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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Wednesday, March 9, 2005

Last-minute help for test day

 •  Trying to score on the SAT
 •  Get yourself in SAT mode

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer

There's not a lot of time to cram more vocabulary words or math formulas into your brain before Saturday's SAT, but memorizing a few strategies can still help boost your score.

Some options for test preparation include:

• College Connections Hawai'i: 737-8955; www.collegeconnections.org

• Kaplan Educational Centers: 946-5600; www.kaptest.com

• Sylvan Learning Centers: 735-8811; www.sylvanprep.com

Local SAT preparation specialist Raymond Karelitz suggests looking at the SAT as a competition for the best score, rather than a chance to show off how smart you are. He offers these tips for test day:

• Use your time wisely and allot sufficient time for the reading section. "Be aware of the time," Karelitz said.

• Always use elimination. Rule out the wrong answers before guessing on a right one.

• Avoid skipping questions. "If you don't shoot, you can't score," Karelitz said.

The only exceptions to this rule are when the problems will take too long to answer, or in the case of math, if you don't understand the question at all.

• On the writing portion, "Say something," Karelitz advises. Don't worry too much about how you say it, just make sure you make a point. He points out that the writing is only one-third of the SAT score, and it's grammar that's the killer.

• To brush up on grammar, take sample tests and review your errors. There's still time to take a sample test or two this week.

• On the reading sections, get the easy questions correct and don't waste time on the hard ones. "You need that time for reading," he said.

• For math, "Do what you know and get it right," Karelitz said. "Double-check everything."

• Get to the test site early, just in case. "Don't cut it close," said Cynthia Kunimura, a counselor at McKinley High School.

For information about Karelitz's test preparation classes, call 261-6666.

Smart tips from the College Board

• Answer easy questions first. You earn just as many points for easy questions as you do for hard questions. The easier questions are at the beginning of the section and the harder questions at the end — except for Critical Reading questions, which are ordered according to the logic and organization of each passage.

• Guess smart. If you can rule out one or more answer choices for a multiple-choice question as definitely wrong, your chances of guessing the right answer improve. For math questions without answer choices, fill in your best guess; no points are subtracted for wrong answers as they are in all other question types.

• Omit questions that you really have no idea how to answer. But if you can rule out any choice, you probably should guess from among the rest of the choices.

• Don't panic if you cannot answer every question. You do not have to answer every question correctly to get a good score. You can get an average score by answering about half the questions correctly and omitting the remaining questions.

• Use your test book for scratch work. You can also cross off choices you know are wrong and mark questions you have omitted so you can go back to them if you have time.

• Keep track of time. If you finish a section before time is called, check your answers in that section only.

— Source: collegeboard.com (College Board owns the SAT)