5 More SAT Prep Tips For The 2016, Redesigned New SAT

There is a lot of trepidation around the New SAT. However, I have good news for you. The New SAT is easier than ever to prepare for. Here are 5 tips to help you prepare. You can also join my 6-week Online SAT Class that starts this weekend to learn 95 more strategies by enrolling here.

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(1) SAT General Strategy – Follow the 1,000 Question Rule: To really excel, you should practice with 1,000 SAT questions. You should also review those 1,000 SAT questions. Just as critical as the practice itself is understanding why you got certain questions incorrectly and what you can do next time to make sure you don’t get similar problems incorrectly. The College Board only has a limited number of concepts and question types it can ask you on the SAT. If you practice and review 1,000 questions, you will be sufficiently prepared for test day. 

(2) SAT Math Strategy: SAT – Substitute Abstract (with) Tangibles – To avoid doing algebra on the SAT, create your own numbers (tangibles) to plug-in for variables (abstracts). This strategy is applicable to algebra, geometry, proportions, etc. Our minds prefer working with tangibles (numbers) over abstracts (variables). 2 is often a simple and easy number to plug-in.

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(3) SAT Reading Strategy: Watch Out For Extreme Language – Extreme answer choices are typically incorrect on SAT Reading. Test question writers must be able to defend why correct answers are correct. Answer choices with milder language are easier to defend than answer choices with extreme language. Here are some examples of extreme language:

-all
-always
-completely
-entirely
-every
-everyday
-everyone
-everything
-never
-none
-only
-throughout history
-throughout the ages
-totally
-unique

Answer choices that include the words and phrases above are generally incorrect on the SAT.

(4) SAT Writing Strategy: Watch Out For 99% Wrong Words & Phrases – There are certain words and phrases that are almost always (99% of the time) incorrect on the SAT grammar section, including:

-being
-for the reason
-is because
-is the reason why
-is why

The above are typically incorrect because they create passive voice or redundancy issues.

(5) SAT Essay Strategy – CREW SAID: Although the essay section is technically optional, many competitive colleges will require students to submit their New SAT score with the essay. The New SAT requires students to write an analysis essay based on an argumentative passage that they read. To have a competitive advantage over other students on the SAT Essay, use the acronym CREW SAID to recall eight common argumentative tools that authors use to support their arguments. By analyzing the SAT Essay passage using CREW SAID, you take a lot of the guesswork out of determining how the author will build his or her argument on test-day.

C – Contrast – when an author highlights differences between two items
R – Repercussions – when an author points out the far-reaching consequences of his/her argument
E – Emotion – when an author attempts to make an emotional appeal to the reader
W – Word Choice – when an author purposefully uses certain language in order to build his or her argument

S – Similarity – when an author highlights similarities between two items
A – Authority – when an author cites an expert or influencer to add clout to his or argument
I – Imagery – when an author paints a picture using words
D – Data – when an author uses statistics or numerical evidence

The above represents just 5 of the 100 strategies that we teach in our New SAT courses at Prep Expert (formerly 2400 Expert). You can also join my 6-week Online SAT Class that starts this weekend to learn 95 more strategies by enrolling here.

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