SAT Tips for a Better Score

Photo by Julia M Cameron

Succeeding on a challenging standardized test like the SAT is a combination of knowledge and strategy. Yes, you’ll need to “know things” to get a good score, but you also need to know how to take the test. And it's the strategy piece that is often needed to take someone from a 1350 score to a 1530+ score. But regardless of where you’re starting from, these SAT tips and tricks can help you.

SAT Tips and Tricks

1. Consider which test you’re best suited for. Before you even begin test prep, determine if you’re better suited for the SAT or ACT. Consider a mock exam for both to see how you do.
2. Start prepping early. Many of our students aim to be done with the SAT by January of their junior year (11th grade) so they can turn their attention to AP Tests in the spring and focus solely on college admissions their senior year (12th grade). If that’s the case, you want to start prepping as a sophomore (10th grader) to be ready to do well on the exam in the summer between 10th and 11th grade (June or August dates), as well as perform well on the PSAT in October of 11th grade.
3. Take the test several times. We recommend taking the test three times, though you’re certainly able to take it more if you so choose. If, as we suggested above, you want to be done by December of your junior year (11th grade), we’d suggest taking the August, October, and December exams. There’s no magic or “insider knowledge” for these months, but we find it’s a good cadence for students.

SAT Math Tips

Before Test Day

Learn to do less math. This sounds counterintuitive and maybe even downright silly, but when answering SAT math questions, you want to try to do as little math as possible so that you can move through the questions quickly. Unlike in your math classes, there is no benefit to showing your work. What you really want to learn to do is identify the type of question and move immediately into solving it based on the strategies you’ve learned during your SAT prep (P.S. - this is all covered in our SAT tutoring). Our Desmos-specific class will teach you to use the calculator to solve problems in as little as 30 seconds. These same questions would take 5+ minutes otherwise.

Know Your Algebra. Don’t worry about Pre-Calc. By the time you take the SAT, most students are heavily into pre-calc or calculus in school. Since the SAT is a test that primarily focuses on testing how you think (rather than what you know, like the ACT), it is not concerned with testing advanced math skills. Rather, roughly 33% of SAT scores are just knowing linear equations. That doesn’t mean the questions won’t be challenging, but it's much more likely that the way they ask the question is the challenge, rather than the actual mathematical concept.

On Test Day

Use Desmos but don’t overuse it. It’s less important to know if you can find an answer using Desmos, and more important to know when to use it. Plenty of math problems could be solved on a calculator, but will take more time than necessary to solve by doing so.

Don’t guess. Now that the SAT is digital and adaptive, it knows when you’re guessing. And it knows about how long it should take you to solve a problem. If you read the question, realize you have no idea how to solve it, and guess within 3 seconds, it usually knows you’ve guessed and doesn’t even count a right answer towards your score.

SAT Reading Tips

We’re going to start out with a little bit of bad news: one of the most negatively impacted skills during Covid was verbal memory. This means many students failed to get the necessary vocabulary building - and to retain that vocabulary - during the “Covid years”. And studies suggest they’ve never really recovered. We don’t want that to panic you, however; instead, we’re supplying you with insider SAT tips so that you can make up for lost time and feel empowered to tackle the SAT Reading and Writing sections with ease.

Before Test Day

Read a minimum of 25 pages a day. Choose sources with challenging sentence structure and advanced vocabulary. Non-fiction, especially, is highly beneficial. We perennially recommend The Science Times, The Economist, and The Atlantic. Get the newest edition weekly or monthly from the library if you prefer not to purchase a subscription. And if you want to stick with fiction, choose challenging authors, both modern and classic. Consider writers like Cormac McCarthy, Margaret Atwood, or Joan Didion for contemporary fiction, or choose a classic like Lord of the Flies, Ulysses, or The Count of Monte Cristo.

Photo by Perfecto Capucine

Read on paper or e-reader. Is this an absolute must? No. But studies show that reading a physical book or periodical improves retention and focus as you’re less likely to be interrupted by a notification or self-distract in another app. Because memory is very tied to visual elements, there’s also research to suggest that the simple act of turning pages aids in memory formation. E-readers are a grey area, but we like them at Ivy Tutors Network because they allow you to easily look up the definition of words while you’re reading by highlighting the word. They may be a better bet for books than magazines, however, as periodicals do not always work well on e-readers.

Do the reading in your advanced courses. If you’re in AP Language and Composition, Honors Literature, etc, simply doing the reading (and not letting ChatGPT do it for you!) can dramatically impact your SAT scores. By their very nature these courses will introduce you to challenging material that not only improves your vocabulary, but your critical thinking and comprehension skills, which are also tested on the SAT. And they’ll very likely get you to your 25-pages-a-day goal!

On Test Day

Read the question first. Never start with the passage. One of the hallmarks of students that get a perfect score in the Reading and Writing section is that they read in this way:

• Question first.
• Passage second, with the question in mind.
• Look at the answer options and begin to eliminate options.
• Select the correct answer from the remaining options.

You’re saving yourself precious time by doing it this way, and you’re priming your brain to read for the necessary information.

Identify the type of question. In our SAT tutoring program we ensure that all students can identify the major question types and give them strategies for each of those questions. If you study in this manner, it’s easy to see when questions or passages are using complex syntax to try and trick you, for instance, and not be fooled by it. Knowing the question type also allows for you to move more quickly through the material, which is crucial. The SAT might have more time per question than the ACT, but 70 seconds is still not a lot of time.

Don’t guess. Just like the math section, the SAT platform knows when you haven’t taken enough time to answer the question, and won’t count it towards your score if they think you’ve guessed.

How to Prepare for the SAT

The best way to prepare for the SAT is to actually prepare. Simply arriving on test day and hoping for the best is unlikely to result in the score you want. The SAT tips and tricks above are great starting points, but they’re not all there is to it. At Ivy Tutors Network we highly recommend starting with a diagnostic test. A mock exam that simulates the real thing, a diagnostic test gives you a baseline score and identifies the best use of your time when studying. Then, actually study areas of weakness. We’re huge fans of our SAT prep program, and we don’t just think that’s biased: our students average a 160 point improvement, with some students improving by 400 points or more! Join our SAT test prep today to be prepared for test day.