Don't Get Overwhelmed

Students are overwhelmed when they think of school work in its entirety. For example, if you were assigned a 20 page research paper,the enormity of the project would freak you out. "How will I find the time to write 20 pages?" you will ask while getting all anxious and annoyed. The Key? Baby steps! Set out with a small but achievable goal--say to yourself, "I will write one paragraph per day" Soon you will find that your creative mind will show you that it's no problem to write a page or two a day, and before a weeks time your task is done!

Are Your Priorities Straight?

Many students fail to see the big picture. They claim they have "no time" for SAT prep. Amazingly, they have time for practice, games, rehearsal, recitals, shows, driver's ed, the mall, the movies and hanging out. How is this possible? Priorities! If there is time for play, there certainly is time for work. Allocate some of that play time for study time. If you do it early on the weekends when everyone is asleep, you won't be borrowing from time with your friends. Every Saturday and Sunday morning wake up early and prep for an hour. Start ten weeks prior to test day. That's a full 20 hours of prep in addition to any private tutoring or prep class. Everyone can do that math!

How To Avoid Being Fooled

The SAT is a tricky test because of its tricky answers. The answers are designed to lead the student astray with half truths and misleading detail. The best way to avoid falling into these traps is to avoid looking at the answers. Answer as many questions as possible without looking at the answer choices. After enough practice any student can answer 80% of the questions on his or her own.

Answer the questions, do not guess which answer is correct and your score will greatly improve!

Ways to Remember New Words

Play rhyme games in order to remember the meaning of new words. For example, one of my students was curious about the word "eke" which was the word of the day last week from dictionary.com. The standard dictionary definition of eke is to obtain with difficulty. But this is a tough concept to grasp just from a definition. So why not be creative and invent a sentence which will help such as, I eke by when I squeak by. When your sentence is short, original and to the point, you will always remember new words.

How to Increase Your SAT Score

Successful people set goals, develop a work ethic and focus on attaining those goals. It is no different with standardized tests such as the SAT. The following list is a recipe for SAT success:

• Start early, take the PSAT in 10th and 11th grades
• Buy a review book in 10th grade and get familiar with the question formats
• Read one article per day from a prominent newspaper
• look up words you don't know from your daily readings
• Join a review class in 11th grade
• Do as many practice tests as possible under actual test conditions

All great athletes, musicians, performers and students share the same characteristic--they practice, practice and practice, and by doing so, they put in the time to be great at whatever they do.

Student Comments on the October SAT

Here are some actual comments from High School Students regarding their October 2009 SAT experience:

“I felt the test wasn't too bad but it had some challenging parts and the passages weren't as confusing and complicated as they usually are”

“I didn't finish any part of the SAT”

“i took the SAT Saturday but I don’t think I did too well. I didn't like my essay and I think that preoccupied my mind throughout the test. I didn’t finish the first reading so I went back to it during second section which didn’t give me enough time to finish section I was supposed to be doing”

“I'm still feeling a little brain dead from the SAT…..Ill keep doing some reading sections because that's what i thought i struggled on the most today”

“The test was fair, yet I still managed to find somewhat of a problem while doing the critical reading section. It was not the passages yet the questions were all hard, and often were misleading”

“I don't know if the test was good or bad, but i felt less stressed during this one and hope for good results”

“I thought the sentence completions were average, and fair”

“I found the critical reading still the hardest part although it was much better than last time. some writing questions were difficult too. However I found the math sections very easy. I'll keep my fingers crossed but I think I improved this time around”

“Overall, I didn't think the test was was too difficult. Surprisingly, I thought that the sentence completions were the hardest part of the whole test. Many of the vocab words and wordings in the sentences I found to be very difficult to make out. I didn't have too much trouble with the passages and I found that the math and writing sections were fairly easy”

“The essay I thought was a little ridiculous. It was about laughter. The questions for math were very easy but the writing was just to hard. The reading was what i expected. all in all it was an SAT”

“The essay and most of the math was pretty easy to me. The rest i had some trouble with. My timing was not to good either. I did not complete the 35 question writing section, two reading sections, and one math section”

Reasons to Read the Newspaper

An article a day will help a student several ways:

• by making her aware of current events which allows for some timely essay topics
• by practicing reading, she learns to analyze details, and this results in an
• increase in word power, and an
• appreciation of good writing

Most students do not get their news from newspapers. But they should try. There is no downside to reading the New York Times. It may not be cool, but the benefits outweigh the perception