When to start sat test prep
How to Self Study for the New SAT® Test
hey guys it's Brooke with super tutor TV
and today I'm going to tell you how to
self-study for the new SAT if you're
here I assume that you are interested in
improving your SAT score in some way
what I'm going to recommend to you is
actually the exact same process that I
do as a private tutor
you go you take a practice test so even
if you already took the PSAT you can
either take that PSAT and do this
process on the PSAT or you can take a
new practice test either way you go over
each question you got wrong and you ask
yourself why did I get this question
wrong and what can I do to get it right
the next time those are the questions
that you're going to be asking yourself
over and over again but also in that
process what you want to be asking
yourself is what is the fundamental
problem that I'm having that is causing
me to get this type of question wrong
and how can I fix that problem I'm going
to talk about four different categories
that I see is a private tutor and how I
address those categories so the first
category I want to talk about is if
you're rusty a lot of times what might
happen on a question on the SAT is you
look at it and you go oh my goodness I
totally used to know how to do that but
I forget how to do it now so if that's
kind of what's going on one of the best
things that you can do is review usually
my first line of defense is doing basic
review and what I mean by basic review
is going back and finding worksheets
that are very simple and very
straightforward and aren't as complex as
a normal SAT problem one of my favorite
sites for very basic review is a
worksheet site called CUDA software they
have free worksheets your teachers might
use them at school even you can go there
you can just review your basic skills
the other place that I go for a review
of basic skills is actual math books so
sometimes with my students depending on
how much review they need if they're
really really rusty and they really
totally spaced and forget the math
principles that are behind the question
itself we will go back to their math
book so if you get a hold of your
algebra 1 algebra 2 geometry book you
can also go to the library to get a hold
of those or you can look for some online
and you can go and look up the chapter
on whatever it is that you're rusty on
so you can review it maybe even do the
odds and then in the chapter and look up
the answers in the back of the book and
check yourself that's another thing that
I do as a tutor to try to help people
get less rusty and get sharp enough to
be able to do this test
even the complex questions on the test
now once you're less rusty on the basics
you can also get a little bit less rusty
on the more complex questions and that
you can do through drills on the Khan
Academy website the Khan Academy website
basically in the math section
everything is subdivided by individual
question type which is amazing and you
can go and just drill down whatever it
is that you're having trouble with um
you can even import your PSAT into Khan
Academy and it will tell you what level
you're at on all the different questions
and then you can address the stuff that
you're on movie level one or level two
one first and then move up to the higher
levels obviously math is something that
people are more rusty on usually than
reading or writing but sometimes I see
that people are rusty on their grammar
skills meaning they kind of know grammar
but they kind of forgot it so if you're
rusty on your grammar skills you can
also go and get a grammar book of some
sort I recommend getting a book that's
by say like an independent tutor or
something like that where they really
delineate it out each rule that you have
to know and then giving you a little
practice set to help drill into your
head what that rule is the next area
that you want to be aware of or
sensitive to as you're going over your
practice test is if you are too slow if
you're not reading fast enough you
should check out my video on speed
reading not all of it applies I wouldn't
really listen to the stuff about not
some vocalizing because that's like a
skill that takes forever to learn but
you can build some better habits in
terms of reading and if you take a look
at that video there's some ideas there
that might help you out another tip that
I have is before you just start timing
yourself and getting out a stopwatch and
trying to speed up sometimes that's not
actually the best way to speed up
imagine if you're playing a musical
instrument and you have a really
difficult challenging passage right
let's say you play the piano you're
going to slow down and you're going to
play it really slowly over and over
again until you build that muscle memory
and you know exactly how the passage
goes and then you can speed up speed up
speed up speed up right and suddenly you
can play it at full speed and then you
can play it perfectly if you try to
speed it up immediately what's going to
happen is you're going to make mistakes
and the same thing can happen on the SAT
so I know it's counterintuitive but one
of the tips that I have is if you're
having trouble finishing something in
time slow down first so that you can
build familiarity with the test and
really understand it
once you have mastered the test a little
bit on that slow
