Be thankful for riding out the storm. Be thankful for learning things–new vocabulary words, the ability to write creatively, problem solving skills, thinking outside the box. Be thankful for the personal growth which comes with learning. Be thankful for preparing to become college ready. Be thankful for the opportunities which will be presented to you in the coming year.
Be thankful that we live in a country which allows us to learn and to improve ourselves.
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 your work 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!
Use a calculator under these situations:
1. When working with very large numbers
2. When working with decimals
3. When solving a difficult graphing or function question.
4. After setting up the problem correctly with your pencil, use your calculator to solve whatever equation, ratio or matrix you have scribbled on the page.
Do not use your calculator as the primary source for solving math problems. It cannot think for you. Use your calculator at the end of the solution not the beginning. Use your calculator to check for arithmetic errors and to confirm what you already know.
Many of our students fare poorly on their initial SAT essay, low marks that often hurt their overall writing scores. Usually, these students score poorly on their first SAT essays because they have had no prior spontaneous creative writing experience. Every essay they have been required to write in High School has been pre-assigned, outlined, drafted, re-drafted and edited.
Unlike the typical High School essay assignment, SAT essay topics are never disclosed prior to test day. Because the student is unaware of the essay topic until the exam starts, the student is forced to “think on their feet” and argue a thesis that they may or may not have previously thought about. Students do not have the safety net of grammar or spell check, luxuries that assist them during every take-home paper they write for school. Furthermore, the finished product must be written in their own hand, in pencil and in 25 minutes! A daunting task indeed.
To avoid the potential of “writer’s block” on the SAT, we urge that High School students immediately start practicing and learning creative writing skills. We instruct our students to buy a composition notebook to use as an informal journal. We also urge our students to recognize the time of day which they feel they are the most creative. At such time, they are required to write down their thoughts and observations using vivid and descriptive language. No specific topics are mandated, but yesterday’s severe weather would have provided an excellent opportunity for students looking to hone their creative writing techniques.
Journal entries must be completed everyday until they become habit. After a month or so, we review the entries and make our suggestions. Usually, we suggest ways for the student to achieve a balance of descriptiveness and brevity. We encourage our writers to mix up their sentence structure, decrease the wordiness of their entries, avoid the passive voice, and vary their descriptive language. Most importantly, we also teach our students to avoid writing like a child! When a student writes in “baby” language, we work with the student on rewrites to achieve a more adult voice in their pieces.
Bottom line- put the pencil to the page every day, let the ideas and observations flow, and a writer will eventually be born.
While perfectionism may be a great trait in sports, on the job and in life, do not try to be perfect on the SAT. Only a very small percentage of all test takers will ever achieve the elusive 2400 score. For the rest of us, our mission is not to be perfect, but to answer as many questions correctly and in a timely manner without getting bogged down on an impossible question.
The SAT is a moderately timed test, you must work at an average pace. You do not need to be a speed reader, but you cannot stare at the page for several minutes either. For math, you do not have to solve every problem in 10 seconds, but you cannot spend 5 minutes calculating and crossing out, calculating and crossing out, etc., etc.
Perfectionists are loath to omit a question for fear they are giving up. Trust us, your life will not change and you will still get into a great university if you get over your perfectionism and learn to strategically omit the impossible questions.
Students often ask why do I have to know this? Sometimes the subject matter on standardized tests has no practical application to everyday life. But, while students may not have to know about coordinate geometry or recite an ancient Greek poetry passage per se, they do need to develop:
These valuable skills if mastered will provide a student with valuable assets to perform well in college and in the job market. |
School is almost back in session and H.S. seniors have a lot to deal with– from retaking the ACT and SAT to compiling a list of college applications, to figuring out essay topics, to obtaining recommendations, etc. etc. The list goes on and on! The best way to avoid being overwhelmed is to plan ahead and systematically map out a day by day, week by week and month by month to do list. For a complete guide to the H.S. Senior timetable, please click here
Read each sentence carefully focusing first on the part of the sentence which is not underlined. Remember, the part of the sentence which is not underlined cannot be changed. Therefore, this portion will more than likely control the tense, the subject and many more aspects of the sentence. Next, try to reconcile the underlined portion of the sentence and figure out whether it agrees with the “given” part of the sentence.
Predict how the sentence should be corrected. Realize that 80% of all SAT grammar multiple choice questions will have an error. Do not read choice A. Eliminate from choices B,C,D and E from your prediction. Then carefully scrutinize the choices which are left, giving first crack to the shortest more succinct choice.
Let’s examine this strategy with an actual SAT Improving Sentence Question:
With the 1977 publication of Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison both received popular and critical acclaim.
A both received popular and
B both received popular and also
C received popular, along with
D received popular as well as
E received both popular and also
After carefully scrutinizing the sentence, the well prepared student should recognize that the word both is redundant. Therefore choices A,B and E must not be considered. The student should only thoroughly examine choices C & D and after comparing these two choices, D is the obvious answer.
Proper use of the English language is not some exercise in academia. In today’s digital age, your words are the face of your organization. Poor language makes the organization appear stupid and unprofessional.
Kyle Wiens, in his recent post in the Harvard Business Review states that he won’t hire people without proper command of English regardless of how qualified they may be.
So, when you practice the rules of grammar for the SAT or the ACT, please do so knowing that good grammar is a skill you will need to get hired! This should be enough motivation to learn how to write properly.
