You’ve bought the study book and made countless vocabulary flashcards. The only problem? You haven’t used them for a single moment.
With days to go until you sit in front of the SAT, you’re probably scrambling with worries of how you’ll get ready to take the test, or maybe you’re considering bailing.
Before you make any quick decisions, consider a few simple steps to be prepared when you haven’t prepared.
1. Don’t attempt to cram too much!
Even though you feel the pressure of the deadline, you will be tempted to cram all of the information as quickly as you can.
Cramming will only make you more nervous, so study calmly.
Don’t attempt to teach yourself anything completely new or complex because you’ll need to rely on what you DO know at this point.
2. Don’t pull an all-nighter!
The pressure of a test that you’ve barely studied for can be intimidating, but pulling an over-nighter won’t be of much help.
For starters, you’ll probably enjoy the pleasure of having multiple all-night study sessions in college, and secondly, you most likely won’t remember much.
3. Study in focused increments.
The reality is that you don’t have the luxury of spending weeks and weeks on studying, so you need to take a few of the subjects that you need to reinforce and focus on them.
4. Take a practice test.
If this sounds scary, then let us explain.
A big part of doing well on the SAT is being comfortable with the test format itself. By taking a practice test, you’ll at least prevent yourself from wasting valuable time during the actual SAT on just understanding the style.
5. Sit back, and just relax!
You may be feeling as though you screwed up the opportunity to study, but panicking won’t help anything.
If your only thought is about how you didn’t study, then you will have trouble accessing the actual answers. Also, remember that the SAT is based on accumulated knowledge, so trust your knowledge up until this point.
What are you doing to prepare for the SAT in the final days?