It’s that
time again! SAT’s are this May and
June.
1. Calm. Of course
you’re worried about your score.
When you’re taking the SAT, though, put that worry aside! Worry is
emotionally tiring. Just getting
to the test is tiring in the first place: you’ll likely have to leave home at
7:30 AM and not get home until after 1:30 PM; in between 7:30 and 1:30, you
have to sit still and concentrate for 3 1/2 hours. Don’t make it worse by fretting.
One way to learn calm is to set reasonable goals and then learn exactly
what you need to achieve those goals.
A tutor or a counselor can help you with those goals and methods.
How do you think a surgery would go if the surgeon operating on you for 4
hours was dead tired from worrying?
Put yourself in the frame of mind of a great surgeon -- calm because he
knows what he wants to accomplish and exactly how to achieve that outcome.
2. Confidence: Are you an athlete or an
actress? How do you feel just before the game? How do you feel before opening night?
That’s
how you should feel before the SAT. It’s a competition!
A performance! Exciting,
fulfilling, engaging. You will
have finished the practices, you will know the moves, and you will be able to
perform well. Look forward to that
SAT with confidence and eagerness.
3. Focus.
Just as in a baseball game, you can’t be daydreaming during the SAT. In the outfield, you glance away for a
minute and the ball zooms past.
The SAT is the same. You know most of the
content on the test. The bulk of
your mistakes will come from misreading a question or choice or from not making
a connection that you could have made.
Keep your focus.
Focus exclusively on the current question -- not the guy behind you
coughing on your neck, not the question you just missed. Practice focusing
during practice tests: list the distractions you expect and practice ignoring
them. For “noises in the testing room,” get someone to make loud sneezing
noises behind you during practice tests; for “worry about running out of time,”
figure out exactly how long you will use for each question; then practice using
only that amount of time and promptly moving on.
Your score is won “one point at a time.” Focus exclusively and intensely on each point, question by
question.
4. Commitment--time. This test will be a deciding factor in your college entrance. It won’t do to open a review book when
you “have time” or hire a tutor for 45 minutes/week and then forget the SAT’s
between tutoring sessions.
Think
how much time you spend studying for a single class in school! US history, for example. In US History,
with class time and homework, you probably spend more than 200 hours/school
year.
The
final grade in that one class, though, is less than 5% of what the colleges see
when they look at your transcript.
. . and then the transcript, itself, is
only part of what they consider.
Your SAT, on the other hand, could be as much as 50% of the college’s
decision. Don’t ignore your
US history grade for the SAT, of course, but recognize the SAT’s importance.
So,
start at least three months before your test and expect to spend several
hours/week preparing.
Mastering the skills for the SAT, like mastering the skills for sports
and arts, takes time.
5. Flexibilty and Open-mindedness. The SAT
is not like the work you’ve done in school. You need a new way of thinking for
the SAT.
People
often describe what you need as “test-taking” skills. Actually, what you have to learn is more complex than that;
you have to master new ways of looking at reading, writing, and
mathematics.
The
most effective way to do that is to hire a tutor. You want a good, professional private
tutor. Even Fair Test, a national advocacy
organization that protests most standardized tests like the SAT, says private
coaches/tutors work.
You
don’t want group test prep from one of the prepping services like Princeton,
who claim to teach “test-taking skills.”
Group test prep doesn’t work: the average improvement in scores is well
under 50 points and the “test-taking skills” they teach are available in a
bookstore for the cost of a paperback test prep book.
6. Care. Does that seem silly? Are you thinking “of course, I
care”? Still, I bet you make
“careless” mistakes and tell yourself, somewhere in the back of your mind,
“everyone makes careless mistakes.”
Nope. The people with the really high scores
don’t.
The
SAT is not about how good you are but how much better you are than someone
else. One question puts you above
or below that person. Two questions raise or lower your score 20 or more
points. You have to “care” on every single question. Eliminate the idea of “careless” mistakes.
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There
are a number of websites that try to make SAT prep fun. In fact, new ones pop up all the time:
phone aps, websites, books, video games.
You don’t, however, need Nintendo SAT. Shut your ears to the SAT anxiety
and dissatisfaction that pop up every spring in high schools and concentrate on
learning calm, confidence, focus, flexibility, commitment, and care. Much research shows that these
attitudes lead to success on the SAT.
The SAT, approached with those attitudes, like almost every other
competition or performance, also can be fun. You are the one who will make it fun – and successful.
Best,
Joan Barickman
Tutor for
Tests, Study Skills, and Academic Class Work
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