Why the SAT is Like Monopoly

Think board games and the SAT have nothing in common? At first glance, sure. However, some of the strategies that can help you win in Monopoly can also help you beat the SAT.

1. Mediterranean and Baltic almost aren't even worth buying.

It takes money to make money. It's great to study for the SAT, but only studying a few minutes each day is barely even worth your time. The SAT's an all-or-nothing deal. Go for the most expensive properties possible (spend as much time studying as possible) in order to reap the biggest reward (a high SAT score).

Similarly, it's great to buy SAT materials (properties), but if you don't study intensively (build houses or hotels on your properties), their value will always be limited. The best SAT prep books increase in value to you when you "upgrade" them by learning what they contain.


2. The more railroads you buy, the better a return you collect from each one.

Studying for the Reading Section will help you with the Writing Section, and vice-versa. The more studying you do, the more it increases the benefit of your previous studying. Things start to click.


3. Everyone begins Monopoly with the same $1500. It's how you use that money that makes all the difference.

Sure, there are a few rolls of the dice on the SAT too - you might get sick or have a noisy test center. However, everyone has the same amount of time on the SAT. It's how you use your time that makes all the difference, and you need a refined strategy in order to succeed. The time you devote to studying, the strategies you use, and your familiarity with the SAT determine how you'll do on test day.

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How NOT to Write a College Essay

Here are some of the most common mistakes students make, and why you should avoid them:

Repeat info covered in another part of the application.
Students often repeat themselves in the college essay "just to be safe." However, admissions officers have already read, or will read, the rest of your application. Reading the same thing twice is boring. Trust them to do their job and read the application as thoroughly as necessary. Give them some insight into your motivations and how they indicate your abilities. If you mentioned something briefly on the application, you can go into it in more detail in the essay.

Don't do this:

"In freshman year I was in Key Club. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about helping others. I also joined the lacrosse team, which took up a lot of time. However, I still found time to volunteer at a soup kitchen every weekend. All of this demonstrates that I am responsible and capable."

Whining about circumstances instead of explaining why/how you overcame them.
Nobody likes a sob story, no matter how true or heartbreaking it is. Don't look for pity. Instead, show admissions committees how you surpassed difficulties to achieve a high GPA, leadership position, or some other accomplishment. Impress them with your determination.

Don't do this:

"Because my parents had to get rid of the babysitter after we had money issues, I had to quit the soccer team to watch my little sister. It was a real shame to have to leave my teammates and give up the chance of being state champions, but family comes first, so I didn't mind making the sacrifice."

Talk about how you want to go to a particular college because it has a great reputation or you want to make money.
Many students want to go to a top school and make money. Why does this make you special and different? Self-promotion is a given. Instead, distinguish yourself through your desire to intensively study the subjects that interest you or to expose yourself to a wide range of ideas.

Don't this this:

"University X is well-renowned, and many famous people like _____, ____, and ____ graduated from there. With a degree from University X, I'll be sure to be a success in life and make my friends and family proud."

Misrepresent your achievements and goals in the essay.
If you graduated in the middle of your class and have no extracurriculars/recommendations to back up the following...

Don't do this:

"I was one of the top students in my school and hope to reduce world hunger or find a cure for cancer."

The following need no example:

Use "cute" techniques to stand out.
Covering your essay in glitter and perfume, enclosing a link to a YouTube video of yourself performing goofy antics, or writing the entire essay in Pig Latin.

Say you want to go to College X in College Y's application.
It'd be a shame to mix up the two essays and get into neither one as a result. Double check.

Include careless grammatical errors, overly wordy phrases, and clichés.
You already know the stakes are high when it comes to college admissions. Show admissions officers that you care enough about the process to write an amazing college essay.


The University of San Diego is well-renowned, and many famous people like Lynn Schenk, Fran Townsend, and Kevin Reese graduated from there. With a degree from the University of San Diego and University of Phoenix, I'll be sure to be a success in life and make my friends and family proud.

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SAT Writing Section and College Admissions

The SAT’s writing section is divided into two parts. One is a short essay and another is a multiple choice section like the others. For the short essay, you will be asked to defend a point of view. Here are some things to keep in mind when preparing for this section.

1. Unlike the other sections, there is little rote preparation you can do for this one.

Your topic will be given to you on the spot so you cannot prepare for it. However, you should think of this as an advantage. Everyone is under the same conditions as you are, write an essay in 25 minutes about a subject you could not predict. Your essay will be about 3 paragraphs and will be extremely rough. There is no need to worry about spelling - just spell to the best of your ability and move on.


2. Grammar is, however, very important.

The one bit of rote preparation you can do for this section is to learn your grammar rules. Some specific things to focus on are tense agreement and subject verb agreement. Tense agreement means keeping a consistent tense throughout a sentence. You should not begin a sentence in the present tense and then switch to past. Subject verb agreement means that the subject and the verb of your sentence must abide to the same number. If the subject is plural then ensure that the verb tense you use is the plural form.


3. Do not get excessively creative.

This is not the forum to begin pontificating or getting philosophical. Your objective isn’t to make a convert of the person reviewing your essay but to write something coherent and purposeful. For this reason you should spend too much time picking a side of an argument, or changing your mind after you have started. It is not worth the time. Write something formulaic and professional and the scorer will know exactly where you fit in on their rubric. The more convoluted your writing, the more convoluted the scoring will be and you may end up getting a bad score for decent piece.


