guessed on so if you have time you can go back and check your answers.- Practice. The more timed practice tests you take, the more relaxed your
brain will become with moving on.
WEAN YOURSELF FROM YOUR PHONE
It goes without saying that your phone will have to be off and out of sight in the
testing room. But if you’re like us and you keep a smartphone with you at all
times, turning it off isn’t always enough to take your mind off of it. You’ll still
be thinking about the sports scores you can’t check, anxiously wondering why
that photo of yesterday’s omelet got only two likes, or responding to the ghost
vibrations in your pocket. These are not things you want going through your
head when you need to focus. So we recommend getting some distance from
your phone the day before you take the SAT. We call this the Up Your Score
Phone Challenge. Keep that sucker silent and inert for 24 hours before the test
until the minute you walk out of the testing center. That’s when you can take
your “I Survived the Up Your Score Phone Challenge” selfie.
Do not live tweet the SAT. I repeat, do NOT live tweet the SAT.
—Samantha
CREATING A STUDY PROGRAM . . . AND
STICKING WITH IT
Needless to say, there are thousands of things you’d rather do than prepare for
the SAT, beginning with weeding and ending with sticking hypodermic needles
in your eyes. But after you’ve given yourself some motivational talks and
calmed your anxiety, exactly how do you make yourself sit down and study?
- SET A SCORE GOAL
Establish a specific score as your goal. Pick a score that you think you can
achieve but that will require some preparation. (A good score goal is one a bit
above the average SAT score for students at the schools you’re considering.)
Once you’ve set this goal, don’t stop factoring quadratics and locating the use of
irony until you consistently achieve the score (or even a smidge higher) on
practice tests.