College is important for many reasons. A college degree will lessen your risk of facing unemployment while boosting your happiness.
As a college graduate, it’ll also be very easy for you to land a stable job, climb up the professional ladder, and improve the quality of your life.
Being a college graduate can become your ticket to doing more in life, but before you can study in a college or university, you need to prepare for the SATs first.
The SAT, or Scholastic Aptitude Test, is a standardized exam given to all upcoming college freshmen students to assess their readiness for college.
The score you’ll gain from the SAT can affect your admission to the best universities in the world—the higher your score is, the more universities you can choose from.
Start your college life on the right foot by preparing for the SATs, and here’s how you can do it:
1. Take A Practice Test
For you to make the most out of your prep courses for the SAT, you should start by taking practice tests first.
The results of your practice tests will serve as your baseline and help you determine your weak points.
Do you need to improve your vocabulary? Or, should you focus more on your math drills?
By taking practice tests, you’ll come up with answers to these questions and streamline your efforts as you’re preparing for your SAT.
2. Get A Private Tutor
Aside from buying prep courses for the SAT, getting a private tutor can also help. Tutors can provide a personalized approach as they can implement customized lessons based on your preferred learning style and needs.
Tutors can also provide on-the-spot feedback on your performance, making it very easy for you to improve moving forward.
With a tutor, you can save time and effort from studying topics or lessons that you’ve already mastered. For example, if you’re already adept in sentence completion, but need improvement in geometry, your tutor will adjust your lesson plan to better suit your current needs.
A private tutor can also provide schedule flexibility, so you won’t have to sacrifice your other responsibilities as you’re studying.
3. Read Nonfiction Materials
The SAT is very heavy on reading. You’ll be required to answer questions based on lengthy and dense passages.
As long as you’re able to get the gist of these passages, it’ll be very easy for you to answer questions.
However, because the SAT is a time-bound exam, you’ll need to make the most out of your time reading and ensure that you actually understand the passages within a limited period of time
To ensure that your brain doesn’t run out of energy to understand long passages, practice by reading nonfiction materials.
This should be done months before the SAT because your ‘reading brain’ doesn’t develop overnight.
You need to read nonfiction materials as early as possible, so you won’t have any problems understanding long passages on the actual SAT.
4. Brush Up On Your Grammar
Mastering the basic rules of English grammar is essential for every student. Mastering grammar will make it very easy for you to express your thoughts, both in oral and written forms.
However, if you want to ace your SAT, it’s not enough that you rely on the grammar skills you have right now. See to it that you brush up on this area and go back to the basics again.
While learning the basics of grammar again might be time-consuming, you should still do it as this can become your key to earning a good score on your SAT.
The following tips can help you brush up on your grammar for your upcoming SAT:
- Get a grammar manual and consult this material whenever you’re reading or writing.
- Practice often by using online platforms that allow you to take on grammar exercises and games.
- Have someone assess your grammar. The comments of instructors, writing tutors, and writing lab staff can do wonders in improving your grammar.
5. Never Cram
Cramming is never a good idea when studying. Sure, it might feel like you’re retaining information when studying, but, in reality, cramming can only do more harm than good.
Cramming can cause high levels of anxiety and fear, making it very challenging for you to retain and remember information.
If you don’t want all of your time and effort in studying for the SAT to go down the drain, don’t cram, study ahead of time, and review several times a week.
This technique will enable you to learn faster and re-expose yourself to information that you attempted to learn in the past.
Take the Time to Study
Taking the SATs is an important phase of your college life, which is why you should exert time and effort in preparing for it.
Ideally, you should spend three months studying for your SAT.
However, if you can spend more time, the better.