4. The best way to get better at writing is to write.

Like anything else in life, practice makes perfect. The best way to become a better writer is to write. Specifically, find sample prompts online and then write an essay as if it were test time. Don’t trust your writing ability and decide not to study for this! You may be a superb writer of term papers but then realize on test day that you are not good at truncating your thoughts into a small format with the SAT’s guidelines. You MUST practice!

The second portion is the multiple choice section. Here the rules are simpler.

1. The primary thing tested on it is grammar. So again, know your grammar rules. Your primary responsibility here is to fix grammatical errors. You will be ill-equipped if you haven’t memorized your rules.

2. First try to find the error without looking at the choices. This way you will not fall into the traps they have set for you. You will not second guess yourself quite as much.

3. Use your choices. If you are unable to find the error without looking at the choices, then use your choices. The choices will point you in the right direction as to where to look. The idea for this strategy is to first check your ingrained intuitions. The ones that make something look awkward in a somewhat uncertain way. If this fails then you can consult your memory bank of grammar rules after you have been pointed in the correct direction by the answer choices.

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SAT Math Section and College Admissions

This week, it's time to focus on the SAT’s math section. There are many factors that make the math section of the SAT easier to game than the verbal. Keep in mind though that SAT scores are normalized on a bell curve so your competition isn’t the test as much as it is fellow test takers. Here are some important tips:

1. The math section does not require having taken high-level math classes in high school.

This is probably the single most important point about the section that people should know. Many people who believe they lack mathematical aptitude immediately decide that since they are not going to perform well on this section. Nothing could be further from the truth. The SAT’s creators are simply not allowed to create questions that even a minority of test takers have never encountered, so trust me, you have the knowledge to do very well. However, the test must sort through students who are good and bad at math somehow right? So what do they actually test?


2. Most of the SAT math section involves “trick” questions.

Remember, the SAT’s questions get harder as each section progresses. The first batch of questions will require little to no outside the box thinking. As the questions get harder, there are usually increasing number of stumbling blocks. Usually an individual question will require one or two key insights that will allow you to solve the problem. If you have solved a problem near the end of a section with great ease, it is likely that you have made a mistake. This is especially confirmed when you get an answer that is amongst the answer choices. It is likely that you have fallen for a trick and the answer was a trap answer. The SAT math section is full of trap answers. If you are doing a hard question and can’t seem to find the part where they try to fool you, it may be advantageous to just skip the question.


3. Check your work.

Let’s face it, we all make silly mistakes. It is of incredible importance that you briefly check any simple math that you do. There is no bigger crime than knowing how to tackle a problem and not getting the points you deserve because you mistakenly added instead of subtracted. Review any basic math that you do. Make sure you have brought a calculator with you as you are more likely to make a mistake trying to do it mentally or on paper than a calculator is.


4. There will be no need for calculators.

This does not mean you shouldn't bring one, though. What I mean by this is that since the SAT’s website says you don’t have to bring a calculator. This means that in the process of solving a problem you will not get any numbers that are extremely difficult to work with without a calculator. If in the process of solving a problem, you begin to get ridiculous numbers, you have likely made a mistake.


5. On word problems, check your answer by using common sense.

The questions on the SAT are very designed and checked again and again. Not only will you not get ridiculous numbers to work with, all of your answers will “make sense.” For example, on a geometry problem Janie will not build a fence with a perimeter of one million feet or one-tenth of a foot. This will also help you on geometry problems. For example, your perimeter or radius will not be a negative number. If you see any answers like this, you can immediately cross them off. Everything on the SAT will make sense in this sense of the term.

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SAT Reading Comprehension Section and College Admissions

I've already covered some differences between the ACT and SAT on the blog, as well as some general things to keep in mind when it comes to standardized testing.

Let’s take some time to get into the specifics. In the coming weeks, we'll go through the SAT reading comprehension, math, and writing sections. Let’s start off with some tips for the SAT’s reading comprehension section. Here are some important guidelines to follow.

1. Vocabulary is king.

When it comes to this section, nothing will be a greater boon to your score than having a large vocabulary. Don’t start reading the dictionary quite yet though. Not only is this a terrible way to expand your vocabulary, it is not targeted in any way. The SAT’s creators know you are in high school and thus will not test you on words that are only familiar to English professors. If you start reading the dictionary you will not likely learn much since the mind learns through repetition. What you do manage to learn will probably be completely esoteric. In an ideal world, vocabulary should be acquired through point 2.


2. Read! Read! Read!

If you are diligent and are getting an early start, making of habit of reading challenging works will be the single best way to do well on this section. However, you must read difficult books. Harry Potter and Twilight will not cut it here. If you can stomach it, read non-fiction. If not, go to the canon; the literary classics that are known worldwide. Make a habit of keeping a dictionary handy at all times that you are reading. In fact, if you know where to look, you can find a lot of classics available for free on places like google books and archive projects. You can access the books for free online and supplement it with an online dictionary. There are even browser add-ons available that let you see the definition of a word just by highlighting it! Alternatively there are several e-book readers such as amazon’s kindle available with a built in dictionary. In addition to significantly improving your vocabulary, getting in the habit of reading will also greatly increase your ability on reading comprehension sections. After you finish a book, spend some time thinking about what the important themes in the book were. Some vocabulary you must be absolutely sure are the definitions of various literary devices such as metaphor, simile, allegory, etc.


3. The SAT Reading Comprehension is difficult to cram.

Out of any part of any standardized test, this is typically most difficult in terms of raising your score quickly. This is primarily due to the vocