Your Best Tool on the SAT and ACT Plus, 7 Ways to Make the Most of It
COVID-19 Series The Princeton Review
Hi, everyone.
I’m Rob Franek, Editor-in-Chief at The Princeton Review.
Many of you may be preparing for the SAT and ACT this fall.
And it probably feels like the stakes are high: Even if your prospective colleges went
test-optional—in some cases, especially if your prospective colleges went test-optional—you
may be planning for a strong performance on the SAT or ACT to help you stand out when
you’re being evaluated for admissions and financial aid.
And all the more so if your classes have been pass/fail this past spring.
The stakes may also feel high because you’re likely to get just one chance to take the
test, given social-distancing requirements that have limited test-center capacity this
season.
Before we cover what you can do to maximize your score, let me reassure you that if you
can’t take the tests, and your prospective colleges are test-optional, you will not be
penalized.
Taking them can help you, but not taking them won’t hurt you.
That’s a silver lining if ever there was one.
So, to get ready, you’ll of course want to prep for the SAT and ACT.
Check out our livestreams right here on YouTube, and make a good plan for the day before the
big test.
But for the test itself, there’s just one tool that’ll do you more good than anything
else.
And I’m not going to say your brain, but that one’s really important too.
It’s your pencil.
This may seem obvious, but hear me out: There are a few ways that you should be using your
pencil that you may not be—and a few places in which you should be using it more.
Number 1: You should be using your pencil on the verbal sections way more than you probably
already are.
Mark what the questions are asking.
Underline the evidence for the answer in the Reading passages.
Circle the key words for English or Writing and Language.
Do your thinking on the page, not just in your head.
Number 2: You should be using your pencil more on the Math sections where you are allowed
to use a calculator.
You heard that right.
One of the skills that the test makers are assessing is your ability to know how and
when to use a calculator.
On some of the questions, a calculator can actually slow you down!
If a question just requires simple calculations, use your pencil!
Number 3: Remember that pencils are especially great for doing work with fractions, which
can get really long really fast when your calculator converts them to decimals.
You can sometimes save yourself the time of converting, and then converting back, by simply
using your pencil to do fraction work!
Number 4: Use your pencil to underline or circle what each Math question is asking for.
Test makers love to include tricky-trap answers among the choices.
If the question is asking you to solve for 2x, you’re exceedingly likely to find the
solution for regular old x among the choices.
If you use that pencil and go back to look at what you are being asked, you will see
clearly that you need to find 2x, and you’ll then earn the points for that question.
Number 5: Use your pencil to label your variables.
If b represents the number of books, label b with the word “books.”
Or if the x-axis on a particular graph represents “days,” then write the word “days”
directly on the x-axis!
Number 6: As all of these strategies make clear, you should be using your pencil to
do scratchwork on all the test sections!
That’s why you have a pencil and test booklet.
Especially if you might make a careless error doing math in your head, avoid that predicament
entirely by using your pencil.
Finally: number 7: Make sure that you are crossing off any answers you can eliminate,
no matter which section you’re working on.
It would be a shame if you figured out what you were being asked, figured out the correct
answer, and then bubbled in a wrong one.
This strategy is especially important if you’re a “bubble chunker” (and if you don’t
know what that is, check out our video about test-taking strategies from straight-A students).
Thanks so much for watching.
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and more—plus SAT and ACT livestreams every week.
See you here next time.