A few years ago, I held forth passionately about why it is not productive for most high schoolers to start prepping for the SAT or ACT before Junior year. As my testing timelines post explores in greater depth, most students won’t take the test until spring or maybe winter semester of 11th grade. (And this 2022-specific post on when to take your first SAT this year explains how recent changes to the SAT impact those timelines.) But even so, I can sense that some of you STILL feel some of that nervous, wanna-get-started-now energy. After all, if I don’t want you to do formalized test prep as a freshman or sophomore, then what do I want you to do? Aren’t you wasting valuable time when your course load is relatively light—time that you could be using to get ahead?
Don’t sweat. I’ve got you covered with today’s post.
The truth is, as a freshman or a sophomore, you can lay a strong foundation for your test prep and college applications in later high school—as long as you focus on the right fundamentals now. So let’s get into it: here’s what you can and SHOULD do right now to make sure you can seize your college dreams down the line.
ARTICLE CONTENTS
1) Take your schoolwork seriously.
Most of the information you will need for the ACT and SAT is taught in subjects you’re CURRENTLY or will SOON be taking—during your first two years of high school. Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Geometry, Algebra 2, English: don’t just phone it in to get the bare minimum grade that satisfies you. Furthermore, don’t get in the habit of just cramming for the test and then forgetting the material right after it: complete and incomplete clauses, fractions, linear equations, etc. will all come back to haunt you (or to help you get lots of points!) in standardized testing. So treat these classes like the pre-test prep classes they really are! You’ll save yourself work and time down the line.
2. Expand your vocabulary.
Learning vocabulary is a life skill that will improve your reading comprehension and your writing. Though the ACT does not vocabulary directly—and the Digital SAT tests your working knowledge of vocabulary within context, NOT those 5-star “SAT words” your parents talk about—you’re more likely to understand what you read and be able to express your ideas fluently and eloquently if you have more words in your repertoire (for example, what’s a "repertoire"?). That will work in your favor not just on standardized tests, but also in school. Did someone say double bonus? Higher test scores AND better grades.
So what does this look like in real time? Well, take the time to look up words you don’t know in your school (and non-school) reading, choose more challenging news and leisure reading sources, or grab a vocab book or even a “word a day” calendar or app. You’ll thank me later.
3. Become (or remain) a reader.
It’s a funny thing: sometimes I ask a student who’s telling me how much she wants a great Reading score a question about what she reads, and…she looks like a deer in the headlights. Something doesn’t make sense there, right? It’s like saying you want to be a professional basketball player but you never even shoot hoops after school!
The single best way I know to improve your general reading comprehension, your ability to identify the main idea of a passage, your understanding of tone and diction and writing styles from different cultures and time periods, etc. is...to actually read. Try to read a little every day, and to read a variety of different kinds of material. And don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be painful—fun fiction counts, as long as you’re consistently encountering words you don’t immediately know.
Secret bonus: all this side reading also makes you a more thoughtful and educated person. Not bad!
4) Beef up your math etiquette / arithmetic skills
While there is no longer a no-calculator Math section on the Digital SAT, basic number sense and math fluency are crucial to acing the Math sections of either the SAT or the ACT. Even though you can use your calculator throughout the entirety of both tests, you’re probably not going to finish all the questions if you have to perform every single minor arithmetic calculation—or worse, calculate them wrong.
So how should you go about boosting your basic number sense? For starters, know your addition, subtraction, multiplication and division tables cold. When you’re out at a restaurant, calculate the bill or the tip or the sales tax in your head first, before bringing out the iPhone. Even an estimate is better than waiting for the cashier to figure it out for you! Are you at a baseball game and see a batting average of .273? Try figuring out what that really MEANS. (In this case, the answer is that the batter hits 3/11—or 3 out of every 11—balls.)
If you’d like more guidance on what basic math skills you should start sharpening now, check out my “Math Etiquette” article series!
5) familiarize yourself with the PSAT
This is the first "real" piece of test prep you'll encounter, and I'm not even suggesting that you study for it—just that you familiarize yourself with the test. While it does not in fact matter how you score on the PSAT you take in October of sophomore year, many students find it helpful to at least take a practice PSAT to understand the types of questions, pacing, and directions on the test so that they won’t be surprised. Please do NOT stress about this (the point is to keep your stress level down)! You can start looking at it the summer before sophomore year, and it's just that—looking.
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So with that one testing-timeline milestone established, what do most of these things have in common? They’re primarily “soft skills”—the kind of skills that help you build ease with foundational concepts and deep understandings of new kinds of educational material. They’ll serve you well on standardized tests, in high school, AND in your future career. They’ll also help you make the most of your test prep junior year, and your college applications senior year. And you can, and should, be developing them right now. Now go forth and learn!
