The Truth About Improving Your SAT/ACT Score
- March 29, 2018
- ACT, SAT
- Posted by James Maroney
- Comments Off on The Truth About Improving Your SAT/ACT Score
I know, I know, it sounds like clickbait and you’ve heard it all before: 10 Tips to Getting into the College of Your Dreams, 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Taking the SATs, Doing This One Thing Will Raise Your Score – Guaranteed! And when you go to read the article, most you’ve read a thousand times before.
The reality is, there is no easy fix to improving your test scores. The students that improve the most are the ones who start preparing early and put serious effort into practicing. There’s no shortcut to hard work! Still, there are a few tips that I’ve picked up from years of tutoring that I’m going to share with you. I’m hoping at least a few of them will be new to you.
1). Handwrite your study guide. In the age of computers and technology, few people sit down and work with pencil and paper anymore. Typing things out and scanning pages is much faster than using a pen. But when it comes to memorization, nothing beats out copying equations and rules by hand. The muscle memory is critical to remembering facts under stress – once you get the equation started, your hand will start filling in the rest. While the SAT gives you several of the equations that you might need, it doesn’t give you all of them (and the ACT doesn’t give you any). As you practice problems, start creating a list of equations that you use and always forget. Then, as the test approaches, copy that study guide over again a few times. By the time you’re finished, you’ll know all of those equations by heart.
2) Brush up on your arithmetic. Students always come to me wondering how they can “speed up” their test taking. They run out of time, which tends to make them try to work faster, which leads to mistakes – and funnily enough, it doesn’t actually make them finish any quicker. I find that one of the biggest time wasters that students have on the test is their fear of/weakness in doing good, old-fashioned ‘rithmetic. Fractions, multiplication tables, long division: it’s amazing how much time gets lost on these. The good news – this is actually a relatively easy fix (and you don’t actually have to be “good at math!”). It just takes dedication. Download an app and run through flashcards anytime you have a few minutes (waiting for a friend to show up, sitting in line, during commercial breaks, etc.). The SAT does have a non-calculator section – so be prepared!
3) Use an old-school pencil. Now this one seems like an odd one, but hear me out. You’re often told that you need to use a #2 pencil for standardized tests because that’s what the scantron reads. But mechanical pencils also come in #2 – so why not use those? Once again, this is a question of timing and ease. Simply put, it takes you longer to completely fill in the bubble with a mechanical pencil than it does with an old-school pencil. And filling in the bubbles completely is critical – if you don’t fill them in all the way, you won’t get points for your answer. If you don’t believe me, try it out – and remember, every second matters when it comes to standardized tests.
These are a few easy tips that hopefully you’ll be able to implement quickly. Sometimes, we just don’t get as much time as we would like to prepare for things. Getting these under your belt now will help you feel more confident going forward. Look for more hints and tricks on improving your standardized test score in our upcoming newsletters!
