Prepping for test day

To maximize your prep: Know your weak areas: By section By question type Determine the impact of fatigue on performance Do full, timed practice tests Barring that, do full, timed practice sections

To maximize your prep: Practice multiple techniques to determine their effect on your performance After each practice set, don’t just score yourself! Do a self-assessment every time to determine what you need to work on

More than a month out: Work on skills that take longer to develop: Vocabulary building Increasing reading speed Increasing essay length Work on strategies in weak areas The course site will remain up until SAMS 2018

a month out: Work on strategies in strong areas You’re unlikely to make a lot of progress on your weak areas if you’re only starting at this point You can, however, avoid leaving “gettable” points on the table during this period Make sure you know your calculator! You can save time and increase accuracy if you know how to graph systems, do combinations/permutations, and so on

a week out: Do not cram Focus on making sure you have reliable recall of key items (quadratic formula, semicolon rules, etc.) Maintain good sleep patterns Don’t alter your patterns too much during this period (unless they are truly self-sabotaging – overwatch til 4AM, etc.)

The day before: No studying, yes relaxing Limit screen time, especially before bed Know your route to the test center Carbo-load Put gas in the car/make sure you have bus fare

The day before: gather materials Admission ticket Batteries Photo id Snacks Pencils (not Mech) Water eraser Legal watch Calculator layers

The morning of: Get up earlier than you need to Eat a good breakfast protein is important Do not over-caffeinate Read something during breakfast

During the exam: overall Ok to skip, but Don't leave anything blank at the end use process of elimination as a secondary strategy Pace yourself – don’t sink time into any one question Trust yourself – don’t 2nd guess (unless you actually missed something) Watch your bubbling Use any extra time wisely

During the exam: reading Remember your hands-on reading technique Fading in the middle of the passage? Two options: Press on, but don’t re-read until you get to the questions Stop, take 30 seconds to re-center & breathe, then dive back in If using P.O.E., look for the wrong answer types

During the exam: WALU/English Read enough to answer the question Remember the quick brown fox Watch for parenthetical and idiomatic pairs For order questions, remember to connect the sentences before and after

During the exam: math Break longer problems down and Underline key parts If you don’t know what to do, do what you can Make sure you are answering the question being asked Remember the Order of difficulty Every question is worth the same If you don't know how to do a question, skip it until later

During the exam: act science Read the passage quickly Read the charts and graphs carefully All trends will continue when you extrapolate

During the exam: essay Take time to plan, then stick to it Be detailed, be concrete – remember your dim friend Write quickly but legibly Save time for proofreading

After the exam: Relax! Reward yourself! Spring for the question-and-answer service to see exactly how you did