, you know, don’t do that. Instead, read these tips!

TIP # 1: Self Diagnosis
Take a practice test from the College Board website and take some self-tests. Make sure the test is timed and try to reasonably emulate the conditions on the test day by performing the test in a quiet room with no distractions. The goal here is to get an idea of ​​where you are and which sections need more work.

TIP # 2: The writing material. Haha!
But seriously, the essay part counts for almost a third of your total writing score, so yeah, it’s pretty important and stuff. Remember, the SAT essay is about taking a position and supporting it with a strong thesis and clear body paragraphs. Express your point of view and support it with examples and evidence. Be decisive! Just pick a side and go with it. You’re not a politician yet, so don’t be a freak. Changing your mind in the middle of your essay is a terrible idea that will cost you not only in time but also in score. Practice writing essays with a timer to get a good idea of ​​how fast you need to write. Obviously 25 minutes is not enough time to create yours War and peace, but if not better than Twilight… well, maybe you can increase your score in some other way.

TIP # 3: Practice Makes You Prepared
If you ever get a fortune cookie that says, “Practice makes perfect,” throw it away. That was a proverbial cookie in the first place, and they aren’t that good anywhere. Second, “practice makes perfect” is misleading. Raise your hand if you’ve ever spent weeks practicing perfectly for a piano recital, but then you get so nervous on stage that you pee and then you have a nervous breakdown, pulling out all your hair and cursing 8-year-olds in the front row. . Well, as I put my hand out, think about this: if you want to practice until you are perfect, why not do the same section of the SAT over and over again until everything is perfect? Because that would be useless. Practicing with the mindset that “practice makes perfect” isn’t necessarily wrong, but it could blind you to the real benefit of practice: being prepared. What you want is to expose yourself to as many different types of questions as possible so that when test day comes, nothing on the SAT will surprise you. What you want is to vaccinate yourself against the pressures of a timed exam by taking timed practice tests. What you want is to be prepared for whatever the SAT throws at you so you can catch it, set it on fire, and throw it in their face, laughing like a wild hyena being tickled by a feathered octopus … or whatever.

TIP # 4: Take a class … somewhere
Everything you need to know for the SAT you learned in school. But everything you learned in school is a lot. The big secret behind preparing for the SAT is not necessarily teaching you more, but showing you what things you already know are important. Imagine for a moment that the SAT is an open-book test. How would you know what to bring? If you really wanted to cover all your bases, you would want to bring all the textbooks that you used in school, right? But that’s, like, a lot of things. A proper SAT prep program (wink, nudge) will help you toss out the books you don’t need and put stickers on the important chapters so you can quickly and easily refer to them for the test. Don’t drown in a sea of ​​irrelevant knowledge. That will only confuse you and delay your exam day. You have six weeks before your test. If you take a class now, it will end a week before your exam. On the big day, everything will be fresh in your mind and you can face that beast like a boss. Yes, like a boss. Alternatively, if you don’t want to take a class or get a tutor, don’t forget that your favorite test prep center sells a solutions manual to The Official SAT Study Guide (2nd Edition) from the College Board to help you better understand each question. !

TIP # 5: Research
Do some research on the colleges you plan to apply to and find out what their policies are regarding report cards. Many schools like to help students by using a “super score,” which is the combination of all the highest scores in each section. If you know that your schools help you in this way, it can take some of the pressure off. On the other hand, if your school doesn’t get a super score, keep in mind that the College Board now offers “Score Choice,” which allows you to choose which scores you want to send to colleges. Again, knowing this can take some of the pressure off. You’re welcome.

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