How to Study for Both the SAT and Your AP Tests

Everybody knows it, and everybody says it: junior year can be hellish. Clearly, the pressure’s on. If you’re taking on a rigorous course load, then you may be in a pretty tight spot right now, studying for both the SAT and your AP tests. And even if you’re not in any AP classes, this post might still apply to you; after all, how close together are your finals and the June SAT? Whether it’s AP tests or other exams, having the biggest test of the year in a class be so close to the SAT is brutal. Studying for both—and yes, you’ve got to study for the SAT—is a balancing act, one you do for weeks (or even months). Keeping from toppling over takes skill. Source: The Prospect Know Your Goal The biggest problem, obviously, is time. How much of your life are you going to devote to these tests? Once you’re done with class, you still probably have a team, a club, a part-time job, or some other extra-curricular that’s going to eat up time. Maybe you have two or three. And you have to sleep, of course. What about seeing friends, reading a book, doing what you enjoy? Ideally, you’d have time for that too, but I’ll be honest; for a few weeks, you might not. Most people find that it boils down to three options—grades, sleep, or fun—and you can only pick two. That’s a bit depressing, but don’t give up on it here. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. The time leading up to these tests will go by a lot faster than you think. Spending a few weeks with complete focus on academic goals (and being well-rested enough to remember what you study) isn’t going to kill you, and the reward is huge. These test scores affect your next few years, and the results can be pretty awesome. Take, for example, a friend of mine: let’s call her Meghan. Meghan did really well on all of her AP tests, and when she started college, she was given course credits for those tests. So in her junior year of college, she took a semester off—she had enough credit that she didn’t need to take any classes for a whole semester, and she was still able to graduate on time. In that semester and the summer leading up to it, she moved to Prague for 9 months, got a job teaching English, and basically lived it up Euro-style. Then, when it was time to come back, she moved back home and started up classes again. Without the AP credits, none of that would’ve been possible. Did I mention that high SAT scores and a solid GPA helped to lock down scholarship money and get her into her first choice school? There’s that, too. If you’ve heard this before, it’s for good reason: it’s worth repeating. Keep your eye on the prize. Put your social life, your leisure time, aside for now. You’ll have a chance to come back to it later. Organize Your Time Devotion only gets you so far. What about the practical advice? The most important thing you can do, the one indispensable piece of the puzzle, is creating a study schedule for yourself. It’s much, much easier to just do what’s next on the list than it is to sit down and decide where to start, especially when you’ve got so much on your plate. Give yourself something to do every day, however small it may be. Know how much time you want to spend on each subject. Include breaks in the schedule, too, so you know exactly when you can step back from your book or computer. And, of course, each day in your schedule should have a couple of themes, focal points. Don’t expect to study for 5 different tests every day. But that’s not the real danger. The common mistake is exactly the opposite Mix Your Studies Organizing doesn’t mean spending 3 hours studying only chemistry on Tuesday then 4 hours doing SAT math on Wednesday. Break up your time like that and you’re basically throwing some of your energy out of the window. If you want to really retain what you learn, you need to vary the topics a bit. Spend 30-45 minutes on one subject, then move on to another for an hour, and a third for an hour after that. Two or three subjects every day is a solid goal. Repeat the Material Similar to breaking the material up and studying different subjects, repeating the same material across several days makes it much more memorable. If you really want to learn, for example, how to write a good SAT essay, one of the best ways is to read example essays a few times, write more than one yourself, and come back to edit each one you’ve written a couple of times over. Each session you spend preparing for the essay might be only 30 minutes long, but in sum, they’ll add up to a much greater impact than you’d get by just hammering away on practice essays for hours on end on one miserable day. Quiz Yourself Often Repeating material isn’t just limited to the time you spend in your bedroom, kitchen, school library, tree house, or wherever it is you study. Spending just a minute or two mentally quizzing yourself, repeating information you’ve studied, really cements it. When you’re brushing your teeth, review the measurements of special triangles. While you’re in the shower, come up with as many SAT words that start with â€Å"C† as you can (cathartic, catatonic, candor, cede, creedence,). Every minute you spend helps; it doesn’t have to be time that you scheduled for studying, specifically. Keep your mind in the right place, and you’ll make massive progress. And again, remember that it’s not forever! The tests will pass, and life will go on. Just not quite yet.

