Transcript for:
Essential Tips for SAT Success

what's up guys Laura here with STP the August test is right around the corner so whether you're cramming last minute or you've been prepping diligently all summer you've come to the right place this video is going to be my top 10 last minute tips and stick around for all 10 cu I've got some killer tips for you to really help you hit your goal on this August test and speaking of goals comment below and let me know what you're trying to achieve on this August sat is it a300 a, 1400 A500 or more than a 1500 I would love to hear where you're at and where you're trying to get to all right guys so buckle up and think of this video like the rocky Montage of your sat Journey minus the running up the stairs [Music] part quick shout out to our sponsor preply the OG digital SAT prep app that's available in the App Store and in Google Play guys if you've been slacking on your SAT prep now is the perfect time to go download preply I'll link it up here for you it's super easy you can access over a thousand exclusive questions right from the palm of your hand on your phone so go ahead get that today and get that last minute prep in before your test [Music] all right let's get into these tips tip number one you may need to read the bullet points on the note taking questions yes yes you have heard me correctly gone are the days where you could just read the question and answer it and completely ignore the bullet points and the notes how do I know this well July 2024 let's rewind a month ago College Board changed a bunch of questions in Blue Book tests 1 through three so I actually made a document that highlights all the changes college board made to those original tests and I'm linking it below for you guys so go check that out but one major change that was made came on Test 2 module 2 number 27 they implemented a brand new not taking question that's harder than the others where you actually have to read the bullet point to get it right why would they Implement such a question might you ask well probably because they're intending this school year to test note taking questions that way as well so I would anticipate at least one question like that on your test what I did was I actually screenshotted that particular note taking question and put it right in the document for you guys I would practice that question before your test for sure all right tip number two we are anticipating a hard hard graph question on module 2 this is for the same reason as mentioned in the last tip College Board also implemented a tougher graph question in um test one module 2 so this graph question requires you to have to read the entire paragraph under the graph to get enough context to be able to answer the question so keep that in mind you might not be able to cut corners and just skip down to the last sentence or two on your test all right guys before I get to the last tip I must say if you have not subscribed to my channel yet I'm extremely disappointed in you I don't know what you are waiting for if you're planning to take another sat after the August make sure you hit that subscribe button and notification Bell now because I come out with useful tips every week to help you master this test and hit your goal all right tip number three I would say make sure you are aware of all the math concepts that digital sat is going to test you on do you know the distance formula do you know the circle equation do you know how to get the midpoint etc etc if you need to brush up on your math concepts a great resource for that is actually the preply app preply is a subscription app but there's also a free version and the flashcards are free so I would go into prle and look at all the math flashcards before your test quiz yourself and make sure you know all those Concepts before you go in and let's guys if you want to do more in the preply app get a subscription practice some questions you can just get a Weekly subscription and then cancel it right after your test all right tip number four you can warm up in the parking lot at the test site and when I say warm up I mean warm up your brain because athletes warm up their bodies before they have a big game why would it be no different with your mind so what I did was I created a document for all of you I've been feeling very generous lately if you haven't if you couldn't tell and I'm linking it down in the description below this document is 10 pretty simple basic English questions that are designed to get your brain woken up and you thinking about how you're going to tackle the questions on the test so I would recommend you print out this document go in your car get to the test site and in the parking lot do those 10 questions before you go into the test it'll be a great warmup for you now just as a disclaimer I did not include the answers on purpose I don't want you checking answers to see if you're right or not this is an exercise to warm up your brain and remember when you're in the real test you can't check to see if you're right or not all right tip number five start at number 15 on the English modules if you struggle with time on English module 2 especially this is a great strategy for you it's designed very simply with the easier questions in mind to bang them out first and then get to the hard more time timec consuming ones last you know I want to just collect as many points as I possibly can as quickly as I can right so if you start at 15 you're going to hit up the grammar the transitions the note taking then loop back to the words in context those