Sat Test

Let’s say you like to read, in fact you read a lot. You even read things you don’t have to read for school. Studies have shown that people who love to read have better writing and vocabulary skills than people who don’t read. This means that you’ve already got a step up on the competition. Reading is great, but there is more you need to do to prepare for the vocabulary section of the SAT.

There are various ways to prepare for this part of the SAT. I know everyone goes to the Internet for information now. If you go to Google and type in SAT vocabulary, you will come up with a stunning 2,030,000 results. Over two million sites to visit for SAT vocabulary information at your fingertips!

The question you want to ask yourself is where to start? One of the best resources can be found right where you register for the SAT. It’s The College Board at www.collegeboard.com

At The College Board you will find all the information you need to learn about different aspects of the SAT, including a really great way to memorize the vocabulary that will be used on the exam. You can sign up to get SAT vocabulary in your email box each day. There are also sample SAT questions on the vocabulary section for you to take to test your skill. These questions will not only give you the correct answer, it will explain just why the answer is what it is, so you will better understand how words fit together.

This is also a good way to see just how the SAT questions will look on the actual SAT test. If you set up a free account at the College Board, you can take a sample SAT test, as well as take sample SAT questions daily and track your results. This way you can see exactly how you’re scoring and what areas you may need to focus on for improvement.

As always, there are things you can purchase to help you prepare for the SAT. For about $70 you can buy the Official SAT Online Course™. If you’re like me, and don’t have extra money just lying around, then there are other ways to prepare and study for the SAT that won’t break the bank. I’ll talk about those ideas and other ways to get your vocabulary skills where they need to be for the SAT in my next few blog posts. Stay tuned!

In my previous blog posts I’ve talked about how to prepare for college and some of the things that you’ll need to do. In my very last post, I talked about the SAT and what it is, how to sign up for it and a few aspects of the exam that you need to know about. Now you know about the Reasoning portion of the SAT, which includes knowing a lot of vocabulary, reading paragraphs for comprehension and then doing some comparisons of two pieces, and being able to intelligently discuss an author’s style as well as the points the author makes in the paragraph and what assumptions are made.

Think you’re ready for this? You are? Well go you! However, if you’re like me, then you want to do a bit more preparing and studying and maybe even praying. (I find that never hurts!)

As I’ve said before, the SAT is a standardized test that colleges look at when you are applying for admission. Normally you want to take the SAT in your junior year of high school. This gives you time to retake the test if your score isn’t as high as you’d hoped. This also means that you need to start doing some preliminary planning and thinking about your future before you hit your junior year.

So now it’s time for you to take the SAT test. That feeling in the pit of your stomach? Get used to it. It’s called Test Anxiety and unless you do something to prepare for the SAT it’s only going to get worse. Trust me, it doesn’t get better by ignoring it, like my friend Rocky did. Besides skipping a lot of classes and text messaging his friends through the rest of them, he also had a unique way of preparing to take the SAT exam.

Test prep? What test prep? Rocky’s idea of test prep was to go out partying all night before the SAT, then go eenie meenie miney moe on the multiple choice questions and sleep through the essay part. Yeah, that went well. You guessed it, Rocky ended up going to community college before he gave that up for the fast paced and lucrative life of asking customers if they wanted to supersize their orders. If you’re like me, then you might not know what you want to be when you grow up, but you know what you don’t want to be doing. Sometimes just having made that decision is a huge first step.

Don’t be like my friend Rocky. You’re smarter than that and there are so many study aids out there to help you as you prepare to take the SAT exam that you won’t have to go into the test unsure of what’s going on.

When I was a sophomore in high school I made plans to go to a good university and I’d managed somehow to keep my GPA high enough to be an honors student. Now all I really needed was a stunning SAT score to get into the school of my choice.

This meant I needed to bone up on a few things. The one aspect of the test that I was really concerned about was the vocabulary. I was a voracious reader in high school, so my vocabulary was fairly extensive, or so I thought. Have you seen the words they use on the SAT? No? Well it’s a good thing you’re reading this blog then. I’m going to talk about the vocabulary aspect of the SAT in my next blog and how you can improve your skills so that you can ace the test!

