Up Your Score (6 page)

For the test dates on which the Question-and-Answer Service is not available, the College Board offers the Student Answer Service. For $13.50 you receive a computer-generated report that tells you for each question what type it was (sentence completion, geometry, etc.), whether you answered it correctly or incorrectly or skipped it, and the level of difficulty on a scale of 1 to 5. You can order this service the same way you order the Question-and-Answer Service, and you’ll receive the materials three to six weeks after your test is scored. Although it doesn’t provide you with as much information, you can still use it to gauge the areas in which you need work.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you can always cancel your scores if you think you bombed the test; you can do this by informing the proctor before
you leave the testing center or by contacting the ETS by the Wednesday after you take the test (see
page 316
). However, we don’t really recommend doing this because most colleges look at your highest scores and you can always take the test again. Also, you’ll never find out what your score was. Finally, if you took multiple SAT IIs on one test date and you cancel one score, you’re really canceling them all.

JaJa says: After each practice test, make sure you understand every single question you got wrong. If you don’t, chances are, you’re going to miss a similar question in the future.

Now that you know how to practice, the question is how you’re going to get yourself to do it. Needless to say, there are thousands of things you’d rather do than prepare for the SAT, beginning with weeding and ending with sticking hypodermic needles in your eyes. But assuming that you recognize the necessity of preparing, how do you make yourself actually sit down and study?

1. Set a Score Goal

Establish a specific score as your goal. Pick a score that you think you can achieve but that will require some preparation. (A good score goal is one a bit above the average SAT score for students at the schools you’re considering.) Once you’ve set this goal, don’t stop studying and learning vocabulary words until you consistently achieve the score on practice tests.

2. Block Out Time in Your Schedule

Make appointments with yourself to study and take practice tests. Don’t compromise this time; treat it as a serious commitment that you can’t break. Find a quiet, secluded place, and don’t let yourself be disturbed—that means no food breaks, telephone calls, or pat-the-cat sessions. When you’re finished, go outside and yell for a while to release your tension. Then reward your hard work and self-discipline by bathing in melted milk chocolate.

A tip: Do some research online. There are tons of blogs, newsletters, websites, and social networking communities where you can find info and advice on all things SAT. Google is your friend.

3. Study with Friends

Anything is more fun if you do it with friends (except maybe body piercing). Read this book out loud. The jokes will be funnier and the tips will make more sense. Another advantage to studying with friends is that you can help each other with some of the harder math concepts and test each other on vocabulary words. Just make sure that you don’t get carried away fooling around and forget to study. Also, don’t have too good a time or the Serpent will hunt you down, hide under your bed, and stab a number 2 pencil into your little toe while you sleep. The ETS doesn’t like students to have any fun with the SAT.

4. Treat It Like the Real Thing

When you are taking the practice tests—just like you don’t want to compromise your study time—don’t go too soft on yourself. This means taking the practice test within the time limit and not letting it go on for three days. If time’s up, time’s up. Sorry, you just have to be your own proctor. Don’t be tempted to cheat on the practice test (what’s the point, anyway?), like sneakily whipping out a pocket dictionary at the sight of hard vocabulary. You can review the hard questions
after
the test. If you’ve been conditioned to easier standards, you’ll just have a harder time when the real SAT comes around.

Remember, if you don’t prepare the first time, you’ll just have to take the test again, and eventually you’ll have to study. Unless, of course, you’re aiming for college in Greenland.

JaJa says: Take practice tests in the morning if you can. You’re never going to be taking the SAT at 8:00
P.M.
, unfortunately.

Think a perfect score is a little out of your league? Not to worry, this book is still for you! If you have limited time or motivation, then you’re probably not going to read the book cover to cover (although you won’t regret it if you do). Being kind, empathic, generous people, we’re giving you a break. Here’s a list of where to find the essential, not-to-be-missed, utterly important information.

Chapter 1
, About the SAT.
Read:

• “How to Practice,”
pages 26
–28

• “Getting in Gear,”
pages 28
–29

Chapter 2
, The Critical Reading Section.
Read:

• “Four Key Rules and a Tip,”
pages 34
–36

• “Sentence Completions,”
pages 36
–41

• “Critical Reading Passages,”
pages 41
–46

Skim:

• “The Reading Passages,”
pages 46
–51

• “The Six Types of Questions,”
pages 52
–54

Read:

• “The Short Reading Passages,”
pages 57
–58

• “About SAT Words,”
pages 58
–60

• “Useful Synonyms” and “Similar-Looking Words,”
pages 155
–157

Chapter 3
, The Math Section.
Read:

