English - not as you know it for SAT, ACT
Students need to understand the passage, and answer questions correctly writes Adarsh Khandelwal
Whether SAT or ACT, most students in India struggle with the verbal sections of these tests that involve reading, comprehension, and grammar.
Take the SAT reading section, for example. You need to be a good reader and a smart test taker. There are 52 questions spread across five passages (around 700 words each). The time allocated for the section is 65 minutes and the student needs to answer accompanying questions in around 10 minutes. Time is not the only challenge.
The test has passages ranging from literature and science to his toric speeches and US founding documents. A recent official practice test, for example, has a passage from George Eliot's 1861 book Silas Marner followed by an MIT technology review article on employment. For success in SAT, candidates need to understand the passage and answer questions correctly? Understanding the passage on science or Social Science is easy. It becomes difficult where the passage is lumbering and convoluted on democracy in 19t century America with sentences as long as paragraphs.
Most questions on the SAT reading section are inference-based questions. This is not a simple fact-finding mission. You need t to unpack the passage, unpack the questions, apply elimination techniques and strictly follow strategies tailored to the SAT all of this across five passages and 52 questions in 65 minutes without losing focus.
How to start preparing
The first step to prepare for the test is by taking a diagnostic test. Remember, the SAT and ACT are not literature tests or Math tests like those at school. You need to learn the rules, remember the rules, and play by the rules. Even if you are good at Math and English at school, you need to work specifically on SAT or ACT to get a better result on the test. Realising this is crucial. You need to find out how comfortable you are with the format of the test you plan to take and you definitely need to find out what your untrained score is.
Do not worry if you are not comfortable with all the topics on the test. The point is to find out how you will do on the test without. preparation. Once you have taken your diagnostic test, you should get your performance reviewed.
The review should help you identify strength areas as well as weak areas where improvement is required. After taking the diagnostic test and getting it reviewed, the next step is to ensure you have an effective study plan in place. Time management is another crucial technique that you need to learn along the way.
Mock tests
On that note, regular mock tests are essential to prepare for SAT or ACT. If your prep starts a month before the test, you need to keep careful track of scores and narrow your prep down to specific areas
where you are facing problems. (The author is CEO and co-founder of Collegify)
From - The Times of India
Published on - 1st November 2021
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