Worried about your SAT exams?

Reema Saffarini highlights tips on how to prepare for the test

During the Gulf Education and Training Exhibition held earlier this year, the Princeton Review provided the following tips on what you can do to be ready for the exam:

• The exam is not designed to test how smart you are, but how good you can do on the SATs.
  
• The only reason you take this exam is because you have to, nobody does it for fun.
  
• The SAT exam is not a subject like math or English to teach. It's all about figuring out what the examiners are asking.
  
• The exam covers three subjects: math (200-800 points), reading (200-800 points) and writing (200-800 points).
  
• The math is equivalent to the 10th grade standard and the reading section does not require deep or philosophical answers.
  
• There are 10 sections on the exam: three in math, three in reading and three in the writing section. The final one is experimental and does not count. It is the examiner's way of testing new questions. The problem is you never know which one is the experimental question.
  
• Questions progress from easy, medium to difficult.
  
• For every right answer you get (+1 point), wrong (-1/4 point) and if you leave it the answer blank (0 points).

Different methods of solving questions:
Process of elimination: eliminate wrong answers. If you can use this method to answer questions then it is better to guess an answer than leave it blank.

• Pace yourself: In a 20-question section, questions from one to seven are going to be easy, questions eight to 14 medium and questions 15 to 20, difficult. When you are answering the questions take your time.
  
  Sometimes leaving the last five questions may result in getting a better score in that section. The time allocated for that section will be divided on the fewer number of questions and your chances of getting more right answers increases.
  
• Don't be predictable: People who write the tests know better. If your answer for a question took less than a minute and was the most obvious, then think again.
  
  You do not have to solve mathematical questions using equations but take the time to get the right answer. Eliminate what seem to be the wrong answers, then estimate.
  
• There is no such thing as passing or failing the exam. It all depends on the mimimum score requirement for the university you are applying for.