If possible, take the SAT at the beginning of junior year. This way, you will be able to do the bulk of the studying for the exam over the summer at a leisurely pace, and studying for the SAT will not detract from your grades during junior year. Too many high school students wait to take the SAT until the end of their junior year. However, this is generally the busiest time of the year because students are often preparing for Regents and Advanced Placement exams.
Students tend to balk at the long lists of vocabulary words that they are told to memorize in preparation for the SAT. However, if you begin learning the words on these lists several months before you actually look at a practice exam, you'll find that you've already done much of the necessary preparation for the verbal section. There are two free computer programs that allow you to create your own flashcards. The first is Supermemo, which is for PCs and is available at www.supermemo.com/english/down.htm. The second is Genius, which is for Macs and is available at web.mac.com/jrc/genius. These programs are adaptive. If you have trouble with a particular vocabulary word, the programs will show you that word frequently. Many of my students also download SAT vocabulary applications to their iPods, allowing them to study flashcards on the go.
If you can eliminate at least one choice on the SAT, guess. Learn the standardized test directions by heart, saving you precious time on test day. Skip around and do what's easiest for you. The math and vocabulary questions are presented in order of difficulty, but remember that every question is worth the same amount.
Get used to taking a long exam. The SAT is three hours and 45 minutes, and it's usually administered in the morning. Build your stamina by taking several practice tests. Make sure that when you take a practice exam, splice in a section from another exam to represent the experimental section. With a half-hour spent bubbling in your name and address, you'll be there for about four hours - if you're lucky. Speak with a teacher or administrator and try to reserve the classroom, gym or auditorium where you will actually be taking the exam so that you can take a practice exam there.
Practice at the time of day when your exam is held, and try to study under real testing conditions. Take measures to make your study area quiet and without distractions. Silence your cell phone, put on your away message and ask your parents to keep any siblings or pets out of the room. Try to study for at least one to two hours each session; this helps to get your juices flowing and get you in the zone.
Use your calculator sparingly on the math section. You might not always need it, and it takes precious time to enter numbers. When students are rushing, they often have to re-enter an equation into the calculator, losing valuable time. Use your brain and guesstimate. It wouldn't hurt to brush up on the old times tables either.
Remember that the essay portion of the writing section isn't measuring creativity. Make it easy for judges to read. Write in script if you are able to do so legibly. Longer essays also tend to score better. Make ample paragraph breaks to separate ideas. This is important for high school English classes, as well.
If you do not already exercise and eat healthy, now is the best time to start. You might feel like your brain is a machine, but it's actually organic gray stuff. If you take care of your brain with exercise, which gets the blood flowing, and protein, which gives it energy, it'll take care of you on test day.
Try to make the first time the only time. Don't take the SAT initially just for practice. Even though colleges only count the highest score of each section when formally calculating your strength as an applicant, colleges see all of your scores. You probably wouldn't want a first date to see a picture of you when you first wake up in the morning. You'd rather show yourself at your best. The same goes for test scores.
The what? Yes, you read correctly - the ACT. It's an alternative standardized test created by people who weren't too fond of the SAT. More students on the West Coast take the ACT than East Coast students, but colleges across the country now accept it instead of, or in addition to, the SAT. You might actually perform better on the ACT than you do on the SAT, if it lets you play up your strengths. The ACT has an entire section devoted to science. Explore this standardized test to determine if it's worth trying.