How to ACE your SAT exam? Part 1: Reading

SAT ... ah ... "THE SAT"

Some of you may view the SAT ( Scholastic Assessment Test ) as a roadblock to getting into your dream school. Some of you may be struggling with the math section or writing section, while the majority (as far as what I've seen) struggle with the Reading section.

READING > WRITING > MATH

(IBSpectrum's Order of Difficulty Spectrum)

Well, I personally struggled with my standardised exams as well. So, here's a few tips that helped me ACE the SAT! One note, please make sure to read this article end to end. And, I mean it. Even if you're scoring perfect 800s on the Math Section, you should read out math tips and you will. We will be starting out with everyone's (least 😅) favourite section ... Reading.

TIPS for Reading:

1. Timings ⏰: With 52 questions in 1 hour and 5 minutes, you approximately have 13 minutes per passage. Personally, I started off taking 10 minutes for reading the text and 3 for answering the questions. But, as I practiced more past papers and became more used to the passages' levels of difficulties, I took about 4-6 (usually 6 minutes for the history ones) for reading the text and the rest for answering the questions. Keep in mind that on test day you end up taking 5-7 more minutes than your timings at home. So, make sure to keep a buffer time to save yourself if the unfortunate event occurs.

1. PRACTICE ... PRACTICE ... PRACTICE: Make sure to practice every single SAT paper. Here is a catalogue of all the past years SAT papers. Here are the official College Board papers: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/practice/full-length-practice-tests. Here are the unofficial SAT papers: https://www.reddit.com/r/SATACTprep/comments/eti4i7/40_official_sat_practice_test_pdfs/. If you have exhausted all the practice papers, make sure to utilise the PSAT papers. They really help to grill down on the fundamentals. Sometimes, make sure to practice one passage for 30 minutes, ensuring that you get each and every answer option correct.

2. Be confident! If you're 100% percent sure a specific word in an answer option is wrong. Eliminate it! Don't second guess yourself. Personally, I usually second-guessed myself and ended up always changing the correct answer to the wrong one.

3. Further help needed?: Trust me! I tried a lot of resources, but the one that really helped is https://1600.io/. For a small price of $20, you get to know the real answer behind why a reading option is wrong. George (founder of 1600.io) really knows what he's doing and provides an explanation for every wrong answer and every right answer. But, keep in mind, that you also have to put in effort.

4. Make sure to catalogue your reading mistakes: I personally used google slides and for every question I (a) got wrong and (b) was not sure of, I wrote it down on the google slide and practiced it before every practice test. Even the night before my real SAT, I just reviewed this google slide.

5. Don't answer till you know why: SAT is a standardised test: This means that there must be ONE correct answer ... only. In other words, rid your mind of what he's doing (⬇️).

Make sure to understand why all the other answer choices are wrong before selecting your correct answer. This is especially helpful when practicing without a time limit and when creating your ppt. Make sure you KNOW the reason why your answer is correct and the others are wrong.

That's 6 tips! And, we're done! Let us know if you would like more help / tips with preparing with the SAT in the comments section below. Though daunting, the reading section just needs a bit of patience, logic, and time. Don't stress! You got this! 😊

Author: Jahnavi Thejo Prakash | @ibspectrum