Slow down to increase your test score

Despite popular opinion, the fastest horse doesn’t always win the SAT race. In fact, slowing down will usually increase your SAT score.

Why? Because the SAT is tricky. It requires you to solve for x and then sneakily asks you for x+1. It presents deliberately misleading figures and asks you about the relationships between them. It whispers that numbers need to be between 0 and 1, but most students completely miss that part.

These are features, not bugs of the SAT. Expect the questions to be devious. Don’t assume graphs start at 0 or numbers have to be integers.

At least half the time, the errors my students make aren’t because of a lack math (or critical reading or writing) skills – it’s a lack of carefully reading the question. I spend of lot my time asking, “What did the question say?” And students are flabbergasted to find information in the question that they hadn’t seen before.

Slow down. RTFM – or in this case it’s RTFQ.

And after you have solved for an answer, re-read the question to make sure you solved for the right thing.

So slow down and watch your score accelerate.