My Formula for Achieving Success in College - Free Essay Example

My Formula for Achieving Success in College Achieving success in college is something every college student is worried about. Success is a choice and in order for someone to get what they want they need to know what they want. Studying in college is a lot different than in high school. I study by reading a lot more than I ever have and I listen in class to make sure I remember whats been talked about in the lectures. I also type out study guides for all of my classes, which I dont think I ever did in high school until it got to final exam time. It is strange, but I find that I am studying less now that I am in college, but I am studying the more important stuff. I have figured out which information is important in a text book, and which information is just a waste of space in my memory. My overall study method: My study method is usually an early morning one. My mind is fresh and ready to learn in the morning and I usually dont have classes. I find that I do so much better if I up early and study a little bit of each class every day. It is so important for me to review everything as I go along. It is impossible to do well if I cram it all in last minute. I tried that strategy once, not well! My test study method: I make outlines, and write out the key terms. I look at my notes sometimes during the weeks before the test. I make sure that I have it all down the night before the test, and the next morning I get up for a 2 hour cram study session to get it fresh in my head for the test that day. It works for me most of the time, but I am not the best test taker in the world, I get too nervous! So I study as hard as I can and thats the best I can do as long as Ive tried my best. My time management secret: Keeping busy! I find that if I have nothing to do on a certain day, I am less likely t get things done. If I have a set schedule and a set place to be, I make sure I have things done in order to get the next project done or go to the next event I have for the day. My biggest secret is my PLANNER!! I would die without it! I write everything in it and cross it off when it’s done. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and makes me get things done and remember to do them. How I study for multiple exams: I designate times to study for each. I decide which subject needs more attention, and I focus more time on that one. I also take breaks in between. Nobody can study for 5 hours straight without going crazy! I have to get up and walk around, or go running, or paint my nails or something to give me a break from studying every once in a while. That way I will be totally focused when I am studying and not so tired and crazy that I dont understand what Im reading. It was a hard habit to break from high school! My overall study method: It depends on the test, but usually I try to study over several days. That is how I have been most successful. I dont do as well when I have just one or two massive study blocks! How Ive overcome an initial bad grade: In a Math class, I got my first D on a test. It wasnt just a D it was a D and I didnt know what to do at first! I was so upset! It was my freshman year, but I thought about it afterwards and decided that Math just wasnt for me and I just wasnt good at it. As soon as I accepted that I wasnt going to be perfect in Math I just did my best and accepted the best grade I could get in the class, which was a C+. It was the only C I had ever gotten in my life so far, but I was proud of it because I worked so hard for it! I decided that I would be happy with my grades as long as I was working hard for them. My strategies for written assignments: These are my favorites!! I think brainstorming is the key to starting off a good written assignment. I think you have to lay your ideas down before you can make sense of what you are going to write. I also think that grammar is so important, and you have to make sure that you at least sound intelligent through what you write. How I succeed in team projects: Do your part to the best of your ability and motivate your teammates to want to do as well as you. Show them how much it means to you and maybe they will follow your lead. Dont do it all by yourself. Ive done this before and it is a lot of unnecessary stress that can be avoided by just making other want to help you. Figure out what motivates your team and make it fun for everyone to work together! My greatest academic success happened when I got a perfect score on a reading test and I got my name called out in class because it was the highest in the class. I had dropped reading the semester before because I was struggling so much. It was amazing to me the difference it made in the way it was taught that I understood it so well and succeeded! Here are my final words of wisdom for students who want to get better grades in college: Find a strategy that works for you and stick with it! Everyone is different.