General SAT Test Tips to Start With
We will introduce general sat test tips and move on with the details next
- In each section of the sat test, the questions start out easy and become increasingly difficult. Answer the questions that are easiest for you first.
- Be careful about guessing. For most questions, you don’t lose a point for omitting an answer, but you do lose a fractional point for a wrong answer.
- Don’t spend more than one or two minutes on any one question.
- Mark the test book in any way that will help you.
- Keep track of time.
- Bring water and healthy snacks to renew your mental and physical energy during breaks.
Always Understand Your Mistakes
This is vital if you want to see dramatic improvements. If you take the time to understand each mistake you make on practice questions, why you made it, and what you will do to avoid it in the future, you’re virtually guaranteed a good score on the test.
Mistakes usually fall into one of four categories:
#1: Content weakness
#2: Time pressure
#3: Question comprehension issue
#4: Careless error
After you finish a practice test, catalog all the questions you answer incorrectly so you can work on detecting error patterns. Did you
consistently answer a particular type of math question wrong (content weakness)? Did you keep missing the words “except” or “least” (careless error) in questions? Did you consistently miss questions at the end of sections (time pressure)?
Whatever your issues, you have to understand them completely so you can fix the problems you’re having and see positive changes in your
scores!
Get Interested In The Passages
If you want to retain information as you’re reading passages on the SAT, the best way to do it is to force yourself to engage with the material. Treat this as a learning experience, not a chore, and you’ll find it much easier to remember what happened in the passage. If your brain is in “wow, interesting” mode rather than “blah, blah, just have to get to the questions” mode, you’ll have a more pleasant experience on the test and a better time answering the questions overall.
Don’t Ignore Passage Introductions
At the beginning of every passage on the SAT, there is a little italicized blurb giving you a bit of context about the passage and its author. This introductory blurb contains valuable information, and if you skip it, you could miss out on easy points. At the very least, passage introductions give you context for what you’re about to read so you aren’t too confused about who’s who or where the passage is set. Even if your method of attack for SAT passages is to skip straight to the questions, you should still make a point of reading the italicized intro before you do anything else.
Read Passages Strategically
Try to nail down a good passage reading strategy for the SAT before test day. This will save you time and stress later. There are a few methods you might use depending on how comfortable you are with the test and where you are in your reading comprehension skills.
This is the method I would be most inclined to recommend. You can get a sense of the main ideas of the passage without wasting too much time reading it closely. To skim effectively, just read the introductory paragraph, conclusion paragraph, and first and last sentences of each body paragraph.
Answer main idea questions first while the overall point of the passage is still fresh in your mind. Then you can read specific sections of the passage more closely as needed to answer questions about smaller details.
Because the SAT gives you line numbers for questions on the Reading section, skipping the passage altogether can be an effective initial strategy. If you do this, you should answer questions about small details in the passage first, so you end up reading a bit of the passage while answering questions. Then, when you move on to main idea questions later, you’ll already have a solid sense of the message of the passage as a whole.
If you’re both a quick and thorough reader, you might be able to pull this off without any problems. Just make sure it’s not slowing you down. There’s more material to read on the new SAT, so this strategy might be less feasible than it was in the past.
If you’re reading this way and find you can save a few minutes (and not lose any points) by using one of the other methods, then you should do that instead. It’s always better to have extra time at the end so you can double-check your answers!
Look For Direct Evidence
Though questions on SAT reading may sometimes seem subjective, the reality is that you should always be able to find direct evidence in the passage or chart you are referencing to support your answers.
Even inference questions, which ask you to look beyond the literal facts in the passage, will be backed up by logical deductions that can be made from the evidence that is presented. For inference questions especially, you might end up looking beyond the sentence referenced in the question to find the evidence you need. But the evidence is always in there somewhere!
If you’re thinking about choosing an answer that seems like it could be correct, but you can’t find any evidence for it, hold off. Any answer that can’t be backed up by specific information in the passage has to be incorrect.
Focus On Filling Content Gaps First
If you have problems with basic math skills, it doesn’t matter how many practice SAT questions you do—you’re going to have to fix those knowledge gaps before you can improve your SAT Math score.
If you notice you’re missing practice SAT Math questions because you are uncomfortable in a certain content area, work on your content weaknesses before you do anything else. This is the fastest way to improve your scores dramatically. You can go from here to fix other types of mistakes that are more surface-level (such as reading questions wrong or basic carelessness).
