SAT Strategies

When it comes to the SAT, I know when students and families ask me for “guidance,” they really want a quick fix. Perhaps that’s because of today’s increasingly rapid lifestyle or because some students only give themselves a short time period to increase their standardized test scores. With the SAT and ACT, practice makes perfect. But, if you don't have time to take a bunch of practice SAT tests or if you just want to quickly know the basic strategies and really understand the ins and outs of the SAT, read on.

General Strategies:

The SAT is broken down into different sections. Every question (160 questions in all, not including the essay question & 10 grid-in math problems) is a multiple choice question with 5 possible answers.

1. SKIP any question if you don’t know the answer. Knowing involves no guessing.
2. You should make a guess when you get the 5 possibilities down to 2 you think could work, and your odds thus become 50/50. This also means when you have your choice of 5 and you can’t cross off 3 wrong answers, skip the problem.
   
3. The vocabulary (19 Q’s), the math (54 Q’s), and the grammar (besides the paragraph improvement) (43 Q’s), all go in order of increasing difficulty (Easy->Medium->Hard). This should help you know when it’s best to skip a problem. The first problems will be the easiest, so don't spend a lot of time working on them, if you don't know one, move on.
   
4. For those of you who scored below 52 (or 520) per section on the PSAT, you will probably benefit from skipping at LEAST the last 3 questions in vocab, math, and grammar.
   
5. If you are trying to move from the 550 to 600 range, you should skip 1-2 of the last questions in all 3 sections.

Scoring:

The skipping strategy alone will make the difference between 30-40 points in each of the 3 sections of Critical Reading, Math, & Writing (90-120 points on your total score out of 2400). So, yeah you need to go back and read all of that again...and a third time. That is the low hanging fruit on the SAT. Implement those strategies and your scores will improve.

The Writing section is comprised of two thirds of your grammar score (67%) and one third of your essay score (33%). It consists of 49 multiple choice grammar questions and a 25 minute essay question. Some students think the essay doesn’t count very much. In general, it doesn’t if you can get an “8” or higher out of “12” on your essay. Once you fall below the 8, your grammar score can be brought down by 30-40 points…so you need an average or better than average essay to keep your grammar score the same or for it to increase by 30-40 points.

ESSAY:
All students start their Saturday SAT test morning (usually 8am) with this mandatory essay. The essay is graded by 2 people who both give you up to 6 points each on your score. When you get a “6,” this is actually a “6” out of “12” (and the readers have both given you scores of “3.” When you get a “9,” this means that one reader gave you a “5” out of “6” and one gave you a “4” out of “6.” If the two readers differ by 2 points, then they will need to re-read. (i.e. an “8” would never be a “5” and a “3”).

For best results/scores, write a 4-5 paragraph essay. I have seen a student get 10/12 points writing a 4 paragraph essay, but only students who have written 5 paragraphs have gotten 11-12 points on the essay. The 4 paragraphs need to have an introduction, 2 example paragraphs (to back up your thesis), and a conclusion. A 5 paragraph essay (preferred if you have the time to write it), adds another example to support your thesis (intro, ex #1, ex #2, ex #3, conclusion).

The first/intro paragraph should start in a general tone and become more specific as you get to your thesis statement.

• It helps to paraphrase some of the language the topic/question uses and to add your own spin to it.
  
• Think of ideas that you might bring in later in your example/body paragraphs.
  
• End the introductory paragraph with your thesis statement which succinctly states whether & why you agree or disagree with the question.

Before you start writing your practice essays, think about some general examples that could be used for different essay questions.

• Make a sheet of 10 possible topics that come easily to you. Perhaps you’ve written about MLK, Joan of Arc, Abe Lincoln, Michael Jordan, Barry Bonds, or Holden Caulfield.
  
• Most questions ask about the way our world is moving, who we should respect or idolize, if or why we should respect our elders, if we should work for money or passion, if technology is helping us or handcuffing us to the rapid speed of our technology, who teaches us morals...
• These examples can come from your life, a US History or English class, your summer readings, experiences in church, sports, community service, or travel:
• Here are some ideas:
  

1. Personal experiences (ideas may come from experiences with parents, friends, coaches, religious leaders, teachers, community service, sports, drama, etc). You’re also welcome to make up your examples (within reason of course) about family, friends, teammates, coaches, etc.
2. Historical references if you’re a history buff—ones that work often are from leaders like Lincoln, MLK, Hitler, Joan of Arc, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Louis Pasteur, Bill Gates, Galileo, politicians, etc),
3. Book references if you’re a reader—ones that often work are To Kill A Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice & Men, Grapes of Wrath or any more current books (especially those that teach morals),
4. Sports heroes if you’re a sports nut (Olympians/NBA/NFL/MLB major players). Are they good role models or not? Do they play for the love of the game or for the power, prestige, and fame?
5. Technology: computers, texting, emailing, portable devices, CD’s, DVD’s, bio-tech, cancer research, the car, the steam engine, the airplane, the wheel…
6. Academics—studying for a test, experiences with science vs art, right vs left brain, studio art vs engineering, stereotypical gender strengths
   

• After you’ve written the introduction, make sure to have good transition sentences that start each consecutive paragraph. You’re welcome to use 2-3 quite disparate examples, as long as you transition between them well.

CRITICAL READING

This part of the test is broken down into sections on vocabulary (fill in the blanks/sentence completions), short readings (2 small paragraphs), and longer readings. The longer readings have 2 separate long readings or can also have you compare 2 passages (which students find the most challenging).