• “Calculators,”
pages 171
–175

• “Fractions/Units,”
pages 176
–184 (focus on the examples and boldface words)

• “Word Problems,”
pages 184
–194

• “Equations,”
pages 194
–198

• “Relations, Functions, and Function Notation,”
pages 198
–201

• “Solving a Quadratic Equation” and
“Quadratic Formula,”
pages 201
–204

• “Exponents,”
pages 206
–208

• “Geometry,”
pages 209
–222

• “Coordinate Geometry,”
pages 222
–229

• “Grid-in Problems,”
pages 236
–239

Chapter 4
, The Writing Section.
Read:

• “The Three Question Types,”
pages 244
–248

• “The 13 Rules of the Writing Test,”
pages 249
–263

• “The Essay,”
pages 267
–277

Chapter 5
, Guessing.
Very important! Read:

• “The Six Rules of Guessing,”
pages 285
–290

In this chapter we will go over each type of question individually in order to familiarize you with the different question types, and then we’ll show you some slick tricks. But first, here are some general rules for doing the critical reading section.

Rule 1: Know Your Speed

On the test, you are given only 70 minutes for the 75 or so questions on the two critical reading subsections. So you figure, “Great, I have about a minute per question.”
Wrong
. You have to subtract about 20 minutes for the amount of time you need to spend reading the reading passages. Then subtract another minute from the total test time for the time you spend watching the kid in front of you pick his nose and maybe another half second for the time you spend picking your own nose. Now you have only about 40 seconds per problem. That’s just about the amount of time most people need if they work efficiently. If you find yourself finishing ten minutes early, then you’re probably working too fast and being careless, or you didn’t spend enough time picking your nose. If you aren’t finishing all the questions before the time runs out, you might have to be a little less careful (or skip the last critical reading passages of each section, as described in Strategy 5 of the reading passage section of this chapter,
page 45
). In any case, it’s essential that you have practiced enough to know exactly how fast you should be moving. Good control of your speed and timing must be second nature to you when you take the real test.

Rule 2: Do the Subsections in the Best Order

All questions are worth the same number of points. Therefore, you want to have done as many problems as possible before you run out of time. Sentence completions take the least amount of time, so do them first. Then do the short reading passages. The long critical reading passages take the most time; do them last. The only exception to this rule would be if you consistently find that you score better on practice tests when you do things in a different order.

On the last few questions in a subsection, the most tempting answer is probably wrong.

Rule 3: Realize That Questions Get Harder

The Serpent gets more and more cruel as each subsection (a set of ten sentence completions, for example) progresses, except in the questions following each critical reading passage. The first question in a subsection is usually easy. The last question in a subsection is usually hard. This is important to remember, because if you know that you’re going to have to skip some questions, you might as well skip the hard ones.

This can also be used to outsmart the Serpent. You can use it to find correct answers to questions that you otherwise wouldn’t be sure about. How? Since the first few questions in a subsection are always easy, the obvious or most tempting guess is probably correct. The middle questions are a little harder; on these questions the obvious or most tempting guess is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. On the last few questions in a subsection, the obvious, most tempting guess is probably wrong. This is
crucial.
A question is put at the beginning of a subsection if, in the Serpent’s experience, most students get it right. It is put at the end if most students get it wrong. The trick is to learn to pick the answer that “most students” would pick on the questions at the beginning of the section and at the end of the section avoid the answer that “most students” would pick. What we have explained here is just the basics of how to apply this concept. In
Chapter 5
we provide a more advanced explanation, with additional useful strategies and tricks.

Remember, the questions get harder within
sub
sections, not from section to section. So when you get to the sentence completions, you’ll be starting with relatively easy ones.

If you want an in-depth explanation of this rule and its uses, read the 700-page book
Cracking the SAT
by Adam Robinson and John Katzman. They call it the Joe Bloggs principle and, frankly, they get a little too carried away about it.

Skipping questions doesn’t necessarily save time. Only skip a question if you have absolutely no idea! It’s better to spend a few extra seconds coming up with a solid guess than to skip a question and lose all the progress you’ve made in solving it.

Rule 4: Know the Directions

The directions are the same every year. Don’t waste time reading them during the test. Memorize them from your copy of “Taking the SAT,” available on the College Board website.

Quick Tip:
If you skip a question because you don’t know the answer, put a mark next to it in the test booklet. We suggest an X for the questions you don’t think you’ll be able to figure out and a ? for the ones you think you’d get with more time, if you have it later on. Also, try putting a star next to the ones you did answer but aren’t sure you’re correct. That way you can go back and puzzle over them some more if you have any time left at the end.