Slide 1

GETTING READY FOR THE SATTaken from Cracking the SAT published by The Princeton ReviewIntro to the SATBasic PrinciplesAdvanced PrinciplesCritical ReadingMathWritingINTRO TO THE SAT1. What does the SAT test?

The Educational Testing Service (ETS) says it tests "reasoning ability" and the Princeton Review book Cracking the SAT says it tests how well you take the SAT! :>2. Who writes this test?

ETS. They've been doing it for many years. They also write lots of other tests: The GRE and the LSAT as well as tests for butchers and professional golfers...who knew?

3. What's on the SAT?

- A 25 minute essay question- Three math sections (two 25 minute ones and one 20 minute one)- Three critical reading sections (two 25 minute ones and one 20 minute one)- Two writing sections - grammar, syntax, punctuation, etc. (a 25 minute one and a 10 minute one) plus

6A 25 minute experimental section - these questions won't count toward your score and every SAT has themdon't try to figure out which section it is. You can't, so it's a waste of time.

4. How is the test scored?

Each subject area is scored on a scale from 200 to 800. The three scores are then combined for your total score. Average score = 1500 and maximum score = 2400.

5. How long after the test does it take to get my score?

It takes two to four weeks. You'll get your score (1820 or whatever) and a percentile score (like 83%ile) which tells you that you did better than 82% of the people nationally who took the test.

What are super scores?

Since the SAT has many sections, and you may take the SAT more than once, some colleges will allow you to pick your best score from each section of the test and combine them for the score the college will consider.

Just as some colleges allow this, some do not. Check the website of the college you are interested in.

6. Where do I take the test?

Go to www.collegeboard.org to sign up online or go to the counseling office to get a registration booklet.

How do I decide what score to aim for?

See Pacing Chart (pp. 26-27 from Cracking the SAT).

BASIC PRINCIPLES- The SAT isn't school. We'll do some things in here differently than you might in class.- We're not learning math and Language Arts per se.- Our focus is how to "crack" the SAT; in other words, test taking strategies specific to the SAT that will help you boost your score.Cracking Multiple Choice questions:

All the answers are right in front of you. Here's an example from Cracking the SAT.

What is the capital of Azerbaijan?

A stumper, huh.

But what if it were presented to you this way?

1. The capital of Azerbaijan is

(A) Washington, D.C.(B) Paris(C) Tokyo(D) London(E) Baku

Easier now, isn't it!

Of course, not all the questions will be this easy, but the principle still applies, no matter what the question is.So. . ."all but a handful of the questions on the SAT are multiple choice. . . You don't have to come with the answers, you just have to identify them."

HOW?Dont just look for the right answers; look for the wrong answers. Remember the Azerbaijan question? You didn't know the answer but you knew which ones were NOT the right answer.Once you decide an answer is wrong, mark through it and you will never have to look at it again

ever

an important time saver.Process of Elimination or POE

Every answer choice you can eliminate increases the odds you will get the right answer. You start out with a 20% chance (5 choices), but if you can narrow it down to three, you have a 33% chance; if you can narrow it down to two, you have a 50% chance."Close your Eyes and Point"

WHAT?!?There is no penalty for guessing!

If you can eliminate even only one or two choices, go ahead and guess.

Let's think of it this way:

Every time you get a question right, you get a dollar.

Every time you get a question wrong, you only lose 25 cents. PLEEZE - Write on this test!

It is yours. . .so OWN it!

You paid for it.Your test IS your scratch paper.No one else will ever see it. ETS only keeps the answer sheets.

26You can:- Scratch through answer choices you eliminate- Do math- Measure stuff- Write out words. . .- Whatever. . .it's your test; use it to help YOU!Can you guess the answer?Try this:

- Cover up the answer choices while you read the question.- Think of your own answer- Now look at the choices and see which is closest to the one you thought of.BubblingTry these:Mark your answers in the test booklet and transfer themAt the end of a group of questions (ex. Sentence completions)At the end of the pageAt the end of the section

ADVANCED PRINCIPLES1. Order of Difficulty - The questions in most test sections progress from easy through medium to hard.EASY - these answers seem right to almost everyone

MEDIUM - these answers seem right to high scorers and wrong to low scorers

HARD - these answers seem right to high scorers and wrong to everyone2. Pace yourself - attempt fewer questions and do them well. It's not a race!

