September 20, 2006
Posted by Sam Jackson
SAT Test Prep… the really fast way
I'm registered to take the October 1st SAT, since I wasn't totally thrilled with my leftover scores from my 10th grade year. A year and a half later, I think I can improve on that original score... After all, that was the first time I had ever taken the SAT.
I think it's reasonably well established that the best way to prep for tests is to take them; practice tests serve as a substitute to the real thing. In preparation for my sitting, then, I decided a while ago to set aside part of today to take a practice test. However, the SAT is really, really, boring if you take the entire thing straight through for hours and hours. That's the "endurance" element of the test that's so stupid and irrelevant.
My solution? I would take the entire test, every section... but without test proctors, there was no one to stop me from going from one section to another during all my free time after I finished each section early. Without taking any breaks for the bathroom or water or sunlight or anything like that, I figured, I could save myself a lot of time.
Turns out I was correct! I did the entire SAT I Reasoning practice test, sans essay, in less than an hour and a half. Now, I'm not sure how useful that was as a predictive measure of my test-taking performance or ability, but it was much better than the interminable waiting I usually associate with standardized tests that I finish early.
The problem will be in finding parts I don't do very well--I introduced a lot of error, in that respect, by not really waiting for anything. I decided to use this practice test to gauge my raw intuition, too, which meant (more or less) almost no answer-checking. This is not something I would ever do on an actual test, mind you.
The results were still good, though the book only gave me a "range" for my scaled scores. The high end of that range was about 150 points above the last time I took the test, so I'm going to assume that means that even in the context of my illegitimate amphetamine-themed test taking experiment, I've improved. What this really speaks to is the ridiculousness of the test in general and the failures of the format.
It sure would be a lot nicer if it was just timed to one and a half hours and the scores were curved...
College mini-fair updates later today, unless I don't get to them until late late tonight after the internet is gone. I have some a lot to do today, but the updates will be around... sometime.
I'm currently a rising senior at Yale University and I've been blogging about college admissions and higher education marketing trends since I began my college application process in 2005. I now also write about my experience here at Yale.
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