Many students wish to go to study abroad, and getting to college is filled with many requirements and lots of challenges. Commonly, one of them is giving the SAT exam, a college-readiness test created by The College Board. As not all the students with similar high-school grades are on the same page in terms of college readiness, the SAT compares students with a common measurement, which colleges use to identify which ones are the readiest.
Getting a good or perfect score on the SAT seems like the stuff of legends. A very small percentage of exam takers achieve this feat. A good or perfect SAT score increases your chances of being admitted to top universities, and it can supplement a lesser GPA.
Everybody wants to know how they can achieve the highest SAT score. There’s no shortcut, but we can offer some tips to improve your odds through practice and prep. In this blog, we’ll discuss key points to keep in mind when preparing for the SAT, how to ace the SAT test, the best SAT preparation strategies, and key test-taking tips.
The regular SAT test consists of three hours of content duration. There’s an optional SAT with Essay section that you can sign up for if you wish to present evidence of your writing ability on your college application. Here’s what one can expect from the different sections:
- Reading Test: 52 MCQs in 65 minutes.
- Writing and Language Test: 44 MCQs in 35 minutes.
- No Calculator Math Test: 15 MCQs and 5 student-produced questions in 25 minutes.
- Calculator Math Test: 30 MCQs and 8 student-produced questions in 55 minutes.
- Essay Test (optional): 50 minutes to read and understand a passage and then write an analytical essay. Please note that this test is scored separately and does not affect your overall score. If you don’t sign up for the Essay, you’ll most likely be provided an additional section of either Maths, Reading, or Writing and Language. This section doesn’t count toward your SAT score. It’s a good idea to work on improving your writing skills before thinking about tackling the section.
The questions in both the Math sections move progressively from easy to medium to hard, but that isn’t the case in the other two sections. As there are no negative marks for guessing, make sure you have an answer shaded in for every question.
Understand Your Test Score
The SAT score ranges from 400 to 1600, consisting of both the Evidence-Based Reading & Writing (combination of both Readings, Writing, and Language), and the Maths (combination of both Maths section) score comprising 200-800 points of the composite score. While 1600 constitutes a perfect SAT score, you don’t necessarily need to get every question right to achieve a perfect SAT score, as each test has its own scoring scale.
What is a good SAT test score?
Rather than thinking of your score as a fraction of all possible points, you should check your percentile—i.e., what percent of exam givers have scored below you. If you’re in the 90th percentile or above category, you’ve done well. When we talk about acing the SAT test, a score of 1400 and plus is considered ideal. A 1400+ score makes you better than most of the students taking the SAT, making your application prospects stronger for most of the colleges, apart from your past academic performances.
Few students are equipped to guide their own test prep. Sure, you can practice on your own, but most students need some sort of direction and guide to determine just what content and skills they should be learning. This is where having access to SAT prep tutoring is critical. Before your sophomore year ends, you should reach out to the SAT prep tutor in order to hit the ground running during the crucial summer months.
During the school year, many students struggle to take out time for SAT prep in the midst of all their regular academic responsibilities. In the summer, you can easily focus on the SAT, and this is where you can really get yourself going.
Take Practice Test
The practice test questions closely resemble the actual SAT exam, making them the ideal go-to study strategy. The SAT has a unique format and is not at all like the exams students take in high school. Practice papers either contain harder or easier than SAT questions and do not give a comprehensive overview of the actual exam. Regularly practicing questions will get you accustomed to the types of questions on the SAT.
Do a SWOT Review
A SWOT review essentially means an evaluation of your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Right after giving a practice test, analyze what are your areas of strengths and weaknesses. This will help you create a strategy to work out your weaknesses and perfect your strengths.
Try to pinpoint opportunities and threats, opportunities being areas that could be turned into strengths through some systematic study and practice, and threats being the areas you’re likely to get stuck or wrong. For every practice test, thoroughly assess your performance by analyzing the questions you got wrong and identifying the gaps. Keep track of all these questions by noting down the areas you need to improve and why you got them wrong.
Some key areas of improvement in the SAT test are-
- Content: To ace the SAT test, you need to be thorough in your conceptual understanding of all the topics.
- Strategy: Improve your approach and understanding of concepts by practicing SAT test-taking strategies.
- Time: During your practice, monitor the time taken per question to master your speed.
Address each of these aspects while attempting practice tests.
Try and Attempt All Questions
Before March 2016, incorrect answers carried negative marks on the SAT test. However, in the newly redesigned SAT, incorrect answers are no longer penalized, thus providing the student freedom to indulge in some guesswork as well. After all, there is a 25% probability of getting a correct answer, and who knows, you may be lucky enough on the test day.
Hereby, it is important to have good time management skills to be able to attempt all the questions with maximum accuracy. In case you’re running out of time and won’t be able to make it till the end of the section, make random guesses.
Use Elimination Strategy
The elimination strategy works best when you’re struggling to find a clear answer. In the Reading and Writing section, while options may seem possible, any option with even a small incorrect detail can be eliminated immediately. Similarly, for the Maths section, thorough knowledge of concepts can help you eliminate incorrect options.
Eliminating wrong answers will help you select the correct answer and increase your chances of getting it right.
Recheck Answers
Practice good time management skills during your prep period to be able to leave at least 5 minutes at the end of each section so that you can go back and review your answers. This will help you develop accuracy as well as avoid mistakes.
Acing the SAT test isn’t that difficult but requires diligent practice, effort, and perseverance on part of the exam taker. If you’re unable to form and follow a study plan yourself and need help with study, concept understanding, and test-taking strategies, ReWiser understands that preparing for the SAT can be challenging, and thus we are here to help you crack the SAT with our interactive online training.
As the SAT overhauled its format in 2016, it’s now much more equivalent to the ACT. While both exams assess college readiness, they have a number of significant differences. The ACT Maths section is all MCQ, and allows the use of a calculator throughout, but it covers a wider range of topics than the SAT. The ACT English and Reading sections are mostly similar to the SAT’s Writing, Language and Reading sections, but with less time allowed per passage, the ACT moves at a faster pace. The ACT includes a Science section, which tests a student’s ability to understand, interpret scientific data and draw logical conclusions.
It’s pretty difficult to tell in advance which test you’re better suited for, so it’s a good idea to take both. Once you have experienced both the tests, you’ll have a feel for which one suits your strengths and start focusing on one of the two tests as you continue to prepare.
If you’re confused about whether to opt for the SAT or ACT, you can go through our guide on SAT vs ACT: Which test is right for you?
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