How To Self Prepare For SAT
Wondering how to self prepare for SAT is a common question that comes up. It boils down to college application requirements and scholarships. Over the past year, we have seen more and more colleges becoming test-optional and reasons for SAT tutoring are dwindling. If we are to prepare for SAT to get more scholarships should the cost of SAT test prep really strain my finances even more? Should you do private tutoring for SAT?
Well, this all comes down to your personal preference. Do you think you are able to sit down and read SAT prep books? Can you sit through an SAT test prep course? If you are the type of student that can muscle through it, retain the information, and need little study skills guidance, then self-study is a great way to prepare for SATs. However, private tutoring for SAT provides a qualified instructor who knows exactly what you need to work on and how to work on it. You still have to do the work, but there is more guidance. In our opinion, if none of your top college picks require standardized testing, try self-studying first. Let’s dive into how to self prepare for SAT!
Reading Test
Before we dive into how to self-prepare for SAT reading test and writing and language test, let’s talk about our thoughts about each of these exams. This way, our recommendations for self-SAT test prep makes sense. The SAT reading test is a reading comprehension timed test. The key part here is that the test is timed. Unless you are a really fast reader, your self-SAT tutoring should be focused on understanding strategies that speed up your timing. We do acknowledge that the SAT allows for more time than the ACT, but SAT is notoriously known for long winded, confusing passages.
With that in mind, we would recommend understanding question types and apply test-taking strategies in your self-SAT test prep. With that in mind, I would recommend The Critical Reader by Erica Meltzer. We have used Meltzer’s material since the new SAT came out a few years ago and it has never failed our students. It provides most of the in-depth question- based strategies that we talk about, provides great SAT test prep questions, and even gives you the exact questions to practice on the real SAT. After you run through some self-SAT tutoring with Meltzer’s book, you will want to test those strategies on a real practice SAT test. That wraps up our suggestions for how to self-prepare for SAT reading test.
Writing And Language Test
In order to self-prepare for the SAT writing and language test, you will want to understand this test. It exams the students’ fundamental knowledge of grammar and their ability to work through questions that look odd. To prepare for SAT writing and language test, you have to understand grammar rules so well that you recognize a rule even when it looks off. In order to self-SAT test prep for this section, you want to understand the 20 or so SAT grammar topics and remember the strategies and rules behind them. This way when you are taking practice exams, you can read the question, recognize the topic, remember the strategies, and use them to help you work through the confusing grammar that is presented. Self-SAT tutoring for this section is actually the most straightforward as long as you have a good plan and study skills put in place. For this section, we would again recommend Erica Meltzer’s Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar. Erica’s book provides all of the grammar topics needed for the self-SAT test prep. However, we think the most important resources are the realistic practice exams provided in this book. That concludes this section of how to self-prepare for SAT writing and language test.
Both Math Sections
How to self-prepare for SAT math can be very difficult. There are two strategies that come to mind. This depends on your fundamental math knowledge and how much time you have set aside to prepare for SAT math portion. Both of the SAT math sections depend on the application of fundamental math concepts. This makes SAT tutoring for math either really easy or really hard, depending on whether you have a strong math foundation. Now self-SAT tutoring for math is not impossible if you are not good at math, you should just allocate more time for it. We would recommend using any SAT math test book to review the concepts. For the ones that you don’t understand, check out Khan academy’s math lectures as they provide step by step on math problems. If you need more practice during your self-SAT test prep journey for math, we always recommend using Kuta Software worksheets as those questions and answers. After you run through a SAT test prep book for math and some Kuta Software worksheets, you should feel pretty comfortable. The last step of your self-prepare for SAT math would be to take the real test. When you take the real test, note the questions that you are unsure about and the questions you got wrong – some of your correct answers might just be lucky guesses. From there, review your strategies for those types of questions and practice more Kuta Software worksheets. If you are confident in your math abilities, you can skip all of the SAT test prep books and worksheets and jump right into the real test. If you don’t do well on the first test, it might be a good idea to prepare for SAT math by first going over the concepts and worksheets.
Happy Compromise With A Good Online Course
At EFC, we help our students self-prepare for SAT with our online course. Our SAT test prep online course has in-depth videos that will cover all of the fundamental concepts and strategies needed for each section including the essay. However, what is even better is that our SAT test prep online course includes in-depth explanations of each of the questions on the 10 official SAT practice exams. Whenever you sign up for a month of our SAT test prep course, we will meet with you for 30 minutes to understand your timeline and help you come up with a game plan to best utilize our course. We also understand that during this time of self-preparing, you might have some questions. Our SAT test prep platform allows you to book private tutoring for SAT with a coach that specializes in the problems you are having. Try our self-prepare for SAT course and master the SAT’s for college and scholarships while staying within your budget.
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