Sat Test

Alan Lawrence Sitomer was awarded California’s Teacher of the Year for 2007. He’s developed a website to help you practice and prepare for the SAT. His help is entirely free and I’ve found it to be exception in it’s content and resources. On his website, www.freesatessayprep.com/, you will find some excellent tips on how to prepare for this part of the SAT. If you click on that link, you will find essay prompts for you to practice on. His website says that he has over fifty pages free material to help you get ready for the SAT exam.

He also says that there is no need to BS your way through the essay part of the SAT if you are prepared and know what to expect. Don’t use big words if you aren’t sure of their meaning. If you finish early, don’t sit there and look around to see what everyone else is doing, you should be proof reading your essay. If you’ve been writing quickly, then you may have missed inserting a word or left out a comma or a period. Proof Proof Proof! It’s important and will make a world of difference in your score. Check and double check. You won’t be sorry.

Your handwriting won’t count, but you also have to remember that if the person scoring your essay can’t read your writing, there is no way he can score it. Legibility is a must.

Another great website to help you prepare for the SAT essay is www.collegeboard.com I know I’ve mentioned this website before because this is where you’ll go to register to take the SAT itself. They have free practice essay prompts and as always they have the SAT books and courses you can purchase to help you learn more about the essays and how to write them to your best advantage.

After the essay portion of the SAT you will be given a 35 minute multiple choice section. In this segment of the Writing portion you will be asked to answer questions on improving sentences, identifying sentence errors and improving paragraphs.

In my next blog post I’ll explain more about each of these three sections and how you can maximize your potential score. The more you know, the better your score!

In my last blog post I gave you the definitions of some SAT vocabulary words and discussed ways that you could enhance and optimize your study efforts. I talked about using flash cards, writing the words and the definitions down as well as vocalizing the vocabulary words. All these study methods are good, but not all of them may work for you. You know you best. You know how you learn, so use the way that works best for you.

One method I didn’t talk about was group study. You don’t have to have a large group, perhaps simply get together with a friend who is as determined as you are about getting a high SAT score and quiz each other. You could use the flash cards on each other. Make a game of it by saying whoever gets the highest amount of words and definitions correct has to buy the other a milkshake. Or if you’re practicing against a sibling, you could offer to do their chores for the week. This will give you an added incentive to learn the words and win the game.

If you asked, I would imagine even your mom or dad would also help you with the flash cards.

You can purchase flash cards or make them yourself. You don’t even have to use flash cards if you don’t want to, but you must find some way to study that will help you memorize these words.

Now, let’s talk about another part of the SAT that you’ll need to study up on. It’s called the Writing section.

The SAT begins with this section of the exam. You’ll be asked to write a 25 minute essay on a subject that that will give you. They will ask you to develop a point of view about the topic and then give examples to support your point of view and/or opinion. Don’t worry about polishing up your essay too awfully much. They know they’re giving you less than half an hour to write this, so they aren’t expecting perfection. It’s supposed to be more like a first draft.

How do you practice for writing an essay? You’ve probably written a lot of essays during your years of school. Draw on the skills you’ve learned there. First of all, make sure you read the instructions very carefully. Once you understand everything that is asked of you, and then read the subject paragraph. Take a moment or two to think about how you feel about this subject. Decide what point of view to take and then begin. Make certain that you can give clear and precise examples of just why you’re taking this point of view. You may use examples from your own life, from your experiences or from your studies. Make sure that these examples support your point of view.

Use the best grammar and conventional English that you can. As I said before, do the best you can in the time given. Use the space allowed on your answer sheets and don’t make your writing overly large, or make wide margins on the paper. This might impact your ability to finish the essay and have enough room for all the things you want to say. These essays are graded by high school and college teachers. Each essay is graded by two separate teachers and they are scored from 1-6, with 6 being the highest score.

Remember also to use a pencil on the essay portion of the SAT. Any essay written in ink will receive an automatic zero. You’ve worked too long and too hard to make that kind of a mistake. As always, learn the most you can about this part of the test