How to Study for the SAT General Question Exam
The first trick in studying for the SAT general question exam is to understand that it is NOT a test that adequately measures your IQ. Plenty of kids who have been considered dumb as a sack of hammers have scored surprisingly high on the SATs, and there have been any number of class valedictorians who have been shocked to receive their scores. So no matter what your ultimate score turns out to be, don’t take it as any more of an indication of your intelligence than how you do on Jeopardy or Millionaire.
When you prepare to take the SAT general question exam, keep in mind that the SAT and any other standardized test is far more a quiz on your ability to take a test than on any actual knowledge. Of course, it certainly helps if you actually know the material on the test, but independent and completely unscientific experiments have shown that people who train to take a test can do just as good by utilizing their little tricks of the trade as people who are more familiar with the subject of the test. Sad, but true. And remember kids, standardized tests are the best our leaders can come up with in their plan to unleash a newer, more competitive working class out into the global economy. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Okay, here we go, teaching you in 2,000 words or less how to study for the SAT general question exam. And, basically, it all comes down to one simple task. Getting yourself a copy of the prep test. Yep, that’s all there is to it. Well, not all, but it’s the single most important thing you can do.
You see, preparing for the SAT is, as I said, all about preparing for the test. The SAT has specific instructions and layouts. Familiarize yourself. Familiarize yourself with the prep test until you can memorize it. Until you’re so sick of it that you want to wrap it in bacon and grill it over propane and sell it as expensive food to a snooty restaurant.
The instructions you will read with the SAT prep book are exactly the same as you will read when you actually sit down to take the test. (Barring a typo, of course.) I know that seems obvious and like a complete waste of time, but guess what? Many incredibly smart kids, the kind of kids who ruin the curve for everybody else, lose the equivalent of an entire letter grade-or at least the difference between a plus and a minus-because they didn’t read the instructions carefully. And many, many more test-takers lose points because they didn’t read the instructions. And do you know why many of these kids don’t read the instructions? Because they are so incredibly nervous that they just want to get the whole experience over with. Not to mention that by the time these kids get around to take the SAT, most students are already in standardized test overload so they figure they already know the instructions.
Here’s why knowing the instructions in advance will help. In the first place, regardless of how many standardized tests you’ve had to take, each one is slightly different. And let’s face it, even though the philosophy behind the very existence of standardized test is that each taker is equally prepared in each subject at the same age, we all know that’s not true in the slightest. And one of the abilities that we don’t all share equally is the ability to understand instructions. Not everyone is going to understand the instructions on the SAT general question exam the first time they read them. They may not even understand them the second time. By studying the instructions in advance you eliminate the potential for either wasting time by re-reading instructions, or even worse, not fully understanding them and screwing up on the test.
Once you are completely comfortable that you understand the instructions, your next step in preparing for the SAT is to actually take the test. But you have to take it under the same circumstances as you will take it for real. In other words, practice taking the SAT under the exact same timed conditions that you will be taking it for real. Do this just once and then grade yourself. This score will probably be a good indication of which sections you need to study up on. Once you understand where your strengths and weaknesses are, the next step is to concentrate your study on those areas.
This can be accomplished in several ways. For one, there are plenty of SAT study guides available. You can buy them in bookstores or on the web. In addition, there are plenty of web sites that offer SAT-intensive refresher courses. If your prep test scores indicate a serious problem in a certain area, you may even want to consider a tutor.
Is there anything you can do during the actual testing phase that can boost your scores? Remember when I said that experiments had been done to show that a master test-taker could do just as well on a test on unfamiliar material as someone with a general knowledge of the material? Here’s why. First, go through the test to its end and answer those questions you’re sure you know the answer to. Then go back and answer those questions that you’re almost certain of. Don’t even bother with the ones that leave you bewildered during this phase.
After you’ve done that, it’s time to go back to the problematic questions. I’m sure you know the basic rules of standardized testing: things like being suspicious of too many consecutive answers in the same column; like being wary of too many none or all of the above answers; like most answers being in the middle columns to make things difficult for lazy students. In addition, multiple choice answers almost always include two you can immediately eliminate and two that both seem reasonable. When there’s a fifth choice, it typically will be either none or all of the above and there’s a trick to eliminating that as well. Since both of those choice are either/or propositions-either every single choice is right or none of the choices are right-you can determine if that’s the right answer simply by carefully reading over all the other choices. All of the above is usually easier to figure out because you need to find only one thing wrong with the other choices. None of the above is usually trickier because you have to find something wrong with all of the other choices.
And finally, the ultimate tip for taking the SAT. Should you guess and, if so, when? The answer to should is definitely yes. The answer to when is any time you can narrow it down to two or three of the choices. If you are absolutely certain that at least two of the answers are wrong it definitely pays off to guess. Your reward for getting a right answer is greater than your penalty for guessing a wrong answer. So why even take the chance at all? Why not just leave it blank? Because you get nothing for leaving it blank and since the payoff is in your favor for guessing right, there’s no reason not to.
There are only two exceptions to this gambit. The first is when you find yourself guessing too often between three possible answers. It’s okay to do that occasionally, but it’s probably not worth it to keep taking that chance. The second exception is when your guess violates a previous test tip. For instance, if you know for a stone-cold fact that A has been the answer for the last four questions in a row and your guess for the next question is also an A, take the time to look it over again. If you feel confident that your guess is right, go ahead, but if there is any doubt now might be the time to play the odds. The odds of any letter being the choice five times in a row are pretty low. It doesn’t mean it never happens, of course, but it doesn’t happen often.
Well, now you know how to study for the SAT general question exam at least a little better than you did before. I hope, anyway. There’s really not a whole lot you can about the actual information on the test. Either you’re going to know it or not. Preparing for the SAT is really more about studying for how to take a test rather than for what’s on the test. Preparation and relaxation are the keys to doing well. Do your best to avoid anxiety and stress and nerves and you should do just fine.