You’re going to college!! There are a lot of things to do to prepare yourself for this exciting new chapter in your life. College life can be thrilling and demanding and stressful; preparing for college life can give you all those same emotions. There are a lot of things you will need to do in order to fill out all the little boxes on your admission forms and all of that work has to be done while you’re still in high school. Don’t worry; you won’t have to navigate these waters alone. You have an amazing number of resources at your fingertips. You have your parents, your high school counselor and even older brothers or sisters who have traveled this route before will have answers to some of your questions. You also have me! Lucky you!

In my last post I talked about the SAT and why you need to take it. Now I’d like to give you more in-depth information about this exam.

There are different parts of the SAT, the Reasoning test and the Subject test. First I’ll discuss the different aspects of the two exams and in a later blog I’ll help you find ways to prepare yourself for each part of the SAT. There are a great many aids out there to help you study for the SAT, including books and the Internet. Now let’s talk about the two part of the SAT you’ll be taking.

Reasoning Test

The Reasoning part of the SAT exam consists of questions designed to test your critical thinking skills, how you well you are able to analyze and solve problems. This will show a college or university how well you think things through and is an indicator of how well you will do as a college freshman in your academic studies. You’ve worked and studied your way to the 12th grade, so by now you should have learned the skills necessary to score well on this part of the exam.

The Critical Reading portion of the SAT consists of sentence completion and reading comprehension.

The sentence completion portion of the SAT tests your knowledge of what words mean, and how well you understand how different parts of a sentence fit together. You’ll be given a sentence with two words or one word left out. There will be various answers below with words that might fit into the sentence. I’ll explain more on how you can study up for this part of the SAT in a later blog post.

During the reading comprehension part of the Critical Reading test, you will be asked to read passages of varying lengths, from about 100 to about 850 words. The paragraphs you’ll be reading will be taken from a variety of different topics and in various styles of writing. Some parts of this section will have you read two paragraphs about the same topic and you will be required to compare and contrast the sections. This is where your critical thinking skills will come into play.

Your skills in vocabulary will also be assessed during this section of the SAT. You will be asked to give the meanings of words in the context of the paragraphs they are in. This means you must have an excellent vocabulary in order to have a high score. We’ll talk more about how to achieve an SAT vocabulary in another blog post.

You will be asked to answer questions regarding literal comprehension of things stated directly in a section. One section will quiz you on your ability to understand and analyze various aspects of the assumptions and techniques used by the author.

Don’t panic. Most of these skills are things you’ve already learned in high school, and I’ll show you how you can optimize your chances of getting an impressive score in my next couple of blog posts.

We’ve discussed preparing yourself for college by taking the SAT (more about that later), keeping a high G.P.A., taking Advanced Placement classes and even taking college classes through the Running Start program. We’ve also talked about being a well rounded student, joining clubs, and taking care of yourself physically and mentally. All of these things will help in your preparations for taking the SAT exam, which is an exam that all colleges and universities use as an indicator as to how well you will perform as a college freshmen, and the score you receive impacts your admission chances. If you’re planning on going to college, taking the SAT is a must for you.

The SAT Exam

Today, I’m going to discuss the SAT exam. As I said before, most colleges and universities across the nation require your SAT score as part of your admission application. The SAT is a test taken by high school juniors and seniors, administered by The College Board (www.collegeboard.com). It’s given seven times a year, so you can choose the best time for you to take it. High school juniors usually take the test in the spring. If they’re not happy with the score they receive they can retake the exam in the fall of their senior year in order to have their results in time to make college application deadlines.

The exam itself consists of two parts: the SAT Reasoning Tests™, and the SAT Subject Tests™.

The test is timed, and takes three hours and forty-five minutes. Students are required to write a 20 minute essay as part of the SAT exam. There is also a 25 minute experimental section given to all students taking the SAT. This section is not scored. These questions can include critical reading, writing or math. In this part of the exam they try out new questions for the SAT tests to see how well they are received by the students and how well these new questions work. The section that doesn’t count is given somewhere in the middle of the exam, so

The essay questions are always the first part of the exam, and the multiple choice section will always be given last. The other sections are given in the middle and this includes the 25 minute experimental non-scored section.

Nothing is free in this life, and you will have to pay to take the SAT exam. The test currently costs around $63 to take, but the price changes. Make sure you check with the College Board for their fees. You can register for the exam by going online to www.collegeboard.com, or by calling 1-866-756-7346. There are also fees if you change the date of your test or need to have more test results sent to different schools. The College Board currently includes four tests results in the cost of taking the test.

In my next blog post I’ll talk about the different parts of the SAT exam so you won’t have any surprises as you begin this journey.