Student Post Jens Experience with the SAT

Today, were hearing about Jens experience with the SAT. She has some great tips on studying (and on life as well!). Thanks, Jen! 🙂   About me: Hello! My name is Giang but everyone calls me Jen. Im an  exchange student from Vietnam and now living with my host family in  McCordsville, Indiana. This cultural exchange program has encouraged me to  come back to the United States in order to study Hospitality management. I  will probably apply to Indiana University or Purdue University with  acceptance of financial aid or a high scholarship. Of course, the SAT is one of  the main factors to help me achieve this goal. Outside of school, studying,  college, and a billion serious things in the adult world, I have tons of interesting hobbies. I love trying new things, outdoor activities,  traveling, drawing (emphatically), playing piano and guitar. Helping people  is a source of my happiness and spending time with my families (now I have  2) cant be replaced by anything. How did the SAT become my biggest enemy?: I can hardly hate anything in  my life (I think my life is awesome!) until the SAT became the biggest challenge  for me on the path to college. Seriously, I even cried before sleeping  because my SAT score on the practice test was terrible. So the first  challenge I had to overcome was my abhorrence for the SAT. The second one is  probably the Critical Reading section (I meanWHO DOESNT struggle with  this?). Before I came to the United States, I rarely read books in English.  I would blame myself for being lazy. The challenge is I cant comprehend  what I just read or understand why the author mentions this or that,  blahblah Sometimes the context or topic is not familiar to me so I  had to reread it over and over again and still barely grasp the meaning of the  passages. How did the SAT become my teacher?: Each difficulty is an opportunity and  I find it completely right in this situation. The SAT really requires  persistence and a lot of determination if you want a high score. Critical  Reading taught me to read actively. I would never force myself to pay  attention to the detail and understand the reading if this  section in the test had not challenged me. I understand that when I get into  college, reading is an extremely important skill. This is a great  opportunity for me to practice and improve my comprehension. Math taught me  to use strategies to win because this section is sometimes very tricky.  Its a lesson of life. Writing trained me to focus on necessary parts   parts that give me points. As long as I understand what the graders need,  I will write the right sentence that they look for. Also, I really like to  write and express myself so learning new words helps me use a variety of  vocabulary and sound smart. I can see the improvement in my writing over  time. Oh, I forgot to mention that I really like the SAT essay questions  (although the essay section intimidates me most). They are always important  lessons or controversial problems in our society worthy of thinking about. How did I become a good student of the SAT?: I forced myself to stay  positive and FOCUS (one of my biggest problems). Before the first time I  took the SAT, I had several things to work on. First, I printed a pile of  SAT new words which at the time I knew NONE of them. I set a goal of 20 new  words a day, no delay. Because of my forgetful brain, I cant memorize  formulaic and boring things. I came up with interesting stories or related  concepts to help me memorize new words. For example, callow makes me  think of low so it means immature, inexperience, LOW. Another way that  has helped me a lot is to learn prefixes, suffixes and the roots of words  or ETYMOLOGY. Believe me, these are incredibly useful. Traditionally,  students make flashcards or things like that but these ways make me die in  boredom. SO, be CREATIVE with everything you do. With math, I studied  formulas and did a lot of practice exercises. Except those who are math  geniuses they just d o it. I cant. The only thing that helped me is to  believe working hard will pay off. The writing section is even really like math, even  the essay. I recommend the book How to ace the SAT essay even when you  hate to write. I raised 3 points in my SAT essay. Of course, I had to  write almost 20 essays to practice, not only reading the book would give  me such an improvement. (Duh!) As soon as you get familiar with the  format of the test, types of questions, formulas, the length and time of  the test, you will feel comfortable with it. Okay. Just giving advice may not be persuasive enough. This is what I  got on my first test: 1490. It couldnt be worse. Im not embarrassed to share  this with you because its not about the score. Its about how I overcame  myself and made improvement. The second time I got 1720. Its not high but  not bad. I raised 230 points in almost 2 months. I practiced with the Magoosh  one-month study guide and it was incredibly helpful. I was persistently  doing the practice questions every single day and keeping track of my  improvement data. Im telling you: it was difficult but I did it. Dont  hesitate to ask questions. Magoosh supporters are the most enthusiastic and  conscientious people. However, remember to check carefully before asking.  That way you will be able to kind of self-criticize a little bit. Thank  you for reading this super-long post. I hope students who have just started  studying for the SAT test will not freak out and those who are trying to  achieve a 2000 on SAT like me will get what they want eventually 🙂 WE CAN  ALL DO IT. Feeling inspired? Check out Magoosh SAT and find the prep plan thatll help you become a better SAT student!