Step 5: General Strategies
While many books tout lists of tips and secrets to acing the SAT, we find that these tips are often too broad or obvious to be really helpful. However, there are a few testing strategies that really are important and effective:• Check your answers. Whenever you have time left over, check your work.
• It is almost always a good idea to guess. As long as you can eliminate at least one answer, then go with your gut on the best answer. The expected gain (1 point multiplied by more than 25%) exceeds the potential loss of ¼ point.
• Math is usually the easiest section to improve on, followed by Writing. Critical Reading is generally the most difficult section to improve on. This means, if you must prioritize and you are about equally good at each section, focus on studying math and writing. Math is a bunch of formulas, numbers, and general patterns that can be learned. Writing consists of grammar rules that you can easily become familiar with. Critical Reading is less straightforward; it involves tedious practice interpreting what authors of both the passage and the SAT test mean.
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