Two Undervalued SAT/ACT Muscles

Board Scores strike fear into the hearts of juniors everywhere.

When do you start? What guide do you use? How are you supposed to study for this test that is supposed to test reasoning skills?

And as much as you study, why does it seem like when you actually sit down to take the test that everything you learned falls by the wayside?

This is especially frightening in the wake of Collegeboard’s announcement that they’re adjusting the SAT to better fit today’s students and testing climate.
We don’t know yet what this new SAT is going to look like, but there are two skills that I believe are going to become even more critical with the changes in store.

I speculate that the new SAT is going to look a lot like the ACT. The ACT, believe it or not, is starting to be head honcho in the testing world. The SAT is reacting and changing their test, likely to resemble the ACT.

So back to skills,

Number 1 muscle to build? Time

I’ve said it before, The ACT is a test of time.

Time on the SAT is important, but not a crunch. You have a reasonable amount of time to answer the questions if you keep yourself at a good pace.

But time is about to be of the essence on your sections. A HUGE component of why scores go down between practice and test day are that at home you can fudge the timing. If you have three more questions to answer at home, you can finish them. At a real SAT? You cannot. And that is where so many people screw up, they don’t practice timed, and if they practice timed they don’t start early enough.

 You should start doing your practice sections timed at least two months before the SAT. You should be doing at least one full section of each component a week, and some practice questions as well. Keep those skills up, do every question available to you. Do them timed. You can learn how to take the SAT to the point where there are no questions that are unfamiliar to you. You just have to work hard.

The second muscle to build, and perhaps the most overlooked? Stamina

The SAT is a four-hour academic ordeal. You don’t get a break. You don’t get “the easy part.” You sit and answer questions for 2-4 hours.

You’re going to get tired. Your brain is going to feel like it’s melting. And you need to anticipate that. Most importantly you need to train for that.

How?

Take full tests. Do all four sections (Essay, Math, CR, Writing) in one sitting.  Start doing that at least a month in advance, and do it at least once a week. Once you’ve done the whole ordeal a few times, it will get easier and your brain will stop melting.
And just like when you’re training your body, go the extra mile. Allow yourself one bathroom break. Go to the bathroom and go RIGHT BACK to your test. That is less of a break than you get on the real test. It will help, I promise.

The only thing I can say with the SAT is that practice makes perfect. Its going to take time, tedious, agonizing time. But you need to do it to get the results you want.

So, when it comes to standardized tests, make sure to practice timing and stamina .