SAT Prep.

[aweiksnar]

I'm going to be taking the SAT's in the beginning of next may. For those of you that have already taken them:

-What do you recommend for preperation?
-How hard are they actually?
-What time should I start studying?
-Whats the easiest/best way to study?

[SandWraith]

-What do you recommend for preperation?
I used Princeton Review, but 10 Real SAT's is supposed to be very helpful too.

-How hard are they actually?
That depends on how much you know and how well you learn. I didn't find them to be hard at all, especially the math. The vocab depends on either 1) how much you read or 2) how well you learn new words.

-What time should I start studying?
At least 1 month ahead of time if you're still in school. Two weeks would be a minimum over the Summer, in my opinion.

-Whats the easiest/best way to study?
Take old tests, analyze your mistakes, and fix them. The test isn't anything more than a basic knowledge test. Know your words. Know your basic math. Know how the test works (memorize the instructions, how points are assessed, etc.). Not much beyond that.

Hope that helps?

[Troyson]

-What do you recommend for preperation?
My only suggestion is to get an SAT tutor. This test isnt a measure of how smart you are, its how well you know how to take the test. My tutor was a huge help and showed me great techniques that helped my scores dramatically.

-How hard are they actually?
How hard the test is depends on the person. The first time i took it i thought i did great but when i got back my scores i only got a 1650, not terrible but not great. The test really depends on how well you know how to take the test.

-What time should I start studying?
IMO start as soon as possible. I started almost 4 months in advance, and the more time the better. This is one of the most important tests of your life, so you really should start as soon as you can.

-Whats the easiest/best way to study?

• make notecards with vocab words that mean the same thing.
  take tests and study your mistakes.
  use examples from history and/or literature on the essay, avoid personal experiences. Try to have 4 paragraphs and use no less than 1 1/2 pages.
  on the sentence completions fill your own word in the blank w.o looking at answer choices, then use process of elim.. If you do not know what any of the word choices mean just skip that ?.
  On the reading try to answer the question in your own words without looking at answer choices.

Hope all this helps, good luck on the test!

[Bander87]

Did studying really pay off for you guys? Its mainly bits and pieces from random stuff your supposed to know I found. A big part of it is reading/comprehension stuff too.

And don't foget an ID like I did and seemingly "hold up the class" for your rent to bring it in.

Be sure to quietly discuss answers during breaks with other students... if you have breaks. And make sure teachers arn't around when you do it.

I don't remember if they allow graphing calculators or not, but I seriously believe that half of solving math is knowing how to use a calculator. Calculators have so many functions that people don't know about such as being able to plug in variable and fraction convestions for a few examples.

Eat Breakfast. I always think bananas are good for energy, just my thing. Get good nights sleep. Stay relaxed. Foot massage, classical music, hot tub... Oh, I read that juggling helps with grey matter, the stuff in the brain that deals with processing. Footbag probably does the same, so I guess work on technical stuff when the sats start rolling around. Thats lots of excersices that deal with boosting brain power such as chess and stuff. I don't know if this seems a little too hardcore for SAT prep, lol.

For the math section, when they give you answers, sometimes they can be plugged back into the equation, kinda like reverse engineering, so you don't actuatly have to "solve" the problem and still get it right.

For the essay question, I heard that they give you more points if you restate the essay topic and have your intro and conclusion kinda the same. This is only what I heard, theres no way to confirm it though.

And troyson, how the f did you get a higher score than me? I swear your high half the time, lol.

[SandWraith]

I seriously believe that half of solving math is knowing how to use a calculator. Calculators have so many functions that people don't know about such as being able to plug in variable and fraction convestions for a few examples.

True. It really depends how good you are at math or with your calculator. I didn't study for math at all, but I can say that you really don't need to know much if you can effectively use your TI-83+ (which I don't know if they let me use-- it was like 2 years ago I took this test).

I mostly studied for English and, yes, flash cards are very effective. Just keep them around and go through a bunch during your downtime. It's not fun, but neither is getting owned by a test.

[aweiksnar]

I just took the test yesturday. I ended preparing by learning the vocab, essay and preparing alot for the math.
The test didn't seem too bad while I was taking it, so hopefully I did alright.
My score comes in 3 weeks .

[Spontaneous Spaz]

yeh, i took the sat's in april this year, i prepared by taking the Kaplan course. it didn't help... much, so i had another tutor and bought the collegeboard book.

from my psat scores, it didn't change here's the breakdown:
700 math
520 writing
470 critical reading

1170/1600
1690/2400

not too good... good luck to you though, you can probably read better than me though