SAT Advice for a Foreign Student?

An anonymous reader asks: "I am a student from the UK who is currently in the process of applying to a university in the US. This means that I need to take the SAT Reasoning Test. I have read study guides and seen sample questions, but the more I look around the more I seem to be seeing general 'study skills' information aimed primarily at explaining how to learn rather than what to learn, which results in a lot of pages to work through for seemingly little data. What would help me immensely is any kind of resource aimed at an audience unfamiliar with the tests. Does anyone have a link to a list of exactly what I am expected to know and in what detail I need to know it, as well as anything else that can help me prepare for the exams?"

Comments

Online SAT prep

[frenetic3]

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-fren

I second that

[Sycraft-fu]

Study the test, don't study for the test. Learn how it's written, how it's graded, what kinds of things they are likely to ask you, etc. These tests are predictable and thus you can study them, and in doing so you can do better than otherwise. Unless the quality has gone down, I recommend the Princeton Review books on the topic. That's what I used (though it was 10 years ago).

My testimonial: I took the SAT, got a 1270. According to ETS (the people who make the SAT) I was unlikely to gain any score on a retake, in fact they claimed statistically I was likely to lose a couple points. They were correct in that there really wasn't anything I could think to study more of. I knew how to do everything on the test in general, it's not like there was some math I hadn't learned yet or anything, I just screwed some things up, mostly in the English section.

So what'd I do? Got a Princeton Review book ans studied the test, rather than studying for the test. 9 months later, I took it again, having learned really nothing more that was applicable to the test in school. That time I got a 1380, the big improvement being in the English section. Wasn't because I got smarter, wasn't because I learned more for the test, it was because I studied the test itself.

As an example something I made big gains in was vocabulary. I had a good vocabulary prior to the SAT, but just not in the kinds of words they liked in general. Well the book identified a hitlist of 275 words that ETS just loves to use on that damn test. So I learned those (275 words sounds like a lot but it really isn't). Sure enough, over half the words on the test came from that list, mostly the hard ones.

Also it gave valuable insights about test construction, like that they order the questions by difficulty and one of the ways they make hard questions is with "idiot attractor" answers. They'll put an answer down that looks intuitively right, but is wrong. So on the first questions, the intuitive answer is the one to go for, and the last few, you don't.

Now you'll want to get a current book as they could have changed it and there's at least one major new part: The writing test, which we didn't have. However I think you'll find that provided you have a good, pre university education (in the case meaning good math education through algebra and some trig and good English skills) your time is best spent studying the test itself rather than the material they claim it'll be covering.

Learn the rules of the game, and you'll find it much easier.