Getting To and Through the SAT

Illustration by Ki Croom / Special to VOX

By Jasmine Kelly / VOX Staff

My memories were filled with all those precious hours spent on tutoring sessions and my room lay in ruin, scattered with prep books and practice tests. The day I had seemingly waited for all my high school life had arrived —the day I would finally take the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Otherwise known as the SAT, it’s perhaps the single most important gauge of my academic abilities that would ultimately determine what colleges I could get into.

I tried not to let the stress of the situation get to me, but I was really scared the moment I finally sat down with my No. 2 pencil in hand to fill in all those little ovals. Fortunately, I managed to survive the experience to share all that I learned — including how to deal with the expectations of parents, teachers and my own little self — in preparing for the most important test a high school student can take.

Practice Makes Perfect
Luckily, the SAT doesn’t just come up from nowhere and bite you on the behind. You have years to get ready for it. The aphorism “practice makes perfect” may be a cheesy cliché, but it could not be more true in regards to this test. We students can take the Preliminary SAT, a.k.a. the PSAT, as early as our freshman year, and they can take it every year through their junior year. That’s exactly what I did because if I failed miserably the first time, it would be no big deal because I’d have two more shots at it.

The PSAT looks and feels like the SAT with the same general types of questions. Just like the SAT, it has a section on critical reading skills, one on math problem-solving skills and one on writing skills. All test questions have multiple-choice answers, and you’re given a little more than two hours to complete them.

At first I was frightened to take the PSAT — even though it didn’t count — because people said it would be harder than any other test I had taken. They were right. I didn’t score well at all my first time. However, I believe that your success on these types of tests depends on how good of a test taker you are, and I was determined to get better at it. The first test gave me an idea on what specifically I needed to work on.

Each subsequent time I took the PSAT, I did notice a slight improvement in each area. For instance, the first time I took the math portion I scored higher than 50 percent of those who took it; the second time I scored higher than 52 percent. How did I improve? I did it the old-fashioned way, by studying.

Over the summer of my sophomore year, I took an SAT class from Kaplan — a major test prep company — and I found it was very helpful in my quest to achieve higher scores. The questions I had the most difficulty with were the math ones since math is my weakest subject. While I never expected to be able to vastly improve my math abilities overnight, I found strategies to help me eliminate some of the multiple-choice answers on specific questions and boost my chances of answering a question correctly. Above all, I improved my critical thinking.

While this definitely didn’t apply to me, if you place a high enough score on the PSAT — no matter if you’re a freshman, sophomore or junior — you will be automatically put in the running for the prestigious National Merit Scholar award. National Merit Scholars often get top consideration from universities as well as significant scholarships, sometimes even full rides that pay for all four years of college. So while I didn’t take the PSAT totally seriously, if you think you have a chance at National Merit status, you should try to do your best Getting Ready for the Real Thing

OK, so after taking the PSAT multiple times, I had to get ready for the real deal. The first thing I had to do was understand the difference between the PSAT and the SAT.

For one, the scale is different. The PSAT is on a 20-80 scale for each section, while the SAT is 200-800. Basically, all you have to do is multiply your PSAT score by 10 to estimate what your SAT score will be. If only it were that simple. Perhaps the biggest difference between the tests is that the SAT’s writing section requires test takers to write a critical essay rather than to just answer multiple-choice questions. The SAT also assumes that you have more advanced math and critical reading skills. Finally, the SAT takes a lot longer — nearly four hours, in fact.

The next step for me was to pick a date and register for the SAT. Most teens take the test in the spring semester of their junior or senior years. However, because I did not have the time or patience to wait until spring, I decided to take mine on December 2 last year, the end of the fall semester of my junior year. Again, like the PSAT, you’re allowed — even encouraged — to take the SAT multiple times to maximize your scores, and I wanted to give myself every opportunity to do well so I could get into my dream colleges.

