Tips on score high on SAT——focus on any special tips for Chinese or English as second language students

Okay, so you want to apply to a selective college in the U.S. from China. You’re probably going to need to take, and do well on, standardized tests like the SAT and ACT (for example here at Duke University it’s a required part of the application). The SAT and ACT are two substantially different tests. The ACT focuses on subject knowledge in science, language, and mathematics. The SAT has no science questions and is more geared towards basic math and reading comprehension skills. Because of this difference, most people do better on one test and worse on the other (and you might consider taking both). The ACT and SAT are accepted at all four-year colleges in the U.S. and treated equally.

There are some things you should do regardless of what test you’re taking. From my personal experience (I received a 1560/1600 on the March 2004 SAT), here are some tips:

1. Take as many practice tests as you can using the old exams, simulating an actual test environment—time yourself! This is by far the most effective way to raise your score. The key is to identify your areas of weakness and strength, and then work on them. Buy a book with all the publicly released old SAT and ACT exams. Grade your exam and see what problems you got wrong: if you got a lot of trigonometry questions wrong, then go study your trigonometry. By doing practice tests you also familiarize yourself with the way the test is structured and how much time it takes you to complete it. Typically you can raise an SAT score 100-200 points by doing this, even more for the ACT exam.

2. Balance your studying among different subjects. It’s important that you do well on all the areas of the test. College admissions officers don’t like to see a math score that’s twice as high as your reading score and writing score. Focus on your weak areas. It’s easier to raise low scores than to raise a high score, and so this is the right way to maximize your overall score, as well.

Note: all the math on the SAT and ACT is pre-calculus. So for students in China, your math skills should already be very high by U.S. standards, but it’s probably the case that your English is not as good as a skilled native speaker. Because the two languages are so different, writing grammatically correct sentences, for example, is a challenge. The language on the SAT and ACT is also quite advanced.

3. There are some tricks you can use to maximize your score, after doing all the previous preparation. For example on the SAT you get 1 point for each right answer and you lose ¼ for each wrong answer. Since there are 5 choices, you mathematically shouldn’t guess on a question unless you can eliminate at least one wrong choice. That’s an obvious but important one, and if you come to the workshop I can share some more with you .
 
4. Remember that the SAT or ACT is not everything! Just a high SAT score will not get you into a college like Duke, because the people you’re competing with have the same or higher scores. It’s the other things on your application, your personal essay in particular, will set you apart. The SAT score is the cut-off point—it’ll get you in the door—but American college admission officers are looking for other things after that.