<p>General Strategies</p>
<p>(For the most part, these suggestions apply similarly to Subject Tests.) </p>
<p>Approaching the SAT with an Effective Mentality</p>
<p>It’s just you and the test. Try to zone out everything around you, realizing that for the four hours that you take the SAT, the test booklet in front of you is the only thing that matters. </p>
<p>Ignore the consequences. If you’re preoccupied with what might happen if you miss a question, it drastically reduces your ability to focus and successfully answer the question. Put all future consequences out of your mind and try to treat each problem as a fun challenge.</p>
<p>The answers have already been determined. Maybe this is a mere idiosyncrasy, but realizing that the answers are sitting somewhere at the College Board has always helped me. It’s your job to find them. </p>
<p>Visualization Visualizing your taking the test beforehand is quite helpful in facilitating focus and equanimity. </p>
<p>Find the appropriate balance between calmness and arousal. Of course, you do not want to be panicked during the SAT. But this should not be taken too far: a moderate level of arousal is necessary to keep your concentration and pace. There is no general rule here; experiment with various levels of arousal and techniques to achieve and maintain that, and go with what works for you. (See [this[/url</a>] for more on the delicate arousal-performance relationship.)</p>
<p>Don’t harbor negative feelings toward the test. Such an attitude makes you do badly.</p>
<p>Logistics</p>
<p>With regard to sleep the night before the test and what one should eat the morning of the test, there is likewise no meaningful, generally applicable rule. Instead, each test-taker should go with what feels right for him or her. However, there are a few helpful guiding principles: you’ll probably want to eat what you normally eat (except perhaps if you do not ordinarily eat breakfast); get some sleep, but do not oversleep (it may be better to receive a slightly less-than-ideal amount of sleep than to have overslept). Also, you’ll probably wake up at least 90 minutes prior to the administration of the test so that you can become more alert.</p>
<p>Here are the items that you will want to have with you when you take the test (adapted in part from [url=<a href=“http://sat.collegeboard.com/register/sat-test-day-checklist]here[/url]):”>http://sat.collegeboard.com/register/sat-test-day-checklist]here](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerkes–Dodson_law]this[/url”>Yerkes–Dodson law - Wikipedia)):</a>
[ul][<em>]Your admission ticket, which you should have printed.<br>
[</em>]No. 2 non-mechanical pencils with erasers. The College Board recommends bringing two, but that seems like too few to me. I would go with at least four; better safe than sorry.
[<em>]A photo ID. This one is often overlooked by students. If you don’t have a photo ID with you, you will not be allowed to take the test.
[</em>]An acceptable calculator. Almost every common calculator is acceptable on the SAT (except those with QWERTY keyboards). Unlike the ACT, the SAT does allow test-takers to use the TI-89. If you are comfortable with graphing calculators, bring one, as they are occasionally helpful in solving difficult questions in unconventional ways. If, though, graphing calculators are mostly foreign to you, do not use the night before the test to familiarize yourself with a new calculator. And don’t bother saving vocabulary lists to your calculator’s memory: calculators are, of course, allowed on only the Math section.
[li]Familiarize yourself with a silent watch with a timer prior to test day. You do not want to have to rely on the testing center’s clock.[/ul] </p>[/li]
<p>Omitting Questions</p>
<p>Because I lose points for incorrectly answering questions as opposed to omitting them, when should I guess on questions that I’m not sure about?</p>
<p>The oft-cited advice is that, as long as you can eliminate one or more possible answer choices, guessing is your best bet. Indeed, given the deduction of .25 points for each incorrect answer (minus 1.25 with respect to opportunity cost), one should theoretically come ahead if he or she guesses after eliminating one choice (a 25% chance). There are some exceptions to this rule, though. </p>
<p>There are some times when you should guess more liberally than that principle suggests. Very rarely do students truly have no idea about which of the choices is correct. By analyzing patterns in the answers, for example, one could probably get about 25% of Math questions right even without knowing the questions. However, this is most applicable on the SAT only if you are not aiming for a high score or on AP tests* (on which the threshold for a perfect score is relatively low); it is fine if one misses quite a few questions in those situations. </p>
<p>On the other extreme, there are some special considerations that should also result in especially liberal guessing. If you are doggedly aiming for a perfect score on Math, answer every question (missing one almost never results in 800), even if you have to blindly guess. Similarly, if you are looking for a perfect score on Critical Reading, answer every question; there are no exceptions to this rule. Why? On almost every testing administration, -2 raw points was the cutoff for 800 on CR. Because it takes three incorrect guesses to result in an actual loss of a raw point (the College Board rounds .5 in your favor and only works in integers), there is no difference between two incorrect responses and two omissions. </p>
<p>There are, in contrast, some situations in which you should be very conservative with your guesses. These appear mostly on the Subject Tests, most notably Math Level 2 (which generally has a predictable curve of either 43/50 or 44/50, in raw scores, for 800). When taking the test, you should proceed under the assumption that 44 will be the cutoff. For example, if, when you finish your initial run through the test, you are uncertain about two questions that you answered and have thus far left four blank, you should strategically choose to not answer those four questions (even if you are somewhat confident in your answers). Even if you missed both of those questions about which you were uncertain, you will still get 800 (with 44/50). However, if you choose to answer one of the otherwise omitted questions and miss it, your raw score will drop to 43/50, thereby jeopardizing the 800.</p>
<p>Also note that you do not lose points for incorrectly answering the free-response questions in the Math section, so there is never a reason to omit these. This exception is understandable, as the deduction is meant to be a correction for random guessing. </p>
<p>Pacing is one of the most important aspects in achieving SAT success. It is impossible to effectively verbalize the characteristics of a successful pace (as it varies person-to-person), so you will need to experiment with practice tests.</p>
<ul>
<li>I have recently learned that the College Board may be eliminating the guessing penalty for AP tests. If this turns out to be true, omitting on those tests would, of course, be unwise.</li>
</ul>
<p>Pacing is one of the most important aspects in achieving SAT success. Unfortunately, it is impossible to effectively verbalize the characteristics of a successful pace (as it varies person-to-person), so you will need to experiment with practice tests.</p>