are all the quickest easiest questions to do guys and then you can save those harder reading questions that are more cognitively challenging for last which also it's nice to do it that way because it'll warm your brain up with the quicker easier questions so that you'll be ready for those more timec consuming challenging questions later all right tip number six and this is very important I've seen and heard of too many students messing this up you want to make sure that you pick up the pace on both module twos of English and math guys listen module one is going to be pretty straightforward you can go at a very leisurely pace and get through it with time to spare probably but the problem is you you get accustomed to that pace so that when you get to module 2 it's very easy to continue at that same leisurely Pace but is I'm sure many of you know from taking a digital sat already the difficulty level goes from zero to 100 so I want you to reset after you're done with module one and remind yourself okay I'm going to be an entirely different student on this next module I'm going to pick up the pace I'm going to go M much faster with purpose than I did on module one that will ensure you don't run out of time and it will help you get through the question tip number seven don't leave anything blank guys just give yourself a chance of picking up the point so if you're stuck and you're not sure put down your best guess if it's a math question and there's a range of numbers pick a middle number that gives you the highest probability of getting it right if it's one of those um Student Response questions where you actually have to type an answer in put three I've seen three come up as the right answer more than any other answer ever on those fill-in response questions I would also say to make sure that you spend no more than a minute to a minute and a half on most of the questions because you want to give yourself a chance to get to the other questions down the line and if you spend five minutes on one question you might rob yourself of an opportunity to pick up more points on questions you do Vibe with so make sure that you're flagging questions guessing and moving on if you need to I always say to my students surrender to win tip number eight please don't forget to use Desmos what I want you to do is repeat after me right now Desmos is my friend okay tomorrow morning or whenever you take your test I want you to get in front of the mirror when you're brushing your teeth and I want you to say that three times over guys Desmos is amazing if you don't know how to use it check out YouTube resources search for Desmos like tips and tricks they're all over the place I have some on my channel too make sure you use Desmos on test day tip number nine skip the geometry questions and save them for last I think that this is pretty obvious but geometry questions are much more time consuming than the other types of math questions often you have to draw a picture or replicate a picture on your scrap paper you might need to figure figure out how to draw in extra lines and make different shapes out of the picture there's a lot of thinking outside of the box that goes on and you might try something and get stuck and then have to Pivot so you want to save those geometry questions for last make sure you're prioritizing easier questions first all right last and final tip tip number 10 and this was given to me by one of my students you know who you are out there and basically we were working together the other day and what this person said to me was they approach the reading passages like their stories and the reasoning behind this was it helps them see it as more of an interesting passage where they can learn something from it versus a cumbersome sat passage that's uninteresting and that you know they're just trying to plow through and I thought that that was a really cool idea you know if you approach the reading passage like it's a story and genuinely get some interest in it and learn something from it you're in the right frame of mind to be able to process more of it and get to the right answer all right guys to recap my top 10 August last minute tips we have tip number one you may have to read the bullet points on a note-taking question tip number two you will likely have a tough graph question where you have to read the entire paragraph under the graph tip number three make sure you brush up on all the math concepts and formulas you need to know for the SAT a great resource for this is the prle app flashcards tip number four do a warm-up in the parking lot at the test site tip number five start at number 15 on the English modules tip number six make sure you pick up your pacing on the second modules of both English and math tip number seven don't leave anything blank tip number eight don't forget to use Desmos tip number nine skip geometry questions and save them for last and last but not least tip number 10 view each reading passage as if it's a story all right big thanks to the preply app for making this video possible I will link it up here again so you can get those extra reps in this week if you made it to the end of this video I appreciate you so much let me know by putting the top secret code words in in the comments below put angel hair pasta for me then I'll know you made it to the end and stuck it out with me and it'll be pretty funny because we're going to confuse a lot of people that decided not to make it all the way to the end all right guys until next time happy prepping good luck on your test on Saturday peace out