The college admissions world is always in flux, but never more so than over the past few years: as you might imagine, the COVID-19 pandemic threw applications and standardized tests alike into a tailspin. It’s understandable if you’ve been watching the changing testing landscape with a wary eye! But the fear stops here. This post is going to help you get sorted on those big existential questions—whether you’re not even sure whether you should take the SAT/ACT in order to apply to the schools on your list, or whether you’re stressed because you DO need to take one of them…but are dreading test day. You’re in good hands: for almost a decade and a half, I’ve made it my duty to help students like you soar to success on these exams—no matter where their scores, and nerves, are at when we first meet.
Either way, I want you to know: feeling anxious about the SAT or ACT should NOT determine whether you take the test—or the score you get when you do take it.
If you suspect a standardized test might help you get that dream acceptance letter…you should take it! And if you already know one or more of the colleges on your list will require you to submit an ACT or SAT score, but you’d really like to feel less anxious about it, let’s wipe the unnecessary parts of that stress off your plate!
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Top tips for staying calm during SAT or ACT study
Because I don’t want test anxiety to stand in the way of your college destiny, I started an article series on test anxiety. The first post helped define test anxiety and which students are most prone to it. The second post offered up my tried-and-true tips for staying present and cutting down on mental chatter, the background buzz that distracts you from the task/test at hand.
In another article, I brought you one of my all-time favorite techniques that both “Perfectionists” AND “Slackers” can use to stop test anxiety before it ruins your SAT and ACT scores. In that blog post, we talked about creating frameworks for seemingly huge, intimidating goals—goals like applying to college, managing junior year, and taking the SAT or ACT. (Didn’t read it yet? No worries! Go ahead and read it now; I’ll still be here when you get back, promise.)
Speaking of frameworks: whenever I start working with a new private SAT or ACT tutoring client, one of the first things I do is:
Ivy Lounge Test Anxiety Strategy #4: Create a detailed framework for each section of the SAT and/or ACT
This strategy helps us break down a seemingly endless test into bite-sized portions that are way easier to chew on, one by one.
I’ve seen this strategy work WONDERS for my clients’ stress, and I want it to do the same for you. So that’s what I’m going to show you how to do in this post: draft a framework for each individual section of the SAT and ACT, so that they are easily digestible to YOU, too!
How to break down the ACT Science section
Those who haven’t learned about the ACT Science section in depth might think that it simply tests “all the science I’ve ever learned in school, plus science I haven’t learned.” What a daunting thought! If this were the case, no “Perfectionist” would ever feel adequately prepared (no matter how much they’d studied), and no “Slacker” would think it’s do-able enough to even bother trying.
But fortunately, we don’t have to eat the whole roast in just one swallow. In fact, prepping for this section becomes extremely doable if we first…
Plan for the ACT’s Science Section with a framework.
Here are the basic parameters of the section:
The section is divided into 6 passages.
3 of those passages are about scientific experiments, and consist of 7 questions each.
2 passages are about interpreting charts, graphs and tables, and consist of 6 questions each.
1 passage is about reading conflicting scientific viewpoints and answering 7 questions about how those viewpoints are similar or different.
If you have regular time, you should basically average 5 minutes 50 seconds per passage to finish the section.
No given passage is intentionally designed to be more or less difficult than another, and each passage will have questions of varying difficulty level at random within it.
Nearly all of the information you’ll need to answer a given Q will be given to you within the passages; they only ever ask a couple “outside information” questions.
Even so, you likely won’t even need to read all of the text in those passages (except in that one “conflicting viewpoint” passage).
Basically, this section is about speed, not about memorizing content in advance. So to study, you’ll need to learn how to pace yourself and master strategies to answer specific types of questions and passages. (This is something I can help you with in great detail if we work together one-on-one—or, you can check out my complete ACT Science video course for another way to get everything you need to know on the subject!). But the big picture is that you have 6 passages to complete in a little under 6 minutes each. That’s it.
This framework helps the “Slacker” get motivated because there isn’t a huge barrier to entry with this section.
There’s no pile of chem and bio textbooks she has to plow through. Instead, she merely needs to learn the “choreography” of the different passage and question types (like the infamous “Fork Question”) and replicate those moves on test day.
On the other hand, this framework should bring a sigh of relief to the “Perfectionist.”
Once he sees the scope of the task at hand spelled out this way, he can realize that it’s FINITE. Yes, there may be 2-3 questions on “outside information” that he doesn’t know, but that’s it! The other 37-38 questions are completely within his control of reading and interpretation. He doesn’t need to go memorize Darwin’s On the Origin of Species or study up on Newton.
