The Requirements Of Effective SAT Preparation
Your SAT score is a measure NOT of your absolute performance, but a measure of how you perform relative to other test takers. Hence, taking the SAT is analogous to participating in an athletic event.
Everybody can perform, but some perform better than others.
Your performance will be a function of:
A. Strong Skills In The 3 Rs – The Reading, Writing and Math Literacy That You Bring To The Test
– there is a level of mathematical and reading literacy that is required for a high score. Our course will review the important math concepts. We will also work with you to establish a program and exercises to improve your reading in general and your ability to read SAT questions in particular.
B. Understanding The Question Formats – How Well You Understand Exactly What The Different Question Formats Require Of You
– Although all questions test the Three R’s, different question formats test the Three Rs differently. You need to accurately understand the directions to each of the individual question formats.
C. Understanding The Individual Questions How Well You Understand What The Individual Questions Require Of You
– Many of the individual questions are “problem solving” questions. You need to understand exactly what that individual question is asking you to do. This often involves redefining the question. In fact, there are many questions that are of: “the question is the question variety”.
D. Clear Execution How Well You Use Your Reading, Writing And Math Literacy As Tools To Reason Your Way Through The Individual Questions
– Many test takers “know what to do”, but can’t “do what they know”. They simply don’t know how to proceed. You just use your knowledge as a tool to reason (SAT Reasoning) your way to a solution.
E. Understanding That Multiple Choice Is Your Friend How Well You Play The Multiple Choice Test Games – Eliminating The Wrong Answers And Recognizing The Right Answers
– The vast majority of the questions on the SAT Reasoning Test are “multiple choice”. This is both “Good News” and “Bad News”.
First, The Good News: The right answer is on the page. In some cases (through effective answer choice elimination) you can identify the right answer (even if you could not solve it on your own).
Second, The Bad News: Although the right answer is on the page, you may have trouble identifying it as the answer. This can be for a variety of reasons. For example, math answer choices could appear if a format that is different from your solution. In reading comprehension, the answer choices may not appear as a “cluster of words” that you can relate to.
In any case, a high SAT score requires that you learn how to play the “Multiple Choice Test Game!” People who have trouble with multiple choice tests have usually not learned how to do this.
By improving your multiple choice test taking skills, our course will improvement your academic performance in general.
F. Timing, Pacing, The Role Of Guessing – So, much to do. So little time
Your score is a reflection of your relative performance. Most people can answer most of the questions, if they have enough time. A relative score distribution is possible only when people are put under sever time pressure. This reality ensures:
– you need to learn the correct rate of speed at which to tackle each question type
– Guessing is to select an answer choice when you are not sure of what the answer is. It could be a “blind guess” (you didn’t get to the question). It could mean that you guess after having eliminated some answer choice(s).
– you must learn: when to guess, how to guess, whether to guess
One of our course objectives is to improve your guessing.
G. Perfect Practice – It’s Not Practice That Makes Perfect – It’s Perfect Practice That Makes Perfect
Many people approach SAT preparation by only practicing taking SAT practice tests. This will help you with familiarity and timing. But, it is rarely enough.
You need to practice the execution of specific principles of approach when you do practice tests. You need to practice specific skills. It’s not practice, but perfect practice, that will raise your score.
Our course strongly encourages you to do lots of practice testing. But, our course will teach specific skills to practice! In this way our course will dramatically improve the effectiveness of your home study.