More often than not, students face the most stressful part of high school when they take the SAT in Orinda, or any town, for that matter. Sure, others are excited with the prospect of entering college and making a career choice as soon as they can. However, many students feel the usual anxiety and stress. They wonder if they’ll do well on the SAT exam. Unfortunately, anxiety and stress may affect their ability to score well on their SAT. Too much stress may upset their chance of entering the college or university of their choice, applying for scholarships at some schools, or majoring in their desired course of study. This is why it is important for a student to not be unprepared for the SAT in Orinda.

The SAT is one of two common college admission exams (the other one is the ACT). Please bear in mind, though, that SAT scores or ACT results do not indicate how smart a student is or how high an IQ that a student has. They are designed to gauge a student on how academically successful he or she will be in college. Most colleges and universities check their SAT scores alongside their high school average grades and other factors (like extra-curricular activities) to identify students who have the highest chance of success in college.

Students should realize how important the SAT is; however, they should not feel uncalled-for pressure to achieve high scores. If a student has solid and thorough preparation, as well as peace of mind, he or she will be confident they can pass the SAT. Apex College Prep provides information that will help you prepare for your SAT exams.

Consider taking practice tests. Nothing can prepare you for the actual SAT like taking a practice test. Devote some time every 1-2 weeks to take a full-length, timed practice tests. This will help you to keep track of your progress and also to determine how well you will endure when taking the actual SAT. The SAT test-taking day runs for 3 hours and 45 minutes which is grueling enough. You don’t want the “big day” to be the first time you’re taking a test under this time pressure.

You will also learn different strategies along the way while taking the practice tests. After taking practice tests, you’ll naturally want to check your scores and evaluate your overall performance. You will be able to see on which areas of the exam you’ve done well, and which of the other areas that you’ll need to improve.

Taking practice tests also help you to become familiar with every section of SAT, as well as its instructions and the overall structure. You will also get to know the level of difficulty on every question of the SAT (except of course in the critical reading section). This means that you know the questions at the start of each section should be easily and quickly answered. This will save time for the more difficult questions towards the end of each section.

Even though the critical reading questions are not arranged by level of difficulty, you should find some strategies in answering them. For instance, first you should answer questions that are detail-oriented, then move on to the more general questions in the end.

If you have some difficulty in comprehension, all you have to do is to practice reading. For instance, try reading an article or an excerpt dealing with topics that are unfamiliar, strange or difficult for you. Then try to get the gist of the topic as well as the author’s argument. This will help you build your comprehension skills when you encounter some unfamiliar subject matter in your SAT tests.

Naturally you will need to boost your vocabulary. It doesn’t mean though, that you have to memorize every entry of the dictionary. However, enriching your vocabulary is one of the sure ways to receive higher scores on your SAT exam. In Apex College Prep’s “Reading Club” program, we help students expand their word bank by featuring several vocabulary words that are commonly tested on the SAT in Orinda. By doing this we are developing the students’ reading, comprehension, and critical thinking abilities.

The essay, meanwhile, is always the first section of the test, and always 25 minutes long. We know that planning, writing, editing, and revising in a mere 25 minutes may not always be easy. This structure can be mastered. Do many test-runs of the essay as many as possible; this will help you familiarize with the whole formula. Also, consider creating a time breakdown that will work for you. For example, allot your time in reading the prompt (which tackles on broad issues such as success, failure, honesty, justice, and so on), then on planning, writing, proofreading, and revising. Make sure that you feature two or three relevant examples (such as history or your personal experience) to support your thesis, and end your essay with a conclusion which succinctly summarizes your argument. Of course, your essay should also be grammatically correct, and have words that are spelled correctly.

Math is a common fear for students, while many excel at it. Although teachers praise students who do problem solving by mental abilities alone, fortunately on the SAT exam, the calculator is the saving grace. With the calculator, you are able to save time and help prevent you from committing costly errors, so why wouldn’t you use it? Practice solving formulas using the calculator and familiarize yourself with typing complicated equations so that you will find them relatively easy on the actual day you’ll be taking the SAT. You will also have to familiarize yourself with rules and formulas, especially for geometry, before taking your actual test. You will never get lost in the middle of your SAT exam if you have memorized by heart how the Pythagorean Theorem works. Memorizing geometry formulas will save you precious time and save you from computation mistakes.

The SAT mostly consists of multiple choice-style questioning. Although this is still not easy, multiple-choice gives students an advantage because one of the choices provides the right answer, and that’s reassuring to know. Use deductive reasoning in picking out the correct answer. If you know how to guess wisely, eliminate answer choices before guessing. Using the time-honored process of elimination will improve your odds of choosing the right answer. Remember though, to read the question and all the choices first. This may sound like a no-brainer, but this is an important tip. It may be tempting to pick out the first answer that sounds right especially when you’re under time pressure. However, sometimes an answer that sounds true doesn’t mean that it’s the best answer for the question given.

If you encounter a question which you cannot figure out, skip it. If you spend 10 minutes guessing on one question, you’ll be wasting precious time. If you are finished answering almost all the questions on your exam, you may use your remaining time to go back to the more difficult questions you’ve skipped. Use your time wisely and be aware of your abilities. If you can’t answer a particular question, skip it and move on to the next question.

Among all other things, learn to relax, and don’t feel pressured. If you allow yourself time to review for your SAT exam, you can rest assured that you won’t experience the usual jitters come test day. Don’t panic – close your eyes, take a deep breath, and keep yourself collected. In the few final days before the exam, resist the urge to cram. Instead, you should relax, enjoy, get adequate sleep, fresh air, exercise, and eat foods that will boost your brainpower.

Apex College Prep helps provide students the skills they need to be ready for the SAT in Orinda. Not does only Apex College Prep help the students for the SAT or the ACT, its comprehensive programs also assist students in their admissions to the top colleges and universities in the country.