HELP! SATs!

[hAppy]

Hey guys, I just got a pretty low score on my SATs, and I'm starting to worry that i'm just going to keep getting low scores. I have another SAT coming up soon, and I'd like to beg you guys to throw me and the rest of the high schoolers out there some tips and tricks on how to answer questions.

like how you would compare "word1 : word2::", and how you would place words into sentences, etc. and how to work with words you dont know the meanings of. PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!

[FalconGuy016]

There are so many tricks and tips for analagies, but they fill books and books. You should try taking a small SAT verbal class, they are good at teaching you basic test taking skills like that



(what did you score? )

[hAppy]

strongly dont want to say (some people here know me haha)
i was hoping each person could throw in a few tips, cus i read a book, and man... still low score

[FalconGuy016]

HAha

Well, I meant a SAT Verbal book

[-Carnifex-]

It's not something we can just tell you; it takes time.

[SanDiegoMag]

Im taking the test next saturday, and I really belive the classes help. I jus took the California High School Proficiency Exam, so technically I don't have to be in HS anymore :) , But the trick to the SATs is to not look at the answers and make a guess at what it could be before u read the choices. (Well for verbal at least)

[hAppy]

Originally posted by Cuervo
First, the guessing penalty. There is none. Answer every question. The SAT is intensely stupid. You have five possible answers, and you lose 1/5th of a point for missing it. That's disocuraging, right? No, not really. If you guess on 5, you should get 1 right. That means you get 1 point and lose 4 * (1/5) = (4/5) of a point. Giving you a grand total of +(1/5) points. It's not a penalty at all. Keep on guessing. Naturally, if you eliminate 1 or 2 answers, your odds go up to the point its not even funny.

does anyone agree with this? it kinda makes sense to me

[Miscue]

does anyone agree with this? it kinda makes sense to me

Yes. Answer every question to best of your abilities.

Get an SAT book that has a bunch of words/definitions. Memorize as much as you can. The difficult part about the analogies is not the logic, but the meaning of the words. Not a whole lot to study for math, outside what you've already learned - pretty straight forward. However, take as many practice tests as you can.

[Target Practice]

For me, the most important thing to remember is that the SAT is mainly a test to see how well you handle pressure. It was designed after a test the French gave to their soldiers during WWI. Yes, it measures your academic profiency, but it is mainly designed to stress you out, then test you. All of those classes that are out there, their main goal is to get you less stressed about the test. My advice: Don't worry about them too much. You can always take them again.

[purplemag]

My dad is on the chair that writes and edits the math questions for the SAT's. Now of course he could never tell me a whole lot about them (integrity thing! freaking dads!), but growing up he always had some really good hints for "tests of that sort"...

- 99% of the time two answers will be out to lunch, one will be close and one of course right.
- Read each question twice...they purposefully throw in a not or isn't where you don't expect it to catch those who are not paying attention.
- Unlike the ACT, on the SAT wrong answers reduce your overall score. This said, make EDUCATED guesses if there is an answer you are unsure of. Your instinct in that situation is usually correct, go with it and don't second guess it. This is called the wrong answer penalty, and reduces your score by a 1/4 point for every wrong answer.
- The answers are 100% completely random, for each test cycle, a computer picks the questions from a test bank. Therefore there could be 50 of the first answers in a row(usually would not happen), but this is not abnormal and you should not change answers because your answer sheet looks wrong. Also there is no 25% rule for the answers on the SAT, now somehow or another the percent of each answers are usually close. But this one way the test remains totally random and widely used.
- If your SAT scores are consistantly poor, at least try the ACT. The test are very different and your "brain" type might do much much better on the ACT.
- Lastly but certainly not least, in todays college world, yes standardized test scores are important, but they are no means the extreme most important thing a college will look for. Colleges now want well rounded individuals, sports, school politics, clubs, music. This has become the new standard for acceptance to higher pursued schools.

I know this was long, but hopefully you can get something out of it.
This will sound ridiculous, but go to the bookstore or library and check out "SAT's for dummies". You know the yellow dummy series! It is actually very very good, and has several practice tests to do. The more questions you see the better you will do.

Link for SAT website preparation help...

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/prep_one/prep_one.html

[Kevmaster]

does anyone agree with this? it kinda makes sense to me

if i remember right...i took it two years ago... its a 1/4 point for a wrong answer...which gives you a net of zero on guessing...

but... my only advise is to take a class for it. It helped me by about 15% on my second one

[Fixion]

How low is your score? Sub 1000? What college do you want to go to?

[hAppy]

hey thanks for the advice everyone! keep it coming

i got below 1000, but is my first time... , i feel discouraged anyways

i want to go to a community college, i got my life all planned out, (nursing --> fire technology (firefighter with nursing skills). but my parents (who are ASIAN, key word) want me to score best possible, and go to the best school possible, and become a doctor right off the top...

[PissedGodzilla]

I got a 1390 on my SAT's and my BIGGEST piece of advice (although above posts kinda stole my thunder) would be to use the elimination method.

First, MATH.

Plug in the answers into the equation questions if you can. If they don't work, it's wrong. Simple, but alot of people don't want to spend the time to just actually write out the problem four or five times using each possible answer once. This way you can eliminate the wrong answers pretty easily. Some math questions won't be that easy, however, if they don't involve an equation. My advice here is to first eliminate those answers that you truly feel cannot be right. cross them off on the exam and don't go back to them. Common sense can get you pretty for in standardized testing....



Verbal,

Prefixes and suffixes are clues to words. Use them to your advantage.

for analogies, in your head try and define the words that they give you to the best of your ability and make the connection from there... You really have two choices only.... the words are either similar or opposite.

I personally Flew through the stories, getting the main ideas, and not reading the whole thing. when the questions come up about specifics, then you go back to that certain section of the text and read it fully through, it can save you time in the long run.

Hope I helped a bit...

[hAppy]

thanks!
what i did for the stories, i read the questions that said "read passage __" and answer the question. i went straight through those first