Helpful hints for those about to bury their noses in study guides and sharpen their Number 2 Pencils. It's SAT Prep time again, folks:
SAT Preparation Tips
* Ask for help from everyone you know.
* Get plenty of sleep the night before the test.
* Don't study the night before your test date.
* Pace yourself -- spread your study schedule over a period of at least three weeks.
* The morning of the test, eat a healthy breakfast.
* Get to the testing center early.
* Bring plenty of pencils and a calculator.
* Pace yourself during the test -- answer questions you know right away, save harder questions for later.
To which I must add:
* Work as many practice tests as possible UNDER THE TIME LIMITS. Buy the tests cheaply from the College Board.
* Review all items, so that you understand why you got right answers as well as wrong ones.
* Discount any and all newspaper articles in which "activists" scream about the racial and gender-based "biases" of the exam.
* Discount any and all comments from teachers about how this exam doesn't measure any higher-order thinking, or any blather about how Einstein would have done poorly on the test.
* Bring headphones with soothing music (even if, for you, that means Pantera) to listen to on the ride to the test site, and to listen to during breaks. Whatever you do, don't listen to the hyperanxious students who discuss the test during breaks. They'll only psych you out.
Another SAT prep article can be found here.
Posted by kswygert at October 6, 2003 12:26 PM