What’s in the SAT No-Calculator Math Section?
How about we take a look at a completely different section?: SAT No-Calculator Math!
Study framework for the SAT No-Calculator Math Section
There are 20 questions total.
You have 25 minutes to complete them.
The first 15 Qs are multiple choice.
The last 5 Qs are self-produced (known as “grid-ins”).
The questions typically progress from easiest to hardest within the multiple choice and grid-in sections. Thus, the questions get trickier as you move from #1 through #15; then the difficulty level resets at question #16, with questions again going from easy to hard as you move from #16 through #20.
This means that the hardest questions in the entire math section are likely #13-15 (the last multiple-choice questions) and then again #19-20 (the last grid-ins).
“Hardest” doesn’t always mean hardest; sometimes it means “advanced math topic that’s super easy IF you happened to have learned it before.”
Furthermore, for the Math sections of both the SAT and ACT, they can only ask you about a certain number of topics.
Full list of topics that appear on the SAT Math (Calculator AND No-Calculator):
Pre-Algebra (fractions, decimals, percents)
Algebra (manipulating equations, solving basic equations, linear equations, the meaning of linear equations in real-world scenarios, systems of linear equations, inequalities, systems of inequalities)
Data Interpretation (two-way tables, charts, scatterplots, graphs, basic statistics, like mean and median)
Problem Solving (word problems involving rates, proportions, ratios, etc.)
Algebra 2 (exponents, radicals, polynomials, factoring, complex fractions, functions, quadratics, graphs of quadratics and exponential functions, polynomial long-division), and
“Additional Topics” (imaginary numbers; basic trig like “SohCahToa”; basic Geometry, like perimeter, area and volume for 2- and 3-dimensional shapes)
That’s pretty much it! They’re not going to ask you about multiplying a matrix of finding the minor axis of an ellipse! (And of course, a testing expert like me can further break these down for you and help you prioritize WHICH topics are worth the MOST points…for YOU. And as with the Science course I mentioned above, I’ve also created a one-stop resource for everything you need to know about this section: my SAT Math Cram Plan ebook.)
Why this list helps Slacker and Perfectionist students alike slay the SAT Math section
For the “Slacker,” this list might initially seem like a lot; however, if you look a little more closely, you’ll likely realize you’ve already encountered many of these topics and sub-topics from your high school coursework! So you get to cross those off of the study agenda. The remaining list of topics you need to practice is probably shorter than you think—and perfectly do-able!
For the “Perfectionist,” making a list of ALL the topics you could possibly be asked about on an SAT or ACT section helps to narrow your studying focus. You DON’T have to learn everything in the universe within the bucket of “Math” or “Science”—just the things on the list. Furthermore, unless you’re going for a perfect score, you don’t even need to learn every single topic on the list! You just need to learn enough to grab a few more questions…and a few MORE questions…until you reach your target score, which I can teach you how to calculate here.
Frameworks for other SAT and ACT sections
SAT Writing and ACT English sections: here, you should make a list of the possible grammar topics and rhetorical strategies topics they could ask you…and then, learn as many as you can. If you struggle with timing, make sure to calculate and stay mindful of how much time you can spend on each passage in the section.
SAT Calculator Math and ACT Math sections: the questions generally increase in difficulty level, much like the SAT No-Calc Math section. After you know that, it’s simply a matter of making a list of ALL the topics they could ask about and mastering them—and only them.
SAT Reading and ACT Reading sections: the key here is not so much to cram actual content into your head. Instead, learn about how the section is structured (how many questions per passage, how much time you have per passage) and the TYPES of questions they might ask you. Similarly to the ACT Science section, both tests’ Reading sections require you to learn a “choreography” of sorts and to learn strategies for specific question types.
CONCLUSION
I hope you’re feeling good now about the prospect of breaking down and tackling each section, and are beginning to finally visualize your path forward! I’m confident that once you create a framework for each section, you’ll free your mind of a LOT of needless worry so you can just focus on getting your best score possible.
However, I also understand how complex this all might seem; for some of you, this kind of big-picture thinking just might not be your strong suit. That’s why I’ve helped hundreds of families privately do exactly that: make the whole process of the SAT and ACT—as well as the sections of the tests themselves—graspable and do-able! I manage the meta-process so YOU can focus on what’s most important: conquering the concepts, strategies, and frameworks of the tests to get your target scores…and get into the colleges of your dreams! If you think you could use an assist like that, find out how to work with me here.
Or, if you’re more of a self-studier, check out my totally self-directed course on ways to break down the long marathon of ACT/SAT studying into small, discrete sprints….even for the most overwhelmed of test-takers!:
