Your SAT Score Sucks Because.....Part 2

You lack the proper fundamentals. You never properly learned the rules of grammar. You don't know the order of simple mathematical operations. Your vocabulary is that of a fifth grader. You never learned how to read critically. Maybe this is not your fault. Maybe your school district leaves a lot to be desired. Fair enough. However, you are foolish if you believe that you can rectify poor fundamentals in a matter of weeks. It will never happen!

It takes a full year of studying the fundamentals so that you can consistently master questions on the SAT. Message to those in this boat--start preparing for the SAT in tenth grade! Its never too early.

Your SAT Score Sucks Because.....

You did not take the test seriously. You thought your 95 average and general smarts would get you by. But you were wrong because the SAT is unlike any test you have ever taken. Would you just wonder onto a football field and start playing without equipment? Would you just start ice skating without proper instruction? Of course not. Even if you are a natural athlete there are specific skills to each sport.
The SAT is no different. Just as an athlete learns the rules, skills and nuances of the game, a student must do the same with the SAT. You thought you could just go into this test cold and answer the questions? Think again. You think that the PSAT was a good dress rehearsal for the big test? Think again.

3 Reasons your SAT Score Sucks

If you are disappointed with your SAT Score it is because of one or all of the following reasons:

1. You did not take the test seriously
2. You were not taught the proper fundamentals in High School
3. You hate to read

In my next few posts, I will examine each of these reasons in depth

The May 2010 SAT

Preliminary comments from my students appear to be the exact opposite of the March SAT. In March most said the Math was easy but the Critical Reading was hard. Now they are saying almost unanimously that the Critical Reading was way easier than March (especially the sentence completions) yet there were a lot of "weird" Math problems that they did not understand.

More to come in the following days.......

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.