Categories
Overview
Of course, we can't forget possibly the two biggest standardized you will most likely have to take in high school, the SAT & ACT. Many of you must be wrestling with the question of "when should I first start preparing for these tests?" and that is totally understandable. In my opinion, the earlier the better. Then again, I wouldn't recommend taking both tests freshman year and pushing yourselves too hard. From what I've learned from most of my own peers, a lot of us take the ACT during the 10th grade and then move to taking the SAT in the 11th grade. I personally think that this is a good idea because having the tests spread out makes your life easier and not as stressed. I speak from experience because I ended up taking both the SAT and ACT my junior year unlike many others. It became very stressful and difficult with my regular school workload as well and I don't want any of you to experience that so that's why I recommend focusing on one at a time.
How to Prepare
Now I'm sure one of the biggest issues after deciding when you want to take the tests is how will you prepare for them? My personal tip? Practice tests. There is truly nothing more helpful than just repeatedly doing pracice test after practice test and learning what mistakes you made on the previous ones and try to reduce those mistakes. Of course there are other little tips and tricks that you can find on youtube and such but if you are thinking of using any of those videos to learn some tips, start early. Most tips and tricks that are shown in the videos require you to build up practice with those routinely in order for those tips and tricks to be effective.
If you do happen to go straight down the practice test route and you're wondering where you can get practice tests for free, no need to look any further. I have linked 10 practice tests for both the SAT and ACT through the images in "Helpful Resources" in a public file on dropbox. All the Answer Keys are also included, SAT has separate documents for the answers while the ACT answers are included at the very end of each test.
Helpful Resources
