And there are other problems with this idea as well. For instance, if it were true that a particular month reliably attracted the weakest test-takers, then word would quickly spread to all the super-competitive, obsessive test-takers, who would start taking the test that month in order to gain a supposed advantage, and end up canceling out that supposed advantage.
(Of course, there are also other, more technical reasons why this idea is doomed to failure—the sample size is too large, for one thing, and statistical norming doesn’t only take into account the people who take the test with you, for another. But don’t worry about that for now—just remember that you can’t time the test.)
Fact: It’s impossible to time the SAT for a variety of reasons. Just take it when it fits your schedule.
Conclusion
We’ve just gone through several common SAT misconceptions. There are a lot more of them out there—you’re certain to run across more of them as you continue to prepare. Just remember that you should always double-check everything you hear. You don’t want to get a lower score than you deserve because you followed some bad advice.
The Nature of Elite Scores
“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”
- Seneca the Younger
Imagine a hypothetical test with 100 questions of varying difficulty on various subjects. If you needed to answer any one question correctly, you could probably find one that seemed to be the easiest for you, and get it right.
Now imagine that you’re working on the same imaginary test, and you’ve answered 90 questions correctly, and you want to get one more of the remaining ten. The odds are good that you’ve answered all of the questions that were easiest for you. All that are left are the ones you skipped, and now you’re more likely to be stuck than you were when you just started out.
Now imagine that you wanted to get nine of the ten remaining question, or even all ten. It would only get harder and harder, right?
My point is this: The more you improve on any test, the harder it is to keep improving. The more you succeed with the SAT, the rarer your opportunities for future success become. The more questions you master, the closer you come to having to deal with the questions you dislike most if you want to make any progress.
So making an elite score on the SAT (say, an overall score of 2250 or more) will require most people to prepare diligently and intelligently. Let’s talk about how to do that.
Having The Right Attitude.
Your attitude is an important factor in preparing for the SAT.
Accountability
If you want a good score, you have to do it. That sentence is probably the most obvious one in this book, but it’s also the most important. Every other strategy or attitude will fail you unless you take full accountability for your performance.
Many people feel that they have performance anxiety that makes them bad test-takers. Others think the test is biased against them. These people may be absolutely correct, but that will not help them improve their scores. The only thing that will help you improve is diligent, intelligent practice.
Thinking about nonspecific problems that you cannot fix will only distract you from other weaknesses that you can fix. When you conquer all the problems you can pinpoint, you may be surprised to find that there are no others left to deal with.
Persistence
You will fail in some way, however small or large, over the course of your SAT preparation. Everyone does. However, failure is as impermanent as you want it to be. If you are willing to work for it, every failure is literally another opportunity to succeed in the future
Remember to keep working until you achieve the score you want. As your progress becomes more and more difficult, remind yourself that it’s only because you’ve already come so far, and that you can go even further.
Practicing For The SAT
Performing on the SAT, like any other skill, becomes easier if you practice it.
Choosing Your Pace
You will need some amount of some kind of practice; the kind and amount depend on how well you’ve done so far, in which areas, and how well you want to do in the future.
First, at the very least, everyone should become familiar with the question types by reading this Black Book and looking through a copy of the Blue Book (the College Board Publication The Official SAT Study Guide). Most people should take a timed practice SAT from the Blue Book in a reasonably simulated testing environment just to see how they do. However, if you have started early enough, and if you feel comfortable with it, you can just sign up for the test and take it once in order to get a realistic idea of your performance. In either case, the point is to find out where you stand, and which areas need work.