Sat Help Steps

If you are like many high school students, you will be looking to enter college to continue your education. You will have to choose which university would best suit your needs and you will have already started looking at how you will finance this next step in your life.

However, have you taken your SATs yet?

Many students will start in their junior year, preparing for that important test. They know that it is important to get a high grade. Some will study endlessly and some will suddenly cram only weeks ahead of the testing date. But what is the best way to study for this exam.

Slow and steady, gets the job done. Make sure you have planned for enough time to completely and thoroughly review and study for each and every section. Don’t try to take this exam unless you have given yourself at least several months.

Below are ways to help you learn to study, to get your mind ready for preparing for the SATs. Some will be so simple you will wonder why you didn’t think of it earlier.

Also, remember that you can use B Line Test Prep’s free online SAT tests, and sites to aid in your SAT preparation.

So, what are some of the ways you can start studying?

Sat Tips

Tip one: Dust off that old library card. You’ll need it when you start this first tip. Reading. Go on, read a novel, or two. It doesn’t matter what the novel is, whether it is some romance novel, or the latest sci-fi thriller. There will be many questions that will test if your reading and comprehending skills are sharp. The more you read, the more you will be training you mind so that when you begin the verbal test, you will not be left out in the cold.

Tip two: Its time to break down and bookmark an online dictionary. Many of them have a “word for the day.” You must have a firm grasp on words and their meaning.

Tip three: Go out and buy yourself a notebook. Now, write in it every single day for at least 15 to 30 minutes. It might seem silly or awkward but the time you spend honing your writing skills will pay off when you reach that section of the test.

Tip four: Don’t throw away your daily paper after you skim through the sports or entertainment section. Dig around, find that crossword puzzle and work it completely. There are also sites online where you can work a puzzle a day. This will help sharpen your skills, reading comprehension and deduction. As in writing in your journal, doing a crossword puzzle can be another tool to make sure you are ready to take the SAT.

Tip five: Admit it–you only skim through the paper for the headlines. Stop as of right this moment. Tell yourself that from this moment on, not a day will go by that you don’t read the newspaper. Take a story that interest you and give it a new title or go through and find a way to change a word or phrase. Do this every day. This is still training your mind to think quickly and cohesively.

Tip six: And here you thought that it would be boring to do anything to prepare yourself for the test. While you are making sure to read, write and do crossword puzzles, go on and try a hand at logic problems. Each logic puzzle has every bit of information you need to solve it correctly so take your time and pay attention to what is said.

Tip seven: Got a box or crayons? How about markers? If not, go out and get them and start drawing. You don’t have to be a good artist, but here’s why drawing is a good idea. Once you get to the math section, you will run across questions dealing with geometry. Sometimes a question will have a shape and other times it will not. With a couple of months, building your skills at drawing, you should be able to handle the geometry questions a lot easier.

Tip eight: Sign up for a SAT question a day. Try to work the problem out yourself. Do a quick search, using key phrases like, free SAT online, or SAT prep. Find one that you are comfortable with and sign up. The more you practice, the less likely the SAT will seem to be intimidating.

Tip nine: Make sure you can do fraction to decimal conversions. If you need someone to help, look for a tutor in your area. Don’t let this part of the test frighten you.

And finally, tip 10: in the words that are printed on that now famous book, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, in warm friendly letters, “don’t panic.” If you take your time, practice the steps above, you will find you will be much more comfortable in taking the SAT test for your next educational step.

Get to work now. Don’t hesitate or keep putting off studying. The more you procrastinate, the more likely you will not be ready for the test. But with time, with effort on your part, you should have no problem with the exam. You should pass it with little or no problem.

Sat Prep Effectiveness

While SAT scores correlate very strongly to an individual’s performance in college and thereafter when they enter the workforce, they do not give the full picture. There is much more to success, both in college and in the wider world than the scores of one test. Various studies have shown that while some kids perform poorly in high school and still manage to pull out of their tailspin in college, this is not the case in the vast majority of scenarios. Factors that may make a student change course include taking SAT prep seriously and also finding subject majors in college that they enjoy.

Family Background, High School Grades and College Performance
Several studies have shown that students who come from homes with educated families tend to perform better on the SAT than students who come from less-educated, working class backgrounds. In families with a tradition of education, both high school performance and test scores tend to correlate with the student’s collegiate grades. This may be due to the possibility that parents who are themselves educated may be more inclined to participate in their child’s learning experience than parents who have had limited schooling. It may also be due to these students having access to educational resources that poorer students do not. This, of course, does not mean that the students from backgrounds without the tradition of education do not sometimes work hard and do well despite being their disadvantages. In fact, in some cases students who do poorly change course in college and wind up improving their grades. In other cases students take their SAT prep seriously and get a good score on the test even after having poor grades throughout high school. There are exceptions to the rule, but such stories, however, are not the norm.

Controversial Aspects of the Test
One accusation launched at the test’s makers has been that there is a bias inherent in the test. This bias is said to be against poorer people. Critics say that wealth is a factor in test performance as some students are able to pay thousands of dollars on coaching to pass the test whereas others are not. As a result of the criticism, College Board, the SAT’s administrators, have revamped it to include a writing section along with other changes. The idea is to reduce the advantage of coaching by making the test less easy to coach. The other changes include raising the point totals. Previously, students were able to score as many as 1,600 points, after the changes this rose to 2,400 points. The writing section has also made the test longer. The total time to take the test was raised to three hours and forty-five minutes, up from three hours. Still, critics say that the writing section is not enough as it is both overly simple and students may still be coached to pass it.

How Colleges View the New Writing Portion
Many colleges choose to ignore the writing section when assessing students for acceptance. The perception is that it does not do enough to reflect the writing skills of those taking the test. Some of the colleges who are skeptical of the writing section’s value, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Georgetown University, are quite well-known. The writing portion of the test consists of a set of multiple choice grammar questions and an essay. The essay portion requires students to read a quotation, and then write an essay to support their position with regard to the quotation. While some critics remain doubtful of the writing test’s efficacy in predicting which students will do well and which will not, some have responded positively to the changes made by College Board. The University of California is among those who have accepted the test after threatening to discontinue its use.

College Board’s Response to Criticism
College Board’s senior vice president, Lawrence Bunin has defended the writing section and the test as a whole, saying that the writing section has proven to be both “highly reliable” and “valid.”