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– My Recommendations –

Now that you know the major tips on improving your score, the important next step is to act on them. Here's a step-by-step plan to build a strong foundation for your studying.

Step 1: Build Your Motivation

+Goal: Study More Hours

By studying the latest research in psychology and behavioral science, I've come up with a framework for motivating students to put in more study time. I call it the Big Picture/Little Picture method.

The Big Picture is that your SAT score determines between 30 to 50% of whether you get into college. If you don't meet a school's cutoff scores, you're not getting in. So right now, you should make a list of schools you want to get into, calculate your SAT target score, and paste it on your wall. I've written a free guide for how to calculate your target score here.

While the Big Picture is powerful, it's too far into the future to be effective by itself. That's where the Little Picture comes in. SAT prep as a single giant task is way too difficult - it's like trying to run a marathon or lose 20 pounds at once. You need to break up the giant SAT test into small, manageable parts. Set a weekly study schedule for yourself, and use a calendar to make sure that you stick to it. You need to see that putting in time really does raise your score. Then you’ll build a habit of studying for the SAT through internal motivation.

Step 2: Diagnose Your Weaknesses

+Goal: Understand Your Study Needs

The SAT has over 30 skills that you need to master across reading, math, and writing. Even within a subtopic like Algebra, there are different skills such as linear equations, word problems, and functions.

The first step is to take a full-length diagnostic test. After you score the test, you need to categorize the questions by skill. Finally, you should calculate your level in each skill based on the questions you got correct. For example, if you got 20% of inference questions incorrect on the Reading section, but 80% of big picture questions, then you know that you're weaker at inference questions. I recommend using a spreadsheet software like Excel to keep track.

Note that this requires you to first understand what skills are tested on the SAT, and then to be able to categorize questions by skill.

Step 3: Get Focused Practice

+Goal: Customize Your Prep to Yourself

Now that you have a list of your strengths and weaknesses, you need to train the focused areas with focused practice. If you're weak in subject/verb agreement, you need to drill this grammar rule over and over again until you master it. Very few books organize their questions as precisely as you need, so make sure you find the right program for you.

Remember: don't just take the easy way out and read a book cover to cover. This is an absolute waste of your time.

This is a lot of work, but it's how you make your learning efficient and get the most out of each precious hour.

Step 4: Review Every Single Mistake

+Goal: Don't Make the Same Mistake Twice

For every single question you get wrong, you MUST understand WHY you got it wrong, and you must know how to AVOID this mistake in the future.

To do this, you need a set of practice questions that have detailed answer explanations for each question. The answer explanation should go beyond why the correct answer is correct - it needs to show you how to approach the question from beginning to end and rule out the wrong answers.

If it feels uncomfortable to be reviewing your mistakes, that's because you're challenging yourself to learn. You're forced to confront your thinking process and possibly revise your entire approach to SAT questions. As an analogy, if exercising were as pleasurable as eating ice cream, everyone would be a marathon runner.

I also recommend that you keep a notebook of all your mistakes. You'll create a customized resource for yourself where you can review all your weak points at a moment's notice.

Step 5: Enjoy the Best Scores Possible.

If you follow this plan, you stand the best chances of getting extremely high SAT scores.

Be sure to check out my personal SAT program:

I hope you found this guide helpful! As always, be sure to send me any questions or comments you have using the “contact” button above, and be sure to check out my other guides to learn more about the best way to prep.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with your prep!

Allen Cheng
Founder, Test Prep Expert

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