study-plan

Tacoma & Gig Harbor In-Home Tutoring

Basic SAT Study Plan

Taking the SAT requires specific skills that aren't quite the same as anything you learn in school. If you have a limited amount of time to study, you should focus your effort on real SAT tests. The Official SAT Study Guide, published by the College Board, contains 10 full tests.

The plan below isn't personalized, so it's not perfect for everyone. In particular, students anticipating a very high or low score and students whose first language isn't English would benefit from a program specifically tailored to their needs.

Here's the plan:

  1. Try to do one section (including essays) every day. Don't worry about time limits, but record how long it takes you to finish.
  2. As you're doing the test, circle any words you don't know (including math terms).
  3. After you finish a reading or writing section, find definitions for the words you didn't know. The fastest way I've found to do this is to use Definr and cut-and-paste into a text document.
  4. Get the answer key and go back over the section. Just circle the questions you missed. Don't mark the right answer.
  5. Using your word list, try to figure out the answers to the questions you missed. If you still can't get the right answer, or otherwise are not happy with a question, put a big star next to it.
  6. Save everything.