Tips to Prepare Your Child for the SAT/ACT
For high school juniors, seniors, and their parents, this time of year can be ominous as the dark cloud of the SAT or ACT loom on the horizon, with so much pressure riding on one 4-hour test. However, with the proper preparation, students can alleviate the stress, and be ready to conquer the exam. Here are a few tips on how to properly prepare to make the whole situation a little less scary.
- Build endurance: The SAT and ACT are mental marathons. Anyone attempting to conquer 4 hours worth of difficult questions needs to have had the training to do well. Prep courses that review strategy and content, and feature full-length practice exams are the best way to get a student ready to know what lies ahead, and how to tackle it.
- Pay Attention in English Class: These standardized tests are meant to draw on the skills students are honing at school. Whether the topic in class is focused on critical reading or on structuring an essay, those skills are all vital to doing well on the SAT or ACT.
- Brush Up on Old Math Skills: The SAT and ACT don’t require much math skills beyond Trigonometry. The main focus of the math sections is on Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, and Data Analysis. Some of these topics may not have been covered for years, so brush up on some of the topics and strategies from Math Classes past.
- Get Started Early and Consistently: Cramming never works for school and it definitely won’t help for rigorous tests like the SAT or the ACT. Schedule at least an hour or two each week for practice, or a just a little bit of preparation every day; the time can add up and lead to mastery of the test.
With this plan of attack, the dark cloud should be looking a little clearer. The test is difficult but it can be conquered with the adequate preparation.
