Undoubtedly, you're going to come across a few questions on the exam that will stump you. It's important to not waste time trying to figure out the answer to these questions. If you spend five minutes on one question, you may not have time to answer all of the questions in the section--and the questions that you didn't have time to answer may have been ones that you would have gotten right. It's best to skip the difficult question, finish the rest of the section, then come back and try to figure out the answer.
When you come across a question that you don't know or don't understand, it's easy to panic and simply pick one of the five possible answers. This gives you a one in five chance of getting the answer right. However, even though you may not know the right answer, you may be able to look at the answers and find a wrong answer. If you can eliminate answers that you know are wrong, you may be able to give yourself a one in four or one in three chance of getting the answer right.
You should take some type of preparation course to help you do well on the SAT. This could be an actual class, one-on-one tutoring or even following a study guide. Doing this means that you'll take things more slowly, studying over a longer time rather than trying to cram a week before the exam. Studying a little bit at a time will help you to retain the information.
The more familiar you are with the SAT exam, the more time you have to complete the test. If you have to read the directions, you waste precious time. By taking practice exams, you'll become familiar with the format of the exam and the types of questions that you'll face, so you can jump right into the exam.
A strong vocabulary is key to doing well on the verbal section of the exam. Use lists of SAT vocabulary words to create flash cards of words that you need to understand. You can also learn the roots, prefixes and suffixes of the words to help you determine the meaning of a word when you don't really know the answer.