Read a number of magazine articles from specialty publications that you may not be familiar with such as from "The Economist," "Scientific American" and "Popular Mechanics" to increase your vocabulary and ability to pay attention to something that may bore you. This practice is designed to improve your reading comprehension -- a vital skill for the critical reading portion of the SAT. During two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section, you will have to answer 19 sentence completion questions and 48 about reading comprehension.
Practice using your calculator, which is allowed for the exam. Review math skills through worksheets or sample tests. Algebra I, Algebra II, functions, geometry, statistics, probability and data analysis are included on the math portion of the SAT. During two 25-minute sections and one 10-minute section, you will be asked to answer 44 multiple-choice questions and 10 student produced questions.
Study opinion pieces online or in your local newspaper to see how points are made. Review some of your own earlier papers for structure and coherence. This will help you score higher on the writing portion of the SAT, which includes one 25-minute section and one 10-minute section where you will answer 18 questions about identifying sentence errors, 15 about improving sentences and 6 about improving paragraphs. This section also includes one 25-minute essay, where you are asked to write a short, persuasive essay on an assigned topic.
Review your PSAT results to see what areas need improvement. Put extra effort into these topics to increase your score. Seek out extra help from teachers or tutors if you find yourself not understanding certain topics.
Attend a prep course and take practice tests, found online or at the local library, at least five to 12 weeks before the SAT to become more familiar with the exact types of questions asked and how they are formatted.
Arrive at the testing location on time and remember to bring your No. 2 pencils and a calculator.
Write your name on each of the three sections of the exam because that immediately gives you 600 points -- 200 points for each section.
Answer questions you immediately know the answer to first and come back to ones you are not sure of. This will ensure that the questions you are more confident about, and therefore will increase your score, are answered in case you don't finish the exam before time runs out.
Guess on questions if you don't know the answer, but can eliminate at least one of the options. You have a chance to get the answer right, which will increase your score.
Make sure you are placing your answers in the correct section and question number on your answer sheet.
Carefully read the directions for each section and every question so you are answering the question asked and not a similar one you may have seen on a practice test.