ACE the Last SAT 2023 “Strategies to Prepare SAT in an effective way”
SAT exams (Scholastic Aptitude Tests) are one of the crucial exams for you to take when you plan to pursue higher education in the USA. Conducted by the college board, SAT is one of the popular exams for studying abroad. This is an excellent tool for colleges to compare and shortlist the applicants based on their eagerness and academic inquisitiveness reflected in their test scores.
The upcoming SAT exam is on Dec 2, 2023, which will be the last Paper Exam in USA, as from next year SAT is going Digital in USA.
The benefits of taking SAT exam
Firstly, get to know what is the advantage of taking SATs. Adding the score to your application profile will make you stand out from the crowd of equally competitive candidates. This will be a brownie point to clear your way into a prestigious college.
SAT eligibility criteria
One can take the SAT exam after completing high school. And there are no specific eligibility criteria to take the SAT exams.
There is no age bar to taking the test.
SAT exam is ONLY for pursuing an undergraduate degree in the USA, Canada, UK, New Zealand and Australia.
How to prepare for SAT?
Nearly 1.4 million students appear for the SAT every year. So, if you aspire to get into the best undergraduate university abroad, you must start preparing as early as possible to score an edge over your peers.
Smart Strategy for Preparation:
Step 1: Finding your strong subjects • You take the mock-up test without preparation with any institutes or online tools like Socrato, which provides the diagnostic/analytical reports etc.
Step 2: Finding your strong subjects • For example, shown in figure-2 subject scores are : SAT Reading = 32, SAT Writing & Language = 33, SAT Math = 36. • Inference: As you can observe, as per the subject score Math and Writing & Language are stronger than Reading. Which indicates student’s natural strengths are Math and Writing & Language.
Step 3: Setting the targeted score.
• To figure out your SAT target score, look up the score range requirements of colleges.
• Usually on an average score range requirements of many colleges are 1500-1600.
For example: • Assume, you are targeting for 1500 • And your Baseline SAT Total Score = 1370 as per mock up Test.
Score difference between Targeted score and Mock up test score. SAT Total and Baseline SAT Total i.e. 1500-1370 = 130 more scale points are needed to achieve your goal.
Topic-wise analysis to gain 2 points in Reading:
There are 52 questions in Passage Single and Passage Paired and student got 43 out of 52.
• Within in Passage Single there are 10 questions in Fictions and student got 04 out of 10- Fiction is not the strength and will require lot of effort.
• Student got = 09/10 in topic – Passage Paired then medium chance i.e. more chances to get 100% over here to get all correct. • Within Passage Single & Passage Paired , Vocabulary = 08/09 then high chances i.e. more chances to get 100% over here to get all correct.
• Inference: To get more marks in the less time, you should first focus in the vocabulary withing Passage Single & Passage Paired topic.
Topic-wise analysis to gain 3 points in Writing & Language :
As shown in figure-6, topic-wise performance summary of Math : • There are 44 questions in Writing UM & RH and student got 40 out of 44.
• Within Writing UM there are 07 questions in Punctuation and student got 05 out of 07- Punctuation is not the strength and will require lot of effort
Student got = 15/15 in topic – Clear & Concise Writing then 90% chances that you will get same every time.
• Student got = 07/08 in topic – Word Choice then high chances i.e. more chances to get 100% over here to get all correct.
• Inference: To get more marks in the less time, you should first focus in the Word Choice topic.
Topic-wise analysis to gain 4 points in Math
Preparation as per Priority
Based on the above subjects and topic analysis, student’s priority of preparation should be:
• Priority 1- If you solve at least 04 more questions correctly in Math then your raw score will be 56 and Raw Score 56 ? Scaled Score 780.
• Priority 2- If you solve at least 03 more questions correctly in Writing & Language then your Raw Score will be 43 and Raw Score 43 ? Scaled Score 38.
• Priority 3- If you solve at least 02 more questions correctly in Reading then your Raw Score will be 45 and Raw Score 45 ? Scaled Score 34. • Final SAT Total Score will be (780+(38+34)*10)= 1500.
Conclusion
Here is the final strategy:
• Decide the target score goal.
• Take the mock-up test.
• Find the difference between the Test score and Targeted score.
• Analyze the mock-up test.
• Identify the strong and areas of improvement in subject-wise and topic-wise.
• Prepare first high priority subject and topics.
• Take practice individual subject test to check the improvement.
• Take full length test before actual test.
To learn the strategy download the Socrato ebook strategies-to-prepare-sat-in-an-effective-way
To learn more about Socrato SAT practice Test grading please visit