angle you can get out that watch or that
stopwatch that you've got and start to
do little times drills the other thing
about timing is you don't just have to
time yourself on the whole expanse of
the exam you can break the exam up into
little sections in the math section you
can even timeout each question itself in
the reading section you might figure out
how long does it take me to take to read
the passage subtract that off the amount
that you have for the passage and then
figure out how much you should be doing
per question there's all sorts of little
things you can do if you just use your
math mind and start meeting things out
into little pieces so that you can drill
yourself and that's something that I do
with my students as well so if you're
slow there are some ideas for how you
can work on your speed next if you're
confused so really what this is about is
content if you're having trouble with
content the best way to work on content
is to learn the content again Khan
Academy is a great resource for going
over individual problems but sometimes
the explanations aren't all there and if
you find that their explanations aren't
good enough for you you might need to
get a supplemental book or something to
help you in terms of the reading section
when it comes to not understanding
material if you're scoring below about a
600 on the reading overall and you know
you're having trouble with the passages
with reading passages I would actually
recommend that you work on your
vocabulary I know you think oh this test
isn't supposed to be about vocabulary
it is about vocabulary you have to have
enough of one to read some pretty
difficult passages so if that's you um
check out our new monix video that is a
great resource for vocabulary ideas and
there's several book series you can also
take a look at one is called vocabulary
workshop another is called worldly-wise
another thing that might be confusing
for you if you're doing some of these
drills on Khan Academy and you've got
the grammar rules you might get to some
of the explanations and it'll say this
is a modifier of blah blah blah or this
is a subject verb agreement error you
might not know what those things mean so
if you're confused by that kind of stuff
one of the best things that you can do
is get ahold of a strategy guide for the
writing section on the SAT a strategy
guide is a little bit different from
like a general test book like this book
is 8 practice tests for the sut that's
not what I'm talking about if you're
gonna get a book I recommend you get
something more like this this is the
college pandas SAT writing I'm working
on a book too eventually it will be out
but go get a book
some sort of independent tutor that goes
through every single grammar rule on the
SAT and that will help you out you will
have more of an idea of what's going on
finally the last area that you want to
try to address potentially is careless
errors I know I make careless errors
that's like the one kind of area that's
the toughest to get rid of so if you
find yourself making a lot of careless
errors or thoughtless mistakes you need
to practice on either building your
focus or building out safety nets for
yourself and there's lots of different
ways to do that you can read every word
you can circle important details you can
reread the question in the math section
before you actually put the answer
choice but every time you go over wrong
answer choice and you have made a
careless error what I like to say is
that's a process error not a careless
error it means something about the
process that you use to do this problem
was not watertight when you go over your
practice tests you have to have your
total analysis cap on it is not just
about you seeing the right answer and
going oh yeah that makes sense that is
not enough you have to see what the
right answer is you have to understand
how you could have gotten to the
conclusion that that was the right
answer in the first place and you have
to adjust your understanding of approach
so that you can get there next time
basically the bottom line is the best
way to self prep is to learn from your
mistakes and then work on your mistakes
I have another video it's called why you
shouldn't study and it's all about the
same idea some people have called it the
testing effect which is this idea of
test yourself and then figure out what
you did wrong and go over it and that's
one of the best ways you can learn if
you're interested in the psychology or
some of the social science studies
behind that idea you should check out
that why you shouldn't study video and
otherwise what I'm going to say is check
out the blog post that has to do with
this whole video and I'm going to give
you a little bit more of an overview of
some of the kinds of materials that you
might want to be using how to distribute
those materials and what kind of a
timeline you might want to build but for
now that's about it I hope you like this
video if you did please give it a thumbs
up and if you're interested in this and
you are honest path to self study and
you've got a few months to do this I
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more resources for you guys down the
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will have for you so check it out thanks
for joining us and I will see all of you
next time on super tutor to be by
