TPS - SAT Tips

The purpose of this page is to provide you with a range of advice and tips that are provided among the more credible websites and YouTube videos. AS well, I will give a couple textbooks that seem to be the best. Beyond what I give, it is important to use your own searches for sources. You can be overloaded so keep the list manageable.

As well, I will post a new tip every week and archive them on my SAT blog.

Free SAT Websites and Blogs

There are a number of good SAT websites that seem to give credible information and give you a lot of detail on the test itself. 

1. The first one is the SAT official site with its separate sites for practice in reading and writing tips  and is by Collegeboard, the same organization that runs the tests, so it is reliable. I like it especially for its study plan . Its disadvantage is that it is a huge site, which could be thought of as a disadvantage but you tend to get information overload and it is not so easy to navigate.
2. The second site I quite like is Major Tests . It has a simple, easy to navigate layout and it has over 50 practice tests. They do not ask you to register or create usernames and passwords. 
3. The third is by Princeton Review .  This is a fairly established tutor site (since 1981). It has a really detailed menu but remains quite simple to navigate and gives you all kinds of information including a good comparison between ACT and SAT and it does not require registration or passwords but does want you to enter a zip code (just key in any fake one). The only disadvantage is that about half of the sites are designed to get you to register for one of their tutorial programs but what they do offer for free is solid.
4. A fourth one is called 4tests . It doesn't give a lot of advice but it gives the easiest to use practice exams and that alone makes it worth bookmarking.
5. My fifth selection I would recommend is called About.com Testprep . There is a Test prep expert who has put together a good website with both good tips and practice.  
6. An excellent blog for reading is one that is called The Ultimate SAT Verbal . It no longer posts its new stuff on this blog and now posts to The Critical Reader. There is a focus on reading but it is just loaded with great advice and provides guidance in areas the other ones do not.
7. This next one, called Free Rice is primarily designed for vocabulary building and has levels from 1-60. It is actually a charity and when you get an answer correct you donate rice to the hungry. Although not necessarily specific to SAT, it helps it and you feel as if you are doing something worthwhile beyond just getting a better SAT score. Start with the hardest levels and work your way down but do not be surprised of you get them all wrong at the highest levels.
8. If you are looking for an app try the website prepfactory which has an app that promises that they "make SAT suck a little less".

For free apple itunes Apps,  I would recommend the Official Sat Question of the Day, (Collegeboard app)  and Sat-up


There are, of course a lot more so if you do a google search  on "Best SAT Websites" you can see a whole lot more. The ones I have mentioned are just my opinion. I would recommend you to exhaust the free ones before paying any website because in test prep the adage "you get what you pay for" does not hold very well, quite honestly in many cases.

SAT YouTube Videos 

YouTube is full of SAT advice but the quality of many of them is questionable and a lot of them will just tell you things that really anyone could, and that you already know. They may give earth shattering titles but really only give motherly advice like "be confident" and "get lots of sleep". Since you are not paying anything, it is worthwhile to look at a variety of them and see what is common.  Don't be put off that they are eventually advertisements for their services. We are all trying to make a living!

1. Just as a start, I would recommend you look through Prep Interactive . These are 4 videos, none of them brilliant but they just give short pieces of general advice and I find them quite sensible.
2. Another is the famous Khan Activity. You have to hand it to this person - he does his best to keep it simple and manageable but he only does the math section
3. Kaplan Academy puts out good YouTube videos. It is professionally done and even if you do not agree with some of the advice as being time consuming and impractical, it makes you think before you do. Do not feel guilty if you feel like throwing away some of the advice if you feel it does not suit your style. There is one on reading and one on writing
4. Reason Prep Boot-camp absolutely is the most generous of all of them, giving about 6 really good ones until he then asks you to join. I have my issues with some of what he advises in his "boot-camp" but you have to be appreciative of what is offered and it really gives you some great ideas that can work into your own style.
   
5. It doesn't hurt to take whatever advice Shaun Patel gives in his Veritas YouTube videos. This is a fellow that scored a perfect 2400 and now is in the business of helping others in SAT. He obviously would like you to enroll in his program but does give things away a lot for free, advice which is pretty sensible.

Texbooks

1. The official SAT study guide by CollegeBoard Textbook is a very good source of both advice and practice exams, and although it is a huge book to go through, it is a valuable source. You will likely find it in a library and although it is always nice to have the latest version, it is not that necessary. You can also order it on Amazon.     
2. Barrons is another reliable and comprehensive book, albeit like the Collegeboard book, thoroughly boring! It is not meant to excite you but it is well worth reading through.
3. A more interesting one is called Boot Camp for Your Brain: A No-Nonsense Guide to the SAT Paperback – Feb 6 2014 by M. Denmark Manning. Make no mistake - this book expects you to work hard 
4. SAT 2400 in Just 7 Steps by Shaan Patel (the perfect score guy) published by McGraw Hill is a book that many students love for its simplicity and user-friendly manner. Arguably it may give the false impression that the journey can be circumvented by special tricks, but it is a welcome alternative from the boring Collegeboard, Barrons, Kaplan approach.
   

SAT Tip #3   (Go to TPS SAT Blog for previous tips)

Doing Well in the Sentece Completion of the SAT Critical Reading Section

  The critical reading section has a sentence completion section which often gives students problems

1. Skip if taking too much time but mark it to recall.

2. Deduction is essential. Eliminate one blank at a time. With two-blank questions, try eliminating some answers based on just one blank. If one word in an answer doesn't make sense in the sentence, then you can rehect the entire choice.

3. Look at + and – and the double negatives. Be aware that some of the most difficult sentence completion questions conttain negatives, which can make following the logic of the sentences challenging.


 [click to keep reading - this is continued on SAT Blog along with other tips]

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