How to Study for the Scholastic Aptitude Test
The Scholastic Aptitude Test or SAT examination is one of the hardest exams that any student will take in his or her lifetime. the SAT exam is the most comonly used standard of comparison that colleges use to accept students in the admissions process into their school The score that a child receives on the SAT exam can make or break the dream school for that child. Despite any high school average you might get or recomendation letters, students who do poorly on the Scholastic Aptitude Test will find themselves attending less prestigious schools than they had originally intended on attending for college. That is why it is so important to study for the SAT exam.
The best methods of studying for the SAt exam are to hire a private tutor or take group courses from a Test Prep course such as Kaplan or Princeton reveiw. These two orgainzations have been around for so many years that they know the ins and outs of the SAT exam and helpful tricks for students to get the answers right on the exam.
Students should study for the SAT exam for as many weeks and months as possible. Cramming should never be done in regard to the SAT exam.
In past years the SAT exam contained a total perfect score of 1600 points. Now that score has been changed to 2400 as being the score of perfection on the exam. The reasons for the change in the total score are not clear. However the score of 2400 tests verbal, math and writing skills on the exam. Thus the exam is broken up into three parts. The first two are the standard math and English section while the third part is the writing essay component.
Some schools disregard the essay part because they feel that it is almost impossible to grade an essay. On most occassions, two different SAT graders would give the same child different scores on the essay which caused anger among students and parents.
The verbal section of the SAT exam is made up of essays that contain passages on science, math or history subjects. Most of the essays studetns have to read during the exam and dull and boring.
Some great tips for answering questions are to read the first paragraph of the essay and then read each introductory sentence in each paragraph to get a good idea of the message that the author is trying to convey. This will get you the main idea and big picture of the essay which are common questions students are asked on the exam. When you are asked a question having to do with a detail from the passage, look at the line that the question asks you to look at. Read that line as well as the previous and following sentence to get a good idea of the answer of the question. This will also help you answer definition questions. Thus you can answer most or all of the questions without waisting valuable time reading the entire essay.
The math section of the exam is difficult but if you are good at answering math questions, consider yourself lucky. Still there are tricks that you can learn to help you answer the question. The best technique is to draw diagrams which will help you answer the qustion. Also eliminate any answers which are obviously wrong. For most of the math section you will have to study from a review book to learn how to asnwer the questions on the exam. Many of the math questions try to trick or trap you so read the question carefully.
