How to achieve the SAT score you want
BASICS
Create a study plan. What days of the week will you be studying? For how long? And what topics? Set aside the time so you don’t run out of it.
Take a practice test and grade it. In what sections are you lacking? Review the questions you missed. Is it the harder math questions? Do you need to review your geometric shapes?
Time yourself when you practice. There’s no use knowing everything on the test if you aren’t able to do it in the time allotted.
Work out how many questions you can omit to get the score you want. You won’t lose points for omitted answers, but you’re obviously not gaining any either.
If you take enough practice tests and check your answers to understand your mistakes, you will crack the SAT.
MATH
The SAT math questions are arranged in order of difficulty. You should aim to get all the beginning questions (the easy ones) right. Spend most of your time on the majority of questions, which will be the medium ones in the middle. At the end there will be a few difficult questions. There’s no use wasting all your time on these and missing out on points from answering three medium questions. Regardless of difficulty, every question is worth the same amount of points. Leave about five minutes of time to check your answers.
Figure out which sections you need to focus on from your practice test.
The SAT math tests mainly numbers and operations, algebra and functions, geometry and measurement, data analysis, statistics, and probability.
Plug the numbers into your calculator and test the answers until you find one that works. A lot of problems can be solved this way alone.
Don’t be afraid to backsolve.
When testing out answers that don’t involve finding the highest or lowest number for a problem, start from the middle answer choice. The choices usually tend to go in numerical order, so you will then know whether you need a choice with a higher number or a lower number and this will save time because you won’t have to check the choices you don’t need.
Make sure you time yourself while practicing! It’s especially easy to lose track of time when it comes to math!
I like the Kaplan SAT Math Workbook Fifth Edition. I found it super helpful and useful. However, the official Collegeboard bluebook is an important resource as well- especially if you are self studying.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help- stuck on a problem and online or in-book solutions aren’t cutting it? Bring it to a math teacher!
Consider investing in a tutor or class if possible.
Khan Academy is super helpful!
For math, the best thing you can do is practice, practice, practice. Eventually the problems will start to feel similar.
CRITICAL READING
SAT critical reading tests sentence completion as well as questions based on both short and long passages of reading.
Sentence completion and short passage based questions will be arranged in order of difficulty. The easiest will appear first. Like in the math section, regardless of difficulty, all the questions are worth the same amount of points.
Questions based on the long passage of reading are NOT arranged in order of difficulty.
Latin roots can be extremely helpful for the sentence completion portion of this test. You are not going to know what every word means, but knowing what part of the word means could get you some points.
Hot Words for the SAT is a great resource for vocabulary. This book helped me a lot.
The SAT blue book has practice tests and plenty of resources for critical reading.
When it comes to vocabulary, flash card studying works best for me.
Time yourself while practicing.
Don’t waste all your time on the sentence completion questions in the beginning. There may be some easy long passage questions right at the end of the section that you may miss out on.
If there’s a little blurb of information before the passage begins, read the blurb. Seriously. Read the blurb. It’ll expand your understanding which could help you score some points.
Leave yourself five minutes at the end of the section to check your work.
If you don’t understand a question, don’t be afraid to ask an educator!
Consider investing in a tutor/SAT class.
Practice reading in general. Read articles online, pick up a science magazine, start going to the library every other week. Make an effort to read. This will seriously help.
WRITING
The SAT essay is always the first section of the test.
SAT writing consists of the 25 minute essay, and two multiple choice sections testing mainly grammar and punctuation.
Off-topic essays will get a 0 so make sure you stick to the topic. The more you can write on it, the better.
Aim for 2-3 examples to support your opinion on the essay topic and provide 2-3 minimum pieces of proof as to why your examples are valid.
Make sure you write within the lines, otherwise your essay will be cut off and the grade won’t be able to read it.
Write neatly and use your best spelling and punctuation.
Save a few minutes to proofread your work.
Grammar questions are not arranged in order of difficulty.
One section will cover questions revolving around identifying sentence errors, improving sentences, and improving paragraphs.
The other section will contain only improving sentences questions.
Review: verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, correct pronouns, adverbs, comma splices, run-ons, sentence fragments, parallel structure, diction, and double negatives.
Time yourself and leave time to check the section.
Ask an educator if you get stuck on a problem while studying.
Consider a tutor/SAT class.
Have specific examples you can twist to almost any essay topic, such as classic books with a ton of themes.
You can use personal examples, examples from media/culture, and history. Pretty much anything is game so choose a strong example and provide support.
This is a masterpost for the current SAT. If you have any further questions, my inbox is always open! :)