Scholastic aptitude test is an examination for college and university degree program applicants that the College Board publishes to test their readiness for what they are applying.

SAT can help in acceptance to your favorite college, but if you falter, it will reduce chances of admission. It is essential to prepare in advance for you to perform well and outpace your peers. These tips will enable you to prepare and get a good score.

Read SAT specific content

Read on unfamiliar subject matters and articles while stopping to identify the arguments by the writer after covering a few paragraphs. It will help you with comprehension passages. As you read, note the unfamiliar words to enhance your knowledge of vocabulary which helps to increase the SAT score even when you get a passage with the complex subject matter.

Prepare some flashcards that you can use to study vocabulary when you get some few free minutes. Expanding vocabulary helps you to tackle sentence completion questions and reading comprehension better because of you the meaning of the words in the passage.

Define the SAT test structure

SAT questions are in ascending order according to difficulty except for the critical reading section. Questions at the beginning are easier so you can allocate the least time you answer them. When you respond fast, you will devote enough time to the hard questions at the end.

Although the critical reading questions are not in the order of difficulty, you can define an answering strategy. You may for example answer detail-oriented questions that refer to line numbers before the general questions on the passage. As you answer the detail-oriented question, your mastery of the passage will increase. It will prepare you to answer broader questions quickly.

Take many practice tests

Taking tests is the best way of preparing for SAT. Take a timed, full-length practice test weekly or fortnightly. Practice tests increase your endurance and help in keeping track of the progress. It also increases your test-taking pace so that you do not have problems with timing and exhaustion when taking the real exam. Evaluate the performance and target your subsequent preparations to the weakest areas. Familiarity with the various section of SAT, instructions, and structure will allow you to have extra minutes to answer the questions as you know what to do at every stage.

Practice to use the calculator

Teachers may insist on mental math, but SAT requires extensive use of a calculator. Mastery of your calculator helps you to calculate faster and prevent careless errors. Learn to type tricky equations such as [(15+29)/2] ^5 much as you can and familiarize with shortcuts like those that display decimalized answers as fractions. Memorize all the formulas and rules to avoid time loss when trying to figure out how you will calculate an equation. Everything you learn will increase your pace and simplify answering on the SAT day.

Study how multiple choice questions can work to your advantage

SAT is mostly a multiple choice test except for the essay and a few math grid-ins. You can use the multiple choice option to your advantage by for example switching you mind to grammatical concepts when you notice that the writing section has questions about an error and improving sentences.

For math multiple choices, you can plug answer choices back to the equation in the questions to quickly identify the error you should be anticipating. When you find errors, it gives you the motivation to test other choices with the reassurance that the elimination will lead to the correct option.

If you have no idea to tackle a question, skip and solve the problems that you can to avoid wasting time. If you narrow down to two multiple choice answers but cannot determine the correct one, it is wiser to guess and proceed to other questions rather than waste time on one question.

Write many practice essays as you can

The essay is the first 25-minute long section of SAT, and it is not easy to write on an unfamiliar subject within this time. Write many practice essays to learn planning, writing and proofreading within the 25 minutes. Essay practice test will help you to come up with appropriate timing reading prompt, brainstorming ideas, outlining, actual writing and proofreading. Perfect your grammar, argumentation, structuring, and choice of a thesis. SAT graders do not want ambiguity hence you should find unambiguous theses with two to three relevant supporting examples and a conclusion that concisely restates the main argument. The backup examples for you thesis can come from various areas such as science, literature, recent events, history or personal experience.

When you prepare adequately for SAT, it will be simple to tackle questions on the test day. Start practicing early so that you have best skills and alertness on the big day.