SAT is a standardized exam that puts both, the international students and the domestic students at the same level. SAT is organized six times a year internationally and is scored out of 1600 points. The SAT has two sections: Mathematics and Evidence-based reading & writing, a score of 800 points each. There is another optional section of essay writing, which is scored out of 12 points. The SAT identifies four key components which are:

1. Critical reading
2. Writing
3. Math
4. Essay writing (optional)

Scoring well on the SAT is very important as it’s one of the first things that universities in the US look at when shortlisting applicants. Here are some tips on how to get a good score on the SAT:

• Increase your vocabulary:

For the SAT, you need to learn lots of new words as there are strong chances that you may encounter at least 3-4 words that you have never heard of. For that, take a look at the sample papers or the modules designed for the SATs. You can even download some dictionary apps on your mobile phone which have ‘word of the day’ feature. This will help you in improving your vocabulary. 

• Brush up your reading skills:

The questions based on the comprehension in the reading section do not come with straight answers and you may even be lost when finding some of the answers, so it is better to practice lots of comprehensions before you sit for the exam. Practicing these will help you save some time during the final test and will help you get familiar with the pattern of the test. 

• Time management:

Time management is very important. If you waste your time by getting distracted or spending a lot of time on a single question, you will not be able to complete the test. So, work at good speed from the very beginning so that you have some time for revision at the end of each section.

• Don’t easily trust the ‘no change’ option:

The grammar section has a portion where you need to find the grammatical errors within the sentences. Since it is an international exam, you can be sure that you won’t be getting simple questions where you can easily find the errors. And to confuse you more, there will be an option, ‘No change’ which implies that the sentence is correct. Don’t just fall for that! If you are getting the ‘No change’ answer, cross-check whether you are correct and only then opt for that answer because in most cases, there is some error that is usually present in those sentences. So, don’t go for ‘no change’ answer before rechecking it, at least twice. 

• Verify your math answers:

Be precise in the mathematics portion, as a single careless mistake will give you the wrong answer and that answer may also be given as one of the options. Considering, you are doubtful and have some time to spare, verify your answer by back solving the question. You can also search for the correct answer by back solving, just put one of the answers in the question and see if it is giving the desired result. This method will help you a lot, especially in algebra and the majority of the advanced math questions!

• Skip the hard questions:

Finding any question very hard? If yes, skip that question and save it for the last; otherwise, you will end up wasting so much time that you will not get the time to solve the questions you can easily solve.

• Don’t be afraid of guess-and-tick:

There isn’t any negative marking in this test and marks won’t be deducted for any wrong answer. So, don’t leave any question unmarked and if in case you don’t know the answer, make a guess and mark that. It might even be correct!

Do follow these steps and you will surely score well in your SAT. At last, practice-practice-practice is the only mantra that you should follow instead of just chanting. Get in touch with mentors at UniRely and learn how they received perfect scores on the SAT.