Whenever you decide to take the SAT, I recommend registering for it several months before your test date. There’s a lot of people wanting to take the test, too. Test dates and sites fill up fast. Registering early will also give you some time to change your test date if something comes up. I registered online at www.collegeboard.com. The College Board is the company that owns and administers the PSAT and SAT. I found it was very easy — and very reassuring — to register here.

When you register, you also choose your test site. The PSAT is usually administered right at your own high school, but the SAT is given at different sites around Atlanta.

To register online you can use either a credit card, debit card or school voucher. I used a voucher that waived the test fee. Check with your school counselor to see if you qualify for one based on financial need. It’s important to figure out how you’re going to pay for the SAT. It costs a little more than $40 for the standard test, and nearly $20 for each of the subject tests (which include history, science and English, among others) — I did not take any of those since most colleges are satisfied with the standard test. Be careful of additional fees such as the $20.50 it costs to change your test date and $21.50 for registering late.

Additional Preparation
Prepping for the SAT is a little more involved than prepping for the PSAT. After all, the test is considerably different — and more difficult. Some great sources of practice are some self-help SAT guidebooks and CD-ROM discs with practice tests that can be immediately scored. I chose the old-fashioned route and borrowed “Barrons SAT,” an SAT book that was recommended to me by a tutor. The book was very helpful because it broke down the different types of questions that I would find on the test and detailed the best methods to use for each one. It’s important to find the right book — a comprehensive one — because they can get costly.

Study sessions at Kaplan were another great source of help. Everyone in these classes was encouraged to participate, and the teachers were not only young, but fun and kept the energy up so we actively learned. I felt they really cared about how I was going to do on the SAT.

The Day Before the Test
On the day before the SAT, I relaxed and did not sweat the small stuff. I got ready by gathering all my belongings that I needed for the test. You need to have an appropriate form of ID, which includes a school identification card, a driver’s license or a state permit. A Social Security card or birth certificate will not be accepted at your test site. On the day of my test, one student showed up with just his Social Security card and he had to be escorted outside because he insisted it was good enough ID and refused to leave.

Also, I placed my admission ticket by the door so that I wouldn’t forget it the following day. After I finished preparing, I resumed normal activities and acted as if I did not have a big test to take. I called my grandma, and updated my blog on MySpace. I even went and got a new hairstyle because beauty just relaxes me. I felt that if I looked good, then I’d also feel good and do well on the test.

Right before I went to bed that night, I prayed for strength because I knew that at this point I had studied as much as I could. The good Lord was the only one who could help me do well on the SAT.

It’s Showtime
When I got out of the car at the testing location — Forest Park High School — it was freezing outside, maybe 20 degrees. I had to wait a little bit because I was early. However, once the staff opened the doors the real anxiety set in. The test proctors began to call students by their last names to go to different rooms to take the test. Luckily I didn’t have to wait long because my last name begins with a “K.”

I got to my test room, sat down, got my pencils ready — it’s always good to bring a couple spares — and took a deep breath. Soon the SAT began.

I found the reading and grammar portions quite easy because I had prepared so thoroughly. The questions about sentence completion were a breeze. The only thing I had to do was pick the right word from multiple answers, and all it took was basic logic. Even when I did not know the words given, most prefixes or suffixes gave me clues to the right answers.

However, I do not think that I scored so hot on the essay writing portion of the test. (I would tell you the questions, but the test-taking policy strongly prohibits that). My biggest problem was that 25 minutes was not long enough to write a fully developed essay. I didn’t worry too much because I read in my SAT book that test scorers are more concerned about a strong start that a completed essay.

Four hours later I was finished with the thing. Overall, I felt I did pretty well except on the writing section. In any case, I will find out the results when they arrive on January 10, 2007. It takes about a month for scores to arrive. Waiting for them has already racked my nerves. I don’t have to worry about mailing them in to colleges because I’m still a junior and too young to apply to college. I’ll have at least a couple more chances to do better on the test and, hopefully, get into my dream school.

Jasmine is a junior at Morrow High whose dream school is Howard University, where she hopes to study broadcast journalism.