So . . .Answer the easy questions first. They count just as much as the hard ones.

Absolutely no clue?

Skip over questions you don't know. Don't waste time mulling them over. BUTMark them so you can find them later if you have time.

What if there are TWO blanks?

No sweat. . . just take one blank at a time.If the first one is not a fit, move on. Since the first one won't work, no need to waste any more time reading the rest of the question. Both blanks have to work for the answer to be right.

Meet Joe Bloggs

Joe is the average test taker. He is not dumb. Hes not brilliant.

Theres a little bit of him in all of us.Joe ALWAYS trusts his gut regardless of the difficulty of the question. So he gets the easy ones, and some of the medium ones, but rarely gets the hard ones.So how can Joe help you?

Since he gets the hard questions wrong, if you spot an answer in the latter part of a test section that seems too easy (in other words, the one Joe would choose) you can bet its probably wrong.CRACKIN CRITICAL READING

Two Question Types:

1. Sentence completions2. Reading Comprehension

- Sentence completions follow order of difficulty- Comprehension questions follow sequence of reading passageSENTENCE COMPLETIONSYour job in sentence completions is to find the missing word based on context clues. You have been doing this since you started reading. Let's look at some tips to avoid the "Joe traps."8. The researchers believe their experimental and observational data furnish the _______ evidence that proves their hypothesis.(A) trifling(B) experiential(C) intuitive(D) empirical(E) microscopicWhat would Joe do?

What would you do?

Hint: This is a hard question.Put Joe to work:

- Trust your hunches on easy questions.- Double check your answers on medium question.- Eliminate Joe Bloggs answers on the hard questions.

1. Be familiar with the instructions (handout w/ sample question from p. 38).2. Don't just plug in all the possible answers - they are all designed to sound "right." You have to think smart!

3. The ETS has given you a clue in the sentence that tells you what the answer is. . .use it.4. Cover up the answer choices5. Read the sentence.6. Underline the clue.7. Come up with your own idea for an answer.8. NOW look at the choices.9. Use POE.10. The word you come up with doesn't have to be elegant. It can be awkward, slangy, or a chunky phrase as long as it captures the meaning.Having trouble finding the clue?Ask yourself:1. What is the blank talking about? Cities? Sports heroes? Lakes in Canada?2. What else does the sentence say about its subject?Good Word, Bad Word -- What if you are not sure which word is the correct answer? - Read the sentence. Use context clues. Are you looking for a good word (something positive) or a bad word (something negative)?- Narrow down your choices and pick.

50Trigger Words They either change the direction of the sentence or keep in going in same direction. Some examples?

SAME direction because andsince in factcolon (:) semicolon (;)DIFFERENT direction

though althoughbut ratheryet despitein contrast to howeverLet's practice (handout - p. 44)READING COMPREHENSION- Over 2/3 of points on Critical Reading section- Basically, its an open book test- NOT in order of difficulty they are in sequential order.

Sohow do we crack it?Read the blurb firstThen decide:Skim the passage or go straight to questions?

- Translate the questions into your own words (if needed). You cant answer a question if you dont know what it asks.

- The lines in reading passages are numbereduse em.

- When a question refers you to a line, read a few before and after it to get the context.Answer the question in your head using your own words before you look at the answer choices.

Use POE to get rid of answers that dont match yours.

Cross out the ones you dont want.When using POE, look for answers with the following characteristics:

- not mentioned at all in the passage- recycled words- half right, half wrong- extreme language- opposite of what is said in passage- too literal (fiction)What about short passages?

What about EXCEPT/least/not ?

What about dual passages?

Short passages:

The same as long passages but with no blurb at the beginningbut since theyre short you can just read em.EXCEPT/not/least:

The answers to these are things that are NOT supported in the passage.

EXCEPT will be capitalized to get your attentionnot and least will not.Dual passages:

- Read the first passage first and do the questions that go with it.- Then read the second passage and do the questions that go with it.- Then do the questions that go with both passages.

Remember your reading comprehension vocabulary (p. 84).