Preparing for the SAT: Top 8 Effective Tips

The SAT is an official exam, the equivalent of the Russian Unified State Exam, that anyone who dreams of entering the United States is required to take. The SAT is taken about seven times a year in different countries outside the United States, including Russia. The SAT itself consists of four parts:

1. Mathematics;

2. Reading;

3. Lexics;

4. Writing (optional);

In this article, we have gathered for you the coolest and most effective tips to really prepare for the SAT. You'll also find free online preparation resources at the end of the article! Let's roll!"

Determine what score you even need to get

To start preparing for the SAT, you first need to understand what your goal is. Check the website of your desired university to see what SAT scores they require applicants to have, there will be average scores listed. Next, you need to find a section where the scores of accepted students in previous years are broken down into groups of 25%, 50%, 75% admitted. You should try to get the score that is listed in the 75% group. In other words, of those who got that score on the SAT, 75% were accepted to university.

What is your score now?

So you have figured out what score you are aiming for. Now you need to figure out what your score would be at the moment, what your starting point is. To do that, take any full test (the official SAT College Board website has several free full online SAT tests specifically for this purpose), and take it, making sure to time each part!
Your score on this practice test is your starting point.

Time Management

Now you can relate your desired score to your current level by calculating the difference in scores. After that, you need to decide when you will take the official SAT exam. It's best to try to pick a date well in advance of the application process, so you'll have a chance to retake it and still have time to apply for the right semester. Once you choose a date, you need to decide on a class schedule. It will depend on how big the difference between your actual score and the score you want to take.

Test without a time limit

So, the first thing you should do is try to take one more SAT exam in its entirety, but without timing it. Then look at your score and compare it to the last test you took in time. This will help you figure out whether you're having trouble with the material and the SAT questions themselves, or with the time limit. At this point, you'll need additional materials. So, for example, if you have difficulties with fast reading of texts for time, practice reading any texts, not only test texts, take time to do it every day; if you have difficulties with the math part, repeat all the theory, try solving logic problems and practice oral calculation; if you have difficulties with vocabulary, learn new words, look for word collections for the exam, try to translate several SAT texts, this will help you learn the basic vocabulary.

What to do about mistakes made?

The next step is to analyze each mistake. Just reading the explanations for the mistakes is not enough, try asking yourself the following questions for each mistake you made:
Why did I make this mistake?
What will I do to avoid making the same or similar mistake in the future?

Mark anything that is questionable

When taking SAT tests, mark for yourself any questions that cause you the slightest uncertainty and work through them like the mistakes after you complete the test, even if you have answered them correctly. This will help you avoid a situation where you accidentally guessed the answers to the SAT questions without being completely sure and didn't deal with the question.

Write out the mistakes separately

Try briefly writing out the question and wrong answer on the SAT questions for each mistake in a separate notebook, dividing the mistakes by section of the exam. You can also write there why you made a mistake and how not to make it next time. That way you can review all the wrong answers before the official SAT exam and make sure you don't get it wrong again.

Track your progress

Periodically solve the full test and track your progress. Adjust your SAT preparation if you don't see improvement. This will help you roughly know what's effective and what's not.

Preparing for international exams is a difficult and long process! We wish you good luck and success on your exams! Finally, we've picked up three free online SAT preparation resources for you!

Free Resources

1. KhanAcademy, a site with a nice interface that makes it very easy to solve SAT tests online and track your progress. Your SAT tests are automatically graded and time-limited, making it much easier to prepare. A special group of assignments in all sections is selected for you to practice each day. There's also an essay checker;

2. Prepscholar, a site with tons of SAT preparation articles and tips, and ten official free SAT tests you can print out;

3. CrackSAT.net, a site with lots of past SATs you can print out and practice on.