Did you take the main digital sat? I did, and I wanna give you five quick thoughts I had coming out of game day. These are in no particular order, just five things that struck me from my game day experience. No. 1, I was in a room with maybe 16 to 17 other people, and it was only me and one other person that was using a mouse. You should 100% use a mouse with the Blue Book app for the verbal section, for the annotation of the reading and grammar question. There’s no reason to use the little Thinkpad or the touchpad when you’re trying to annotate the mouse is way more efficient. And efficiency is crucially important on these upper modules because you need the time to check over the complicated questions that you’ve marked for review.
So that’s dot No. 1. Use a mouse on game day. Use a mouse when you practice. So you’re as efficient as you can be with annotation. Thought No. 2, and this relates to the upper module that I was just talking about and needing more time for it, be ready for somewhat dense science passages. They really threw a lot of science at us this time, and you have to be able to kind of chip away at what they’re seeing to then be able to draw conclusions and answer the questions they’re asking, the information you need is in there to dig out, but it can take time to do so. And sometimes you have to really think through what you’re reading to get the right answer. And if you’re not moving efficiently and you’re pressed for time, then you’re not going to be able to answer some of the harder questions.
Actions on that upper module practice with a lot of science passages. I’m gonna post a bunch of new science based reading questions to my satprk site over the next few weeks to help you guys train yourself in the density of those passages.
No. 3, do not let yourself double check questions on your first pass through any given module, whether it be the entry module or the second module, save that for the end. I use two different approaches on the verbal modules today. One of these strategies I really like and I’m gonna share it with you later. I think it’s a good way to attack the question strategically. One of them I didn’t like because it used up way too much time. And then at the end, you’re scrambling on questions that you maybe don’t want to be scrambling on. And this one that I don’t like the advice is simple.
Do not let yourself double check something. Don’t be thorough until you’ve looked at everything one time. And this is that philosophy I’ve been preaching for a very long time. Be selective, not sequential. Don’t try and secure everything as you go. Mark for review things that are tricky and come back to them at the end. And if you spend a ton of time double checking something before moving on, you will not have the necessary time you need later to attack these dense science passages.
For example, observation No. 4 for me is quite simply the Blue Book. App tests are a fair representation of what they’re gonna give you on game day. Good for them, man. They’re giving you questions on their practice test that they’re gonna ask you on the real thing. I thought it was very fair today, especially on the math side of things. If you do a super deep dive on the Blue Book test on the math, and then you attack the math test on my side as well. On set crack, you will be ready to dominate the math section. They’re very clear in what they’re interested in. They test you on another Blue Book test and then they test you on it, on the real thing. I think that’s fair. And I like that they’re doing it that way.
Observation No. 5, be ready for noise and distraction. One of my favorite fellow TikTok tutors, Daniel, your sat act mentor, he always preaches practice under a stressful environment. And I agree with that. I urge my students to practice words noisy. Go ahead and sit down at Starbucks and do a digital sat practice test where there’s noise around you. Because let me tell you, it was loud in my room. Some dude decided it was the right time to leaf blow every square inch of the region outside the window of my room during the second verbal module. It can be distracting already when you’re reading the passages. And then if there’s a lot of noise going on, it could mess with you. Now, if you practice in a loud environment, Starbucks, with people talking and ordering and walking around and bumping your table, etc, it’s gonna better prepare you to stay focused on game day when there’s noise going on around you.
Those are my first five quick thoughts. I have others, but I wanted to share some with you. I will share this new strategy for the reading and writing down the line. So be on the lookout after that. I think it’s a fun new way to attack the section that will make sure you spend the appropriate amount of time on the appropriate question.
Let me know how your test went today. If you have some observations from today that you’d like to share them in the comments. And I’ll see you guys next time.