Order of Difficulty  
Each SAT section is divided into three levels of difficulty: easy, medium, and hard. The first third of each group are easy, the second third are of medium difficulty, and the last third are hard. (The only exception is the Reading Comprehension passages, which do not follow this order.) An easy question is one that almost everyone gets right. A hard question is a question that almost everyone gets wrong.

So, if a group has nine questions, the first three are easy, the second three are medium, and the last three are hard. Since easy, medium, and hard questions are worth the same amount, spend the majority of your time making sure you get the easy and medium questions right.

Process of Elimination
Instead of trying to find the right answer, try to find the wrong answers. By eliminating wrong answers, you greatly improve your chances of getting the question right because even if you can't narrow your choices to a single answer at the end, you will have only two or three to choose from instead of all five. Physically cross out the wrong answer choices in your test booklet, and then guess among whichever answer choices remain.

Only a quarter point is subtracted for every wrong answer, while a full point is added for every right answer. So, if you can eliminate at least one answer choice, guess among the two, three, or four remaining choices.

The G.A. Grip Approach
G.A. Grip is an average American student. On the test, G.A. scores exactly what the average American student scores: 500 on each section. So why is G.A. Grip important? He's important because he's predictable. G.A. Grip gets all the easy questions right, half the medium ones right, and none of the hard questions.

When you are taking the test, think about how G.A. Grip would answer an easy, medium, or hard question. G.A. Grip always picks the answer that seems right. If you can narrow down the answer choices to two or three choices on an easy question, you should pick the answer that seems right — the G.A. Grip answer. On hard questions, find the answer that seems right and eliminate it — that's the G.A. Grip answer. If you can eliminate even one answer, you should guess and move on. Easy questions have easy answers, and hard questions have hard answers.

Practice Techniques 5minutes each hour
Study vocabulary root words and math drills once an hour for at least five minutes, each hour throughout the day.

Take Practice Tests
Do Practice tests at least once each week until you are scheduled to take the actual test.

Note-taking Tips

SQRW is a four-step strategy for reading and taking notes from chapters in a textbook. Each letter stands for one step in the strategy. Using SQRW will help you to understand what you read and to prepare a written record of what you learned. The written record will be valuable when you have to participate in a class discussion and again when you study for a test. Read to learn what to do for each step in SQRW.

Survey
Surveying brings to mind what you already know about the topic of a chapter and prepares you for learning more. To survey a chapter, read the title, introduction, headings, and the summary or conclusion. Also, examine all visuals such as pictures, tables, maps, and/or graphs and read the caption that goes with each. By surveying a chapter, you will quickly learn what the chapter is about.

Question
You need to have questions in your mind as you read. Questions give you a purpose for reading and help you stay focused on the reading assignment. Form questions by changing each chapter heading into a question. Use the words who, what, when, where, why, or how to form questions. For example, for the heading "Uses of Electricity" in a chapter about how science improves lives, you might form the question "What are some uses of electricity?" If a heading is stated as a question, use that question. When a heading contains more than one idea, form a question for each idea. Do not form questions for the Introduction, Summary, or Conclusion.

Read
Read the information that follows each heading to find the answer to each question you formed. As you do this, you may decide you need to change a question or turn it into several questions to be answered. Stay focused and flexible so you can gather as much information as you need to answer each question.

Write
Write each question and its answer in your notebook. Reread each of your written answers to be sure each answer is legible and contains all the important information needed to answer the question.

As you practice using SQRW, you will find you learn more and have good study notes to use to prepare for class participation and tests.

HINT: Once you complete the Survey step for the entire chapter, complete the Question, Read, and Write steps for the first heading. Then complete the Question, Read, and Write steps for the second heading, and so on for the remaining headings in the chapter.