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10 Tips for taking the

New SAT

Fastweb's Summertime SAT Prep

Adapted from the Mar/Apr 2005 "Careers & Colleges" Magazine Article

- by Stephen Borkowski

It may be summer, but you know there's an SAT bubble sheet in your future. Whether it'll be your second attempt or first encounter with the SAT, summer is a great time to boost your test taking abilities. Here are some simple things you can incorporate into your plans that will serve you well on test day.

Read

Whether it's a book by the pool or a magazine on your lunch break, reading regularly will help in several ways.

Students need to read something everyday says William Sullivan, an SAT tutor in Colorado Springs, Colo., who runs the SAT Lowdown (www.satlowdown.com). Simply reading a newspaper lets students "see a lot of words in context that will help them when they're reading on the SAT," he says.

Reading will also be important for students taking the updated SAT with its new writing component. Students will need evidence to support arguments they make in their essays says Ian Simpson, the owner and president of Integrated Learning, a Los Angeles-based tutoring company. "One way to have a lot of examples is to do a lot of reading. Any good book will have several themes that will be relevant," he says.

Try the Math

Pick up a copy of "10 Real SATs" and try to crack one problem a day, or maybe even a few if you've got a long road trip or flight planned.

The majority of the math on the SAT consists of percentiles, fractions, algebra and geometry. Simpson says that the phrasing often confuses students more than the math concepts.

"Students have to have constant exposure to the style of the test. In my opinion, the test is a language by itself," Simpson says. The more exposure a student has to the test's language, the more comfortable they'll be on test day.

Pack Some Flash Cards

Whether you create your own or buy a deck, flash cards are a convenient way to put your downtime to good use. If you're stuck waiting for a ride, why not use the time to build your vocabulary or brush up on your math fundamentals?

Good test takers "keep their studying grouped into small chunks so that they're never overwhelmed, and they're able to take their time to assimilate all the information," Sullivan says. Flash cards make the material portable and manageable.

Be Consistent

Studying regularly now is more likely to benefit your score than trying to cram for the test. Sullivan says the best test takers are "always doing something but they're never doing too much."

There are quick tricks and strategies that can boost a student's SAT score, but consistently studying some fundamentals will be more beneficial. "You can't do the SAT on strategies alone," Simpson says.

Starting early on your test preparation has the added benefit of alleviating stress on test day. If you've built a good foundation and taken some sample tests, when the bubble sheet hits your desk you'll be ready for it.

1. KNOW THE ENEMY

You don't buy clothes without trying them on, so what's different about the SAT? Get to know the test format.

2. TONE YOUR READING MUSCLE

Spend less time memorizing and more time actually reading--magazines, newspapers, books, etc.

3. COMPLETE THE SHORTEST SECTIONS FIRST

All the questions are worth the same number of points. Try the sentence completions, then the reading passages, and if you have time, then the long passages.

4. DON'T FRET THE NEW MATH

New concepts account for only about 10 percent of the test.

5. SHARPEN YOUR MULTIPLE-CHOICE MATH SKILLS

Use shortcuts. This could mean using an advanced trig formula to solve an algebra question, or putting a graphing calculator to work to get an intersecting point.

6. FOCUS ON GRAMMAR

Pay close attention to the corrections your teachers make on your papers and learn from you grammatical mistakes. Get a feel for what you're having trouble with.

7. BREVITY IS USUALLY BEST

Shorter is generally better with essay sentences.

8. STRUCTURE IS EVERYTHING

Intro, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion will do the trick.

9. WHEN WRITING, DON'T SWEAT THE DETAILS

Little details, especially if you're talking about personal experience, can be fudged. Don't let them slow you down.

10. RELAX

Everybody's nervous about the SAT.

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