SAT & ACT

More than two million students take the SAT & ACT tests each year and most colleges use the results to help them make decisions regarding their applicants.  A good score on the SAT and ACT can make any application stand out, while a poor score can damage your chances to be accepted to the school of your choice.

There are ways to improve your preparedness for these tests in order to achieve the best results possible.  For examples of what essays score better than others, click here.

Collegeboard.com has some great tips for taking standardized tests.  The following are some great tips:

Approaches to help you do your best on the SAT Subject Tests

1. Know when. Take the Subject Tests when the content is fresh in your mind. That is often at the end of the course for subjects like biology, chemistry, and world history. It could also be after you have studied a subject for several years (a language, for example). Your teacher or counselor can help you decide.
2. Know what to expect. Become familiar with the organization that administers the tests you'll be taking, the types of questions you'll see, and various test day procedures.
3. Know the test directions. For every five minutes spent reading directions, you will have five fewer minutes available to answer questions. Learn directions now.
4. Do the easier questions first. The easier questions are usually at the beginning of a grouping of questions. You can earn as many points on easy questions as you can on hard ones.
5. Know how the tests are scored. You get one point for each right answer and lose a fraction of a point for each wrong answer. You neither gain nor lose points for omitting an answer.
6. Guess smart. If you can rule out one or more answer choices for a multiple-choice question, your chance of guessing correctly among the remaining choices improves. If you have no clue as to the correct answer, random guessing is not to your advantage. You should omit questions only when you really have no idea how to answer them.
7. Use the test book for scratchwork to cross off answers you know are wrong, and to mark questions you did not answer. Be sure to mark your answers on the separate answer sheet because you won't receive credit for any answers you marked in the test book.
8. Don't make extra marks on the answer sheet. The answer sheet is machine scored, and the machine can't tell an answer from a doodle.
9. Get familiar with the SAT Subject Tests answer sheet. A copy appears in the back of Real SAT Subject Tests. Your school library should have a copy of this publication.
10. You may use a calculator on the Mathematics Level 1 and Mathematics Level 2 tests only.
11. Take an acceptable CD player and extra batteries to the test center if you are registered for any of the listening tests. Test centers will not have extra CD players or batteries for your use.