3 Ways to Maximize SAT and ACT Study Time

Suzie is a typical high school student. She attends school all day, plays sports in the afternoon, studies about two hours a night and squeezes in meetings during the week for student council. Weekends are busy with tournaments and she even has a part time job on some evenings.

If you are like Suzie, you know the challenge of finding time to get ready for the SAT or ACT. Carving out study time for test preparation is not easy to do when your calendar is  full of activities. 

With such a busy schedule, what can Suzie do? 

Assuming she can dedicate some study time for the SAT or ACT, Suzie will need to maximize her time to the fullest, Here are a three ways to maximize your SAT or ACT study sessions: 

1) Avoid Stress: it is scientifically proven that stress kills brain cells. You need all the brain cells you can get for standardized tests. If you are stressed during a study session, you will not retain the information. Take a step back and find a time where you are not stressed to do your test prep.

2) Focus in the Now: your study sessions will be more productive when you remove all distractions and simply focus on the test prep materials. That means no music, no cell phone, no tv, and most importantly, no thinking about anything other than test prep. When you strip away all distractions and thoughts about other things, your brain will focus intently and you will process the material more effectively and efficiently. 

3) Practice Perfectly: the old adage "practice makes perfect" doesn't always apply for test prep unless you practice perfectly. Practicing perfectly means recreating the testing environment as much as you can. When prepping for the SAT or ACT, be sure to practice your key strategies just as you would on the test. For example, get in the habit of skipping the most difficult questions on the SAT. On the ACT, be sure you get an answer for each question as there is no punishment for wrong answers. Another key way to practice perfectly is to time yourself. After all, this is a timed test so you may as well time your practice. 

Maximizing your study time is crucial for the SAT and ACT. In a perfect world, students would have loads of time to take practice tests, review strategies and memorize common question types. 

Unfortunately, our world is not perfect so we must maximize the available time to make it as productive as possible. Whether or not you have the luxury of time on your hands, be sure to maximize it to the fullest. 

You can also maximize your SAT or ACT test prep with a Boot Camp from CROSSWALK. The Monterey Peninsula's resource for tutoring over the past ten years, CROSSWALK has prepared hundreds of students for the SAT, ACT and more. CROSSWALK can also match private tutors with individual students in a variety of academic subjects. Contact us today to learn more or check our Boot Camp Calendar for the next one-day camp.