Underline Key Parts Of The Question
You should use this tip on the math section if you’ve been missing questions by accidentally solving for the wrong value. Underline what you need to find in the question so you don’t get confused during the calculation process.
Sometimes math questions ask you to solve for a value that necessitates solving for something else along the way. That something else will often be one of the incorrect answer choices (though this sort of tricky incorrect answer choice is less likely to show up on the new SAT). Many students accidentally pick the trick answer choice because they lose track of the value that they were originally supposed to find. You can avoid this by underlining relevant parts of the question to maintain your focus.
Skim the Paragraph before Answering Rhetoric Questions
Unlike grammar questions, which only require reading through a couple of sentences at most to answer correctly, rhetoric questions challenge you to examine entire paragraphs or the passage as a whole to find the right answer. Examples of rhetoric questions are questions about sentence function, the logical sequences of sentences, and the author’s style and tone.
The SAT mostly sticks to asking Writing questions chronologically, so you’ll likely find yourself answering several grammar questions about specific sentences, followed by a couple of rhetoric questions that relate to the paragraph as a whole.
Don’t be lulled into complacency and think you can answer rhetoric questions just by reading through the specific sentence the question asks about and using vague memories of the content of the other sentences you just answered grammar questions on. Instead, skim through the paragraph as a whole and then attempt the rhetoric question.
Memorize Formulas & Grammar Rules
Although the SAT math section does provide you with a list of formulas, you’ll lose time and momentum by constantly turning back to reference them. It’s best to have all the formulas memorized beforehand. Check out our article on the formulas you need to know for the SAT Math section to make sure you’re prepared.
The SAT Writing section has a specific standardized approach to grammar, so it’s useful to memorize the rules to reduce confusion. Even if you think you’re pretty good at grammar, it’s not always enough to just go by what “looks right” to you.
If you’re not used to some of the more archaic grammar rules tested on the SAT, you should memorize them. This will prevent you from accidentally choosing NO CHANGE for phrases that have errors according to the SAT’s formal grammar guidelines. Check out this article for a review of all the grammar rules you’ll see on the SAT!
Analyze Then Write
Essay prompts on the new SAT ask you to analyze an argument presented in a passage. The graders want to see that you fully grasp the author’s point and can write a clear explanation of how he or she builds the argument. You have fifty minutes for the essay, and you should spend a good 10-15 minutes making sure you understand exactly what the author is saying and how you’ll outline your essay based on your analysis.
Bubble at the End
A good way to save a few minutes of time is to fill in all your answers at the end of the section. Circle your choices in your test booklet as you go along, then go back and bubble them in when you’re done with the section. With this tip, you’ll avoid going back and forth between your test booklet and answer sheet, which is not very efficient and adds a few seconds to your time for each question.
Make sure you only use this strategy if you already know you’re capable of finishing the section with at least 3-5 minutes to spare! It would be terrible to answer all the questions in your booklet and not have time to fill in your choices on the answer sheet.
Double Check Your Answers
While it’s tempting to take a rest if you have extra time at the end of an SAT section, you should always double-check your answers first. When you initially make your way through each section, circle questions that you’re unsure about so you can double-check strategically.
If you have lots of extra time, you might even go through and check every single one of your answers. This way you’ll pick up on any careless mistakes you might have made if you were rushing or missed a key word in a question.
Get Ready the Night Before
On the morning of the test, you’ll inevitably be nervous. There’s a lot of stuff you need to bring to the SAT, and you don’t want to forget something at the last minute while you’re distracted by your nerves.
Here’s a checklist to ensure that this doesn’t happen:
- Admission ticket
- Photo ID
- #2 pencils and eraser
- Calculator
We also recommend that you bring snacks and water as well as a watch to monitor your pacing. Just put everything in your bag the day before. Don’t procrastinate!
Finally: Stay Calm
Above all, keep a cool head on the test. If you see a question you don’t understand, don’t let it psych you out. Just keep going. You might need to skip some questions at first, and that’s ok. Though there is a lot of pressure to finish each section on time, there’s nothing wrong with doing the questions out of order. Look at each section with fresh eyes, and try not to dwell on what you might have gotten wrong earlier in the test.