Top Three Study Habits to Adopt

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 11/12/2014 - 19:33

This tip for improving your SAT score was provided by Jake Davidson at Veritas Prep.

Cramming doesn’t work on the SAT. Unlike finals or other high school tests, the SAT isn’t testing you on a specific set of criteria from one period of learning. Instead, it is a combination of years of education and your ability to take the test. With this in mind, it is very important for students to develop good study habits in order to succeed on the SAT. These are the three most effective and important study habits to develop for the test.

Study vocabulary daily. There are 19 questions that test straight vocabulary on the test. This is really the only section of the SAT on which one can simply memorize and succeed. Each question tests your knowledge of five to 10 vocabulary words, so  anywhere from 95 to 190 words are tested.

To make sure you are able to master all these words, it would be wise to study for 15 to 30 minutes daily for a few months leading up to the test. Each day you should learn anywhere from five to 10 words while reviewing old words as well. If you are able to master anywhere from 500 to 700 of the most common words used on the SAT, you will see a dramatic increase in your score.

This can take you from answering 11 or 12 vocabulary questions right to getting closer to 17 or 18. Depending on your starting score, you could jump up 100 points, just from vocabulary.

Take practice tests. This one is pretty simple. The more you practice the better you will do. As you take more practice tests, you will become more familiar with the test.

Here are a few important notes to remember when taking practice tests. First, you should approach these practice tests as if they are the real thing. In other words, practice how you are going to play. This means waking up early on Saturday morning in the weeks leading up to the test. It means taking the test as a whole, timed as you would be on the real test. It is important to put away the phone and take breaks only when you would be permitted on the SAT.

This will help build up the testing endurance to make sure you don’t get mentally fatigued on the real test. If you are used to waking up early on Saturday mornings and taking a four-hour test, the SAT experience won’t be daunting or unsettling. This will allow you to focus solely on the test, without distractions. This is an important aspect that should not be discounted in preparing for it.

Review of practice tests. This is a crucial aspect of test preparation, but it’s constantly overlooked. It is not enough to simply take the tests. It is important to also review the tests, because that is where learning and pattern recognition takes place.

If you take a practice test on Saturday, you should dedicate 30 minutes to an hour each day during the week to review the test. On average, it should take about 30 minutes to review a section. This means identifying the problems you got wrong or had trouble with and figuring out what type of question it was and what gave you trouble. It isn’t as important to get the question right as it is to understand the methodology behind the question so you can get similar ones right next time.

These three study habits are the cornerstones of an excellent SAT study plan. If you spend the majority of your time in these three areas of study, your SAT score will inevitably increase.

Plan on taking the SAT soon? Take advantage of Veritas Prep’s free SAT resources, including free SAT video lessons.

Article references
www.businessweek.com