How to Ace the SAT in Three Weeks Part 5: Writing, Multiple Choice

Format

The SAT Writing Section is divided into three sections: one 25-minute essay, one 25-minute multiple choice section, and one 10-minute multiple choice section. The multiple choice questions consist of improving sentences, identifying sentence errors, and improving paragraphs. They are arranged in ascending difficulty per section, with the 10-minute section always being the final part of the exam.

Preparation Materials

• Official SAT Study Guide

• Material from The RocketReview Revolution: The Ultimate Guide to the New SAT

Guide

The Writing multiple choice is one of my favourite sections, and it’s not because I’m a stickler for proper English. In my opinion, it’s the easiest section to study for three reasons:

How to Ace the SAT in Three Weeks Part 4: Math

Format

The Math section is divided into two 25-minute sessions and one 20-minute session, for a total of 44 multiple choice and 10 grid-in questions.  The questions in each section are presented in the order of difficulty.

Preparation Materials

• Official SAT Study Guide
• Casio fx-300MS Scientific Calculator

Guide

The Math section loosely touches upon four major concepts:

1. Numbers and Operations
2. Algebra and Functions
3. Geometry and Measurement
4. Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability

Unlike the Math II Subject Test, the Math section on the Logic and Reasoning test requires very little memorization of facts and formulas.  If you’ve paid attention in math class, you should have the necessary knowledge to work out the questions.  The trick is to be familiar with the types of questions commonly asked on the test and learn how to solve them efficiently.  Rather than going over all the individual topics or reiterating general test-taking strategies, this post will cover some of the idiosyncrasies of the exam and how you can exploit them.

How to Ace the SAT in Three Weeks Part 3: Critical Reading, Passage-based Reading

Format

The Critical Reading section is divided into two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section, with each section ending with passage-based reading.  Passages generally range from 100-900 words, and are presented from shortest to longest.  Most questions will include line numbers indicating the location of the information in the passage.

Preparation Materials

• Official SAT Study Guide

Guide

The primary quandary I had with passage-based reading was how exactly to approach it.  I’ve broken it down into 4 methods.  These aren’t the only way to do it, nor are they mutually exclusive.

How to Ace the SAT in Three Weeks Part 2: Critical Reading, Sentence Completion

Since this is the first actual “guide” post of the series, I’d like to emphasize the fact that these are the methods I personally used to prepare for the SAT in three weeks.  There are plenty of great study guides out there jam-packed with useful information; however, under the time constraints, it would’ve been a waste of time for me to learn and implement too many strategies.  I felt it was best to stick few solid principles, ones that I’ve had success with in previous standardized testing situations.  However, I have stumbled upon a couple tricks which I feel could be beneficial, even though I didn’t use them.  These are included as well, but I’ll indicate whenever I mention a tool I didn’t actually use.  They won’t make or break your SAT score, but they can make a difference.

How to Ace the SAT in Three Weeks Part 1

The SAT stirs up an aura of apprehension matched by no other standardized test of its kind.  Being a Canadian student, I’m not compelled to go through this dreaded ordeal.  However, I felt it would be an intriguing self-learning project, so I set out to see if I could ace the SAT… with three weeks of preparation.