Some SAT Basics: Thinking About the SAT Strategically with Ivy Insider Andrew Nelson

What is the SAT?

According to the College Board, the SAT I Reasoning Test is "a measure of the critical thinking skills you will need for academic success in college." The SAT is popularly perceived–or as we see it, misperceived–as a measure of intelligence, reasoning abilities, and scholastic aptitude.

What is the SAT really?

The SAT may be a proxy for many things, but the only thing the exam really measures is how good you are at taking the test itself.

Every time the SAT is administered, it uses the same format, the same questions, and the same traps to test the exact same small set of concepts that the test makers think are important. Thus the most useful way to think of the SAT is not as a test of broad knowledge but as a narrowly defined game with simple and predictable rules.

Our experience is that students who do well on the SAT do so not because they are better at "reasoning" or have more "aptitude" than their peers, but because they understand the concepts that the exam covers, are familiar with each of the question-types used to test them, and possess specific strategies that make those questions easy to answer correctly.

IVY INSIGHT: Doing well on the SAT isn't about being smart. It's about knowing how to take the test!

Why does the SAT matter?

If the only thing the SAT really tests is how good you are at taking the SAT, why is it such a big deal?

The answer is simple: because colleges say it is!

Admissions officers at almost every college in the United States use applicants' test scores as one of the primary criteria in making their admissions decisions. In fact, at most schools, SAT scores are the single strongest predictor of admissions success next to high school grades. Many schools even use them to determine how much merit-based financial aid students receive. 

If you find it disturbing that colleges place more weight on a single test than things like extracurricular leadership, community service, or personal qualities, you're not alone. That's why our goal at Ivy Insiders is to ensure that your SAT scores will be something driving your success, not holding you back from it. As a team of Ivy League undergraduates who beat the test ourselves and gained admission to the most competitive colleges in the country, we know exactly how to make sure that happens!

IVY INSIGHT: The SAT should be important to you for one reason and one reason alone: because, next to high school grades, it is the most important criterion used in college admissions decisions.

Why is the SAT an opportunity?

At Ivy Insiders, we view the SAT as an opportunity to gain a strategic advantage in the college admissions process. Why? Because the SAT is the part of your college application that can be improved most dramatically in the least amount of time. 

Think about it: Your high school grades count for half of your college admissions outcome, but they are the result of over 4,000 hours that you'll spend in school by the time you apply to college. The SAT, on the other hand, is worth almost as much as your grades, yet it is a 4-hour test that most students spend less than 20 hours preparing for.

To gain an advantage in the college admissions process by raising your GPA you would need to put hundreds of hours of extra work into your classes. To gain an advantage on the SAT, all you have to do is be better prepared than the person sitting next to you on test day (since the SAT is a curved test). Given that the average student does 10 hours of preparation, that's not a very high bar to surpass!

IVY INSIGHT: The SAT is an opportunity to get maximum "bang for your buck." 34 hours of test prep (the number of hours in an Ivy Insiders classroom course) will do more toward improving your college admissions chances than 340 hours of extra time spent on your schoolwork!

What is the best way to get ready for the SAT?

Rule #1: Don't reinvent the wheel. Your first step in beating the SAT should be to learn from those who have already done it–that is, from real students who used real strategies to raise their scores.

At Ivy Insiders, this is what we'll help you do. All Ivy Insiders instructors are college students or recent graduates who scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT. The Ivy Insiders curriculum, meanwhile, leverages the insights of some of the top test-takers in the world to break the SAT down into a simple and beatable game.

Combine superior instructors with an unmatched curriculum and you have a recipe for SAT success. Over the last five years, Ivy Insiders have raised their SAT scores by nearly 300 points on average.

When should I start getting ready for the SAT?

The best time to get ready for the SAT is during the summer before you plan on taking the test–usually the summer before your junior year. 

Getting a foundation early ensures that you don't have to cram during the notoriously busy–and stressful–junior year. It's important to be ready for the SAT before the fall of junior year because that's when you'll take the PSAT. The PSAT can qualify you for a National Merit Scholarship and has become increasingly important to colleges as a supplement to students' SAT scores. The PSAT is set up the exact same way as the SAT, but with shorter sections and fewer questions.

How many times should I take the SAT?

You can take the SAT as many times as you want. Because you can choose which scores you want to send to colleges, admissions officers will only see your best scores. However, the most effective test-takers prepare for the exam fully each time they take it. Taking the test without being fully prepared or with the expectation that you will take it again is a waste of both time and money.