|
The New SAT
"Taking the SAT has always been about finding tricks to get the right answer quickly, and the new one’s just the same."
Listen
to this Commentary!
By Jazmine Livingston
This spring, all over the United States the first group of high school students took the new SAT. Youth Radio’s Jazmine Livingston sent us this commentary with her take on the new exam- and with some suggestions for students who plan to take the next new SAT on May 7th.
So the new SAT was this past Saturday. And yours truly took it at 8:00 in the morning. All in all, I thought the new SAT was pretty easy. Taking the SAT was always about finding tricks on getting the right answer quickly, and the new one’s just the same. In fact, I skipped this one math problem, and came back to it, and started laughing when I saw how easy the problem was! I didn’t study the night before because I knew I wouldn’t get much sleep. I did, however, take an SAT prep class.
It wasn’t one of those expensive prep classes, like Kaplan, Princeton review or Sylvan. It was a free prep class given by The People’s Test Preparation Service. So basically, you don’t have to spend like, a million dollars on SAT prep courses to feel confident about the new SAT. Just remember that the SAT isn’t measuring how much you know, it’s measuring how well you can reason with the information given. All you “not-so-good-at-math” people out there can relax. There’s no hard math on the new SAT. A lot of people psych themselves out thinking that the math on the SAT is super hard, and for them, it is.
I know most of you out there who are planning to take the new SAT are dreading the new essay section. But…there’s no reason to dread it. As long as you have an opinion, can write an intro, a body paragraph, and a conclusion, you’ll be fine! I mean, my essay topic was about whether I thought that creativity was needed more today. I’m glad it’s nothing like “talk about the historical content of blah blah blah…”
It also helps to take a few practice SAT’s that you can find in any bookstore before the actual test so you’ll be comfortable. I think the new SAT is a more accurate way of measuring how well equipped we are before we enter college. I mean, we all have to know how to write an essay, read critically, and solve math problems, right?
Basically, just don’t stress out about the SAT because you’ll forget stuff that you know you know. And if you mess up on the SAT, you can always take it again.I haven’t taken the old SAT, but some of my friends have, and here’s what’s different: The old one was about 3 hours long, and the new one is about 4. The old test had analogies, and the new one doesn’t. It has an essay instead. And the new test has harder math.
|
|
