Nina Sculler is the Director, Educational Consultant, and a tutor at College Prep in Manalapan.
SAT Test-Taking Tips
The SATs are coming up on Saturday. I thought it a good idea to give some tips so students may improve their score. Watch this blog for math, reading and writing tips for the SAT.
General math tips:
- Know the formulas: The SAT provides a set of formulas in the beginning of each math section. Familiarize, if not memorize these ahead of time. This saves you time on the test.
- Underline what they are asking you to find. As you near the end of the section, you will find more tricks; therefore, it is important to keep in mind what the question is asking.
- Each SAT math section begins with easier questions then gets harder slowly. If math is not your best subject, plan to skip the last couple of questions on SAT. Students will lose ¼ a point for questions answered incorrectly – but not in the open-ended section so answer all of them even if you have to guess.
- If you don’t understand the question, skip it. Each question is only worth 1 point.
- Try not to evaluate π or turn a square root into a decimal.
- Know your math terms:
| integer | any whole number on the number line from negative infinity to positive infinity. It can be positive or negative. |
| negative integer |
Any integer less than 0. |
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| positive integer | Any integer greater than 0. |
| The number 0 | is neither a positive nor negative. |
| prime number | is a number that has only 1 and itself as factors. (The number 1 is not prime) |
| Slope |
the difference of the y’s divided by the differences of the x’s. It is usually the number befor the "x" variable in the equation: y=mx +b. m is the variable used to denote slope. |
| Sum | Add. |
| Difference | Subtract. |
| Product | Multiply. |
| Quotient | Divide. |
| Percent |
A number divided by 100. |
| Of | Multiply. |
| Per | Divide (miles per hour). |
| Each | Divide (usually) but can be multiply. It depends on the question. |
| Number | Implies to use a variable (does not have to be an integer). |
| Fraction | One number divided by another. |
| Less, More, Increased by, Decreased by, goes up by | Subtract |
Tomorrow's test-taking tips will address sentence completions.
Look for more SAT tips during the week -
rosemary conte
9:26 am on Monday, May 28, 2012
Nina, such good advice and guidance you give. I would like to add another dimension. In my experience, I've found that poor performance on exams of any type is frequently due to anxiety, fatigue...the stress of the test-taking process and preparation for it. Paying attention to the mental-emotional condition is paramount.
The use of natural, simple autosuggestion by the students or, ideally, work with a
clinical hypnotist, can make the test-taking experience void of stress and pressure; can enhance recall; improve mental acuity, and increase scores.
I have worked with students who have set their score intentions while in a relaxed alpha state and who have reported back to me that they, in fact, achieved the actual score that was their subconscious/conscious goal.
All the wonderful tips you have given can be "installed" in the deeper mind as "new behaviors" that will manifest during the testing experience. The power of the mind is surely amazing and there is no better time to exploit it than in high-stakes SATs and other exams.
Nina Sculler
2:33 pm on Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Students must also keep things in perspective. The SAT/ACT ranges that colleges report for acceptance represent about 50% of the applicant pool who enroll. This means, obviously, that some students score higher while others score lower.
Many colleges are also relying heavily on student's good grades in challenging curriculums. Other well-respected colleges have gone test-optional, but report the scores to be listed in major magazine surveys. These schools may require a student to submit an additional essay with the application.