Vocabulary:

1. Study with flash cards each week.
   
2. Group synonyms. Know their antonyms.
   
3. Because it’s impossible to know what words might be tested on the SAT, start to figure out if words have a positive or negative connotation. Knowing roots can help you in 2 ways: 1st, instead of learning one word at a time, you can learn a group of words that contain a certain root. They’ll be related in meaning, so if you remember one, it will be easier to remember the others. You can often decode a new vocab word by its root. If you can recognize a familiar root, chances are you’ll get enough of an idea to answer the question. (i.e. Roots (especially prefixes) like ben, bene, pro, eu, am, ami, ferv, grat, lev, moll, pac, phil, plac, generally words that start with p are positive words, sacr, sanct, spir, are generally roots in positive words. Words that start with bell, belli, contra, culp, de (in most cases), dis, dol, err, fals, fal, frag, frac, grav, mal, mis, mor, mort, neg, oner, per, pseudo, tim, tox, trem, trep, vac, vil are generally roots of negative words.

For sentence completions, don’t look at the words yet…look at the sentence and think of a type of word (negative/positive) that would work. THEN look at the answer choices. If you were to look at the words first, you might try to force an answer instead of thinking of the best word that would work and finding a synonym. There are 3 sections of sentence completions. There are 19 total sentence completions broken down to 1 set of 5, 1 of 6 and one of 8. They run in order of increasing difficulty. Remember to leave the last 1-2 blank if you have any trouble with vocab.

Short Readings

Most students don’t have trouble focusing for short periods of time, so these short paragraphs aren’t usually troublesome unless they have you compare 2 short readings. Figure out if the paragraph is negative or positive because the answers will be the same.

• Does the author agree or disagree with something?
  
• Is he/she sad, mad, perplexed, skeptical, outraged, or irritated? Then the answers should follow.
  
• Or is the author approving, happy, elated, in awe, understanding, teasing, jovial, jocular, or comedic? These answers should follow in this same tone.
  
• When they have you compare the 2 readings, make sure to think which author was positive/negative.
  
• Be careful when they ask you which most undermines (weakens) the author’s point of view…then you’ll look for the answer that doesn’t follow the theme/mood to the passage.

Long Readings

1 long passage:

Always read the italics at the beginning of every passage to understand what type of reading it is, in what year the article was written, and/or what topic to expect…and often the answer to one of the questions!

• Skim the questions and underline and circle the words or phrases mentioned in each paragraph. You can do this easily and quickly (40-60 seconds) because the question refers you to a specific line. This is where you need to focus. You can skim/barely read the other parts, but you must pay close attention to the parts you’ve underlined & circled in the reading…This is where you’ll find all your answers.

• Is the overall passage positive in feel or negative? Your answers should follow the theme to the passage. Leave questions like “the primary purpose of the passage” to the end because the other questions and answers will help you know the overall purpose of the passage.

• If you’re running out of time, answer the vocabulary in context or short phrase questions first, leaving the longer, wordier questions to the end.

Do NOT randomly guess when you’ve run out of time—always skip if you can’t get the answers down to 2 possibilities.

Comparing Passage I & Passage II Readings:

Again, read the italics at the beginning.

• Skim the questions so you can do your underlining & circling.

• Read Passage I first and then answer any questions that only ask you about Passage I. Think if Passage I was positive or negative? Was the author happy or sad, mad or outraged, condescending, skeptical, irritated or in awe?

• Then read Passage II (thinking why they had you compare these two passages) and the finish the rest of the questions. If you’re running out of time, answer the vocabulary or short phrase questions first, leaving the longer, wordier questions to the end.

Again, do NOT randomly guess when you’ve run out of time—always skip if you can’t get the answers down to 2 possibilities.

MATH

• Again, the math problems are arranged in order of increasing difficulty. Early ones are easy, middle ones are medium difficulty, and ones at the end are hard.
  
• Remember to skip ANY in which you can’t eliminate 3 answer choices. Only make a guess when you get the answer possibilities down to 2.
  
• In only one particular section called the “grid-ins” or “student produced response,” should you answer all 10 questions—even if it’s a complete guess. This is the one section in which they only count the answers you get RIGHT. Answers are only “0” and positive numbers/fractions/decimals. The answer will never be a negative number or a letter (you will figure this out when they don’t give you that choice in the grid in anyway).
  
• Remember to use the cheat sheet at the beginning of every math section if you forget areas or volumes of shapes, the Pythagorean Theorem, or how to spot special right triangles.

WRITING (Grammar)

It is best to brush up on about 20-25 rules to increase your grammar section. There are 2 grammar sections. One section is divided into 3 parts: sentence improvements, sentence errors, and paragraph improvements. Sentence improvements and sentence errors run in order of increasing difficulty, so remember to skip #10-11, and #28-29 if you are having trouble. These are the hardest 4. Most students feel the sentence errors are the toughest section, so be careful in here and SKIP the ones you don’t understand. I have also never seen 2 “E’s” (no errors) in a row on an SAT test (grammar section sentence errors). There should be an even amount of each letter A-E…so be careful not to have more than about 3-4 E’s (no errors).

Remember this was just a quick way to know the basic strategies and really understand the ins and outs of the SAT. To increase your score(s), you really need to just practice, practice, practice. Repetition is the name of the SAT game.

Resources:
SAT Frequently Asked Questions / FAQ
SAT Help