<p>Hey everyone, sorry it’s been a while since I posted. hopefully everyone is gearing up for a nice May/June run at the SATs. I know I’ll be taking them in MAY so wish me luck!</p>
<p>Here’s some thoughts I had on the NCAA championship game from last week, that I thought were interesting in relation to SAT scoring. Whether you were rooting for Butler or not, I think we can all agree that their poor shooting percentage did them in.</p>
<p>So here are my thoughts, and hopefully they help your SAT mindset!</p>
<p>j</p>
<p>OK, full disclosure. I, like all those under-dog lovers, was rooting for Butler to win the NCAA basketball championship this year. Alas, they came up short for the second year in a row, BUT their loss can be your SAT gain. How?</p>
<p>By this simple statistic: 18.8%</p>
<p>Or in another form: 12 out of 64</p>
<p>What does that figure represent? That was Butler’s shooting percentage on 2-point baskets. That’s right, the team that had a two point lead at the half went on to lose by 12 points because they couldn’t make easy baskets. In fact, Butler launched 33, yep THIRTY-THREE, three-point shots in the game, making only nine of them, in the hopes of finally winning a championship.</p>
<p>In SAT terms, what Butler did was eschew easier questions in an attempt to score more points on the harder ones. Sure, some might say that Connecticut was making it hard for them to get easy points and they were forced to shoot a lot of threes - but the truth holds that whether it be in playing basketball or taking the SAT, you will have a better chance at success if you can execute on the easier opportunities.</p>
<p>One might argue that if Butler had made more of their three point shots then they would have had a better chance to win. Obviously more three point shots made would have equaled more points, so there is some logic to that argument, however no one would argue that a three point shot is EASIER to make than a two point shot. Butler was relying on HARD shots in order to win, not the easier, two-point variety.</p>
<p>The numbers don’t lie, while hard shots or questions can get you extra points, the real key to victory lies in racking up points on easy shots and questions. Think about how this example applies to you and YOUR test-taking experience. Do you try to get all the hard questions? Do you miss easy questions because you’re rushing? Or are you getting all the easiest questions and most of the medium ones in order to set yourself up for a nice score over 600 per section?</p>
<p>Please don’t waste your opportunity like Butler did by only swinging for the hardest questions. Of course you’ll get a few of those hard, three-pointer (not literally) type questions, but the best way to score big on the SAT is to knock down those easy two-pointer questions (again, not literally since every question is worth only one point… but you get the idea).</p>
<p>Who knew that so much SAT wisdom could be gained from watching college basketball!?</p>