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Alexis Avila Founder/President of Prepped & Polished expands on an SAT test-taking strategy.
Step 1. If you get stumped on a question, circle the question.
Step 2. Move forward through the section, and then on to the next question.
Step 3. After completing the section, with time remaining, go back to the circled problems.
For those taking the SAT, there are plenty of strategies out there for you. US News and World Report recently featured my SAT tip in their article – Nine Tips for SAT Success. We were the last tip, so check it out.
In the article, I said to do better on the SAT overall, it’s important that you give each question its fair share of time versus getting boggled down on, say, question number 7. So here is the tip expanded a little.
Here’s the tip
Get stumped, circle it, move on, and then go back. So, let’s just say you’re taking a 20-question multiple-choice SAT section, and you get stuck on question number 7. What you’re gonna do is circle question number 7 and then go right on question number 8, 9, 10, …
Question number 7 is behind you. Now, you want to move through the whole section and try to answer all the questions that you can answer and then when you’re finished with the section, go back to all the circled questions that you circled along the way that were problematic for you at the time and try to tackle those questions. You basically want to spend most of your time on questions that you can answer versus getting frustrated with a question along the way.
So, practice this tip, and I wish you good luck on the SAT.
Have you found this SAT tip helpful? Recommend other pacing techniques?
Post your tips/comments below.