2010 Summer Study Guide

My 2010 Summer Study Guide is out. The Guide is revised from its original form in 2007 to reflect current test prep strategy. Ordinarily, this guide is sold for $9.95, but I will send this 37 page e-Book to anyone who emails me by May 15, 2010. This is my gift to you. My email address is Steve@testniques.com

Sentence Completion Clues

Of the 67 questions which make up the SAT Critical Reading Sections, 19 are sentence completions. Sentence completions represent about 30% of the total reading questions. After reviewing the March 2010 score reports of many of my students, I found that, for the most part, the sentence completion success rate was less than 50%.

I believe this poor showing can be easily corrected. First, answer all the easy sentence completions first. The easy questions show up in the beginning of the section. There are no tricks to the easy questions and the answers are straightforward.

As the sentences get harder, realize that many times there are several clues in the sentence itself which allows the student to find the correct answer. These clues are much more important than the answer choices. In the more difficult sentence completions,many times the answer choices are full of words the students do not understand. However, by learning how to identify certain key words and by recognizing how the sentence is constructed, students can eliminate many obvious wrong answers. Elimination increases the accuracy of picking the correct choice from only two or three remaining choices.

Working On A New E-Book

I am working on revising my 2007 E-Book "Your Summer Study Guide and Action Plan for the SAT" Believe it or not a lot has changed in three years. This includes both my teaching methods and some of the resources I now recommend students use. The E-Book should be ready by May 1st. I will email the E-Book to anyone who asks for it free of charge. This is my gift to all. Just email me at steve@testniques.com and I will send it to you via PDF file.

Eliminate Before You Calculate!

In this fast paced, video game, text messaged world, the desire for instant gratification has never been greater. I have witnessed many students fall into this speed trap, especially when it comes to answering the Math SAT questions. The need for speed often leads to misread questions, sloppy set ups and silly mistakes.
Before coming up with the answer read the question until it is fully understood. Eliminate the obvious incorrect answers. For example--if the answer calls for a positive slope, eliminate the answers with negative slopes; if the answer must be less than 90 degrees, get rid of all those answers greater than 90 degrees. This method allows you to enjoy more accurate calculations while avoiding the "sucker answers" which are designed to catch the careless speed demons!

Reading Scores A Concern Nationwide

Judging from the comments I am getting from my students, reading is the subject they need to work on the most. As I read through the newspapers this morning, I am finding a slew of articles about the poor nationwide reading scores over the past 17 years. When these reading scores are compared with the math results, the comparisons are even more striking. Is it our culture? To much time spent on video games and texting? For an in depth analysis please click on this link from the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/education/25reading.html

2 Dates Left for the SAT This Semester

May 1st and June 6th are the last two dates to sit for the SAT exam this semester. High School juniors are encouraged to register and prepare for one or both of these tests. Adequate preparation depends upon the student. 6 to 12 weeks of solid preparation should suffice. The time is now! Crack open those books and get serious. Don't wait to the last minute. Don't get shut out from the most convenient test centers. Don't just show up for the test cold, as many do for the PSAT. This one counts. Make it count!

Well prepared students will be proud of their results and enjoy a stress free summer knowing that the SAT is behind them.

Your Comments on the March 2010 SAT Exam

Many thought the Math was relatively easy while the Critical Reading was very difficult. Here are some excerpted comments from students who actually sat for the March 2010 SAT this past weekend:

i thought the test was ok, and i had enough time. i thought the math was kind of easy, the reading part was kind of hard

I thought the math section was easier than the reading. I found the reading and the vocabulary difficult, and on the reading sections I was rushing at the end. I think I wrote a pretty solid essay, but it definitely was not my best. I was so nervous going into the test, and when I read the essay question, my mind went blank. But, I picked it up and my nerves subsided as time went on.

I didn't expect the SAT to be like this. It was way harder than i expected it to be. The timing was on average, I had enough time, except for the last writing part, The essay itself was okay, I think i wrote a decent essay

I GUESSED ALL THE ENGLISH PARTS AND MATH I DID ALRIGHT

I personally thought that the March SAT was totally unfair... Each section was so sporadic and nothing was "leveled" I wouldn’t be surprised if someone got like a 300 in the reading and a 800 in the math...
The vocab was ridiculous and the reading passages were super hard. I found myself reading the same lines over and over again trying to comprehend what it was all about.. I felt like I was reading Hebrew or something.
The math was fair-- many have said that it was super easy, but as you know, math is my weakest area so I'm not sure how that might turn out..
Grammar was a bit tricky. There were a lot more tricky and hard questions than I expected...
The essay topic was really random and wasn't one of those typical SAT essay topics with a cliche quote asking for my opinion so I was caught off guard.. I think I managed to BS my way through and get some awesome supporting details from novels and thanks to Hitler, I think I'll be fine