BEST TIPS AND TUTORIALS ON HOW TO SCORE HIGH SCORE IN SAT

1. Do the Right Guess
If you’re anything like me, you hate admitting when you’re wrong and you
probably hate it even more when you don’t know the answer to something.
Well, I’m sorry to say, that unless you’re getting perfect scores on the SAT
already (in which case you should stop reading this and go do something
fun), there are DEFINITELY going to be a bunch of questions that leave you
clueless. Do NOT just blindly circle A,
 because your silly friend told you to. Swallow your pride, stop being cocky and OMIT IT.
Now here’s why:
Let’s say there are ten questions you are unsure of. You can’t eliminate
ANY of the choices.
So you follow your silly friend sarah’s advice and
label A for all of them. If we do some simple probability, you have a 1
in 5 chance of answering those questions correctly (because there are
answer choices), so if there are ten questions, you will most likely get 2
questions correct and 8 questions wrong. To calculate your raw score, you
receive 1 point for each of the 2 correct questions (2 points)
The Rule of 2:
The Rule of 2 should become one of your little tricks. Basically you want to
remember that unless you can eliminate 2 answer choices through your
crafty logical reasoning abilities, don’t even think about answering that
question. On those same 10 questions, let’s say there was one question we
had absolutely no clue, but the other 9 we could eliminate 2 answer choices.
We would get 0 points for the one question we omitted that we had no clue
on, then on the other 9, we just upped our chances to a 1 in 3 shot of getting
it correct, so on 9 questions we would get 3 correct and 6 wrong. This
means we would get 3 points for the correct questions  which is where you want to be!
And  remember….these are just the questions you’re having trouble with and
you’re STILL gaining points. We likey.
Now that you’re on the getting free points for nothing band wagon, you’re
going to want to move on to Step #2:
2. Create a StratEDGEy Score and stick to it!
A StratEDGEy Score, in case you were wondering, is your goal score for
each section of the test. Now people set these very differently. Don’t get
crazy and kill yourself by shooting for the stars right off the bat. Aiming for
a perfect score as your first target score is in a word, futile [aka useless for
those of you not studying your vocab lists]….UNLESS of course your
starting score on each section is over a 700 (then shoot for the moon!). You
want to pace yourself with your score improvement.
Baby steps, buddy.
Now a good rule of thumb in setting your target score is to shoot for 50
points more than your starting reading score, 150 points higher than your
starting math score, and 100 points higher than your starting writing score.
This in no way means that you can’t go up more than this. This just means
that this is how you want to start off. Then once you hit those
scores, bump it up to the next level, and the next, and the next, until you’re
an SAT rockstar getting perfect scores and working for The Edge.
So now that you have this magical target score, what next? Well, this is the
big secret: once you have your target score you can stop answering certain
questions on the test. WTF!?! Really? YES!!! Now for the most part, the
questions on the SAT are arranged in order of easy to hard, so if you’re only
shooting for a 600, you don’t have to waste your time on the last few
questions in each section because you don’t NEED to get those correct in
order to get a 600. Those questions are just going to stress you out and
waste valuable time that you could be using to check your other questions
for careless errors.
If you’re looking for top scores on each of the sections you should be
answering most (or all in the case of a perfect score) of the questions in the
section. For scores between 750 and 800, you should use your best
judgment to omit anything that you have absolutely no idea how to answer,
but if you can make an educated guess on a question, you should go for it.
Now for some specific tips for each section:
3. Bump Your Essay Score Up by At Least 1 Point!
Most students get really stressed out about the essay because, let’s
face it, who wants to be put on the spot to write a kickass essay in 25
minutes? No one.
Writing is usually a process that takes time (or at least
you pretend you spend a lot of time on your essay while you’re chit chatting
away on AIM and video chat…trust me, I know!), so it’s a bit scary to think
about writing a solid essay in 25 minutes. With these 4 steps, you can easily
boost your essay score by at least 1 or 2 points, which translates into about
20-30 points on the writing section.
A) Do not re-write the question in your intro.
This just wastes your valuable time and will not add any points to your
score. The graders know that any dum dum can copy a sentence, so don’t
think you’re fooling anyone.
B) Always use 2 examples.
Not 1, not 3, 2! The question always states that you should use exampleS to
support your argument, so if you are only using 1 example, you’re actually
not fully answering the question and if you are using 3 examples, you’re
probably not going to have enough time to fully develop each one, so stick
to the magic number 2 and you’ll be in the clear.
C) Incorporate variety.
The SAT readers love variety. Put yourself in their shoes. How would you
feel after reading hundreds of essays on the SAME topic each day for over a
week? Absolutely bored to tears. So give ‘em a break and do something
interesting in your essay. Stop using Dangote as your example
(yes, I know that he can be molded for use with any topic, but the SAT
readers also know this as well). So unless you’re having total memory loss
and forgot ALL of your predetermined topics, try to pick something
interesting to write about.
D) Learn to use a semi-colon and sophisticated vocabulary.
For some strange reason (I’m not sure why), semi-colons scare people.
People either don’t know how to use them, or (even worse), they don’t know
the difference between a semi-colon and a colon. FYI, a semi-colon looks
like this--; and a colon looks like this--:. A semi-colon is like a weak period.
You use it to separate two shorter sentences in order to make yourself sound
sophisticated. It’s guaranteed to impress, and probably sway the reader in
your favor if she’s wavering between two scores.
In terms of sophisticated vocabulary, you’re going to want to pick out 2-3
“Wow Em Words” to incorporate into EVERY SAT essay. Yes it sounds
dull, but if you make it a habit, you will surely reap the benefits. Think
about neutral words that can be used in essays on a variety of topics. Some
of my favorites are preclude (aka prevent) and moreover (basically a fancy
way of saying “in addition to”). Now that you’ve written your kickass essay
and squeezed out a couple of extra points, you’re going to want to move on
to the rest of the writing section, which brings us to:
4. Learn the top 3 grammar errors!
Scratch that. OWN them. Verb Errors, Pronoun Errors, and Parallelism
Errors make up about 50% of the writing section, so if you can master these
3, you are in the clear.
A. VERB ERRORS
Subject-Verb Agreement
Every sentence has both a subject and a verb, and in order for the sentence to be
grammatically correct, the subject and the verb must agree. For example, if you have a
singular subject, you need a singular verb, and thus if you have a plural subject, you need
a plural verb.
Take a look at this sentence:
The effect were bad.
Here we have a singular subject (the effect) and a plural verb. We can either write it as:
The effect was bad. OR
The effects were bad.
We just can’t intermix singulars and plurals.
However, you might have noticed that this sentence was much easier than the sentences
you might find on the SAT. One of the most common ways they try to trick you is by
separating the subject from the verb. There are three ways that they can do this: insertion
of a prepositional phrase, insertion of a subordinate clause, and putting the subject
AFTER the verb. Be sure to watch out for these rascally tricks and make sure you always
identify the subject and its verb and make sure they match!
Verb Tense Agreement
Another error you want to watch out for on the SAT is verb tense agreement. If the
sentence starts out in past tense, it must stay in past tense throughout the sentence. The
applies to verb in all tenses.
Even though the fans gave up hope on their team winning the World Series, the players
remain confident.
Here, the sentence starts off in past tense; however, the verb describing the players is in
present tense.
This sentence should be written:
Even though the fans gave up hope on their team winning the World Series, the players
remained confident.
B. Pronoun Errors
Pronoun Agreement
Just as subjects and verbs have to agree, pronouns and nouns must agree. If you have a
singular subject, you must have a singular pronoun, and if you have a plural subject, you
must have a plural pronoun.
 For example:
The committee agreed that they were finished with the proposal.
Here, we have a singular subject (the committee) and a plural pronoun (they).
The revised sentence should read:
The committee agreed that it was finished with the revisions.
Pronoun Case
If you remember correctly, one of the fundamental rules was Pronoun Agreement. This
rule involves using the correct pronoun.
Direct/Subject Object Possessive
I      Me  My     YouYou                 Your
He, She , It        Him , Her, It     His, Her, Its        
We Us Our          They Them Their
The most common way the SAT will test your pronoun case knowledge is by putting a
pronoun alongside a proper noun (usually a person’s name).
*One common question that will appear that involves pronouns is a sentence starting with
the word between.
For example:
Between you and I, I’m not a big fan of your mom’s cooking.
EVERYONE makes this mistake. You never never never say “Between you and I.” It’s
“Between you and me.” We know this because you would never say, “between we,” you
would say “between us.” If you look back to our Pronoun table, you will see that me and
us are in the same column, and I and we (the incorrect pronouns) are in the same column.
Shift of Pronoun (ONE v. YOU)
The last type of pronoun error concerns shift of pronoun, or an easier way of
remembering it (ONE v. YOU)
For example,
Before one can drive, you need to pass a road test.
This sentence combines the pronouns one and you, and we just can’t do that. We have to
have matching pronouns.
We can either write this sentence:
Before one can drive, one needs to pass a road test. OR
Before you can drive, you need to pass a road test.
C. PARALLELISM
Parallelism is an important concept when you are writing sentences. It basically means
that you have to stay consistent in every aspect of the sentence. The two major forms of
parallelism that are tested on the SAT are: lists and comparisons.
Lists
When you list two or more verbs in a sentence, you have to make sure that they are all in
the same format. For example:
Ashlee enjoys fishing, skating, and to play softball.
In this sentence, the first two items end in –ing,* but the third item is written as “to
play.” Do these seem to match? No, not at all. We clearly have a “situation” here,
and we have to re-write the sentence as:
Ashlee enjoys fishing, skating, and playing softball.
*Fishing and skating in this sentence are functioning as nouns. We call these gerunds,
when you have a word ending in –ing that is functioning as a noun. Lists can either be
made up of gerunds (fishing, skating) OR
*Infinitives. To play is an infinitive. It is a verb in its most basic form. It hasn’t been
conjugated yet.
Comparisons
(Words to look out for: THAN, UNLIKE, DIFFERED FROM)
The other form of parallelism tested on the SAT involves comparisons. When you are
comparing two things in a sentence, you want to make sure that you logically express
your idea. Take a look at this sentence:
Jessica’s waffles are tastier than Nicholas.
Now, reading this sentence, we can all understand that what we meant to say was:
Jessica’s waffles are tastier than Nicholas’s waffles.
However, grammatically, the first sentence is really saying that Nicholas isn’t tasty. You
always want to compare apples to apples and waffles to waffles, otherwise the sentence
won’t make sense grammatically.
*Logical comparisons are probably the most difficult error to catch because the sentence
will make sense when you read it, but you really want to watch out for these
comparisons. Once you know what to look for, they are easy to spot.
Now that you’re officially ROCKING the writing section, we need to move on to Math,
everyone’s favorite.
5. RTFQ! (Read The  Question)
Before we even move on to specific math techniques, you need to make sure you are
Reading The Question (you figure out what the F stands for ;-). YES! It sounds oh so
simple, and yet I can’t even tell you how many students end up solving a question for x,
when it clearly asks for 2x. AND those sneaky devils at the College Board TOTALLY
exploit this fact by putting the value of x as one of the answer choices, probably A. So
you solve that x = 5, you rush to the answer choices, see answer choice (A) is 5 and
BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE, you think you’re done.
But nooooooo, you missed out  on answer choice (E) 10, which is the correct answer because the question asks you for
2x. It happens over and over and OVER again and is just a waste of points. Do NOT let
yourself be “THAT GUY” and please, please, please READ THE QUESTION and
double check what it’s asking your for. Thanks ☺
6. If you see variables in a question, plug-in!
The most common way for students to make careless mistakes on the SAT involves questions with
variables. Variables not only care students to make silly errors, but if solved the “traditional mathematical
way” can often take wayyyyyy too long for anyone’s good. An easy way to get around variable questions
without creating equations is to plug in a number for the variable.You want to avoid using 0, 1, or a
number already used in the question because they might make more than one answer choice correct.
Let’s try this example:
(Ex) At a certain plant, each of m machines prints 6 newspapers every s seconds. If all
machines work together but independently without interruption, how many minutes will
it take to print an entire run of 18,000 newspapers?
So, if we make m = 3, and s = 60 (I picked 60 to make it easy on us since the question is
asking how many minutes), then we know that each of 3 machines print 6 newspapers
every 60 seconds or every minute.
If we want to know how many minutes it will take to print 18,000 newspapers, then we
realize that a total of 18 newspapers (3 machines x 6 newspapers) are being printed every
minute, therefore if we divide 18,000 by 18, it will take 1000 minutes.
The answer choices will not contain the number 1000, because that is the answer that we
arrived at using our numbers, but if we look at the following choices, we can figure out
the correct choice by plugging in our numbers.
(A) 180s/m
(B) 50s/m
(C) 50ms
(D) ms/50
(E) 300m/s
and we know that B is the correct choice (50 x 60)/3 = 1000
Rather than wasting our time creating a complex equation to solve this, we can easily
solve the question AND get the right answer in no time, which brings me to my next tip
on timing for the reading section.
7. Don’t Waste Your Time “Really Reading”
I can’t tell you how many of my students come to me with an intense hatred
for the reading section. I mean, let’s be honest, most students don’t really
LOVE reading anything besides Funny or Die and Facebook Status Updates,
BUT you’re going to have to face the music and learn to at least tolerate
reading at some point and it might as well be before you get to college.
However, you DO NOT need to pour over the details of the passages on the
SAT. Most students end up getting halfway through the passage only to
start daydreaming about what they’re going to be doing later that night or
what they want to have for lunch and then forgetting everything they just
read. So then they ultimately will start the entire passage over again and
waste TONS of time in the process. You don’t want to be that guy. Instead,
you should focus on skimming the passage for trigger words. Triggers are
words that either indicate a reemphasis of something or a contradictory
transition to a new topic. Some examples of these are Therefore, However,
Nevertheless, Despite, Because, And, etc. A full list can be found in the e-
book, The Edge for SAT Success. You want to skim for these words, circle
them, and then underline the sentences before and after them. These are the
important sentences in each paragraph. By honing in on them, you not only
stay focused while reading these somewhat boring passages, but you also
absorb the important information to answer the questions.
8. Warm-Up Your Mind on the Day of the Test
I’m sure most of you have played some sport at some point in your life. If
you think back to a game or even practice, you don’t just start off sprinting,
right? You gotta…..WARM YOURSELF UP. Otherwise you might get
hurt. I want you to think about the SAT as the same thing as a sporting
event. You have to be well-prepared for game day. Don’t wake up late,
skip breakfast, and go into the test having forgotten your calculator. Create
a morning routine for yourself, and MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE SOME
WARM-UP PROBLEMS. If you’re like most high school students, you’re
probably not a morning person and probably utilize Saturday mornings as a
time to catch up on your zzzzz’s. However, unfortunately, you’ll be waking
up pre-7 AM on test day most likely in order to get to school in the 8-8:30
AM range. Multiple studies have been conducted that prove that this is
NOT the optimal time for students’ brains to be functioning. And since I
don’t foresee the College Board pushing back the start time of the SAT, you
might as well go into the test as prepared as possible. During your breakfast
on the day of the test, gather up a few questions from each of the sections of
the test and do them. Don’t stress out about them, and don’t go for the kill
and give yourself all super tough ones. The idea is to get your mind working
so that by the time you sit down to write your essay on the test, you are
already in test-taking mode. I honestly wouldn’t even bother checking to see
if you answered them correctly, since that’s not the point. The point is to
just get you thinking, and reduce any test day anxiety you might have.
I hope that you enjoyed these tips and that you enjoy the other blog postings.
For more tips and extensive SAT preparation materials, please check out our
eBook store as well as our online course and tutoring options. Good luck
and never hesitate to leave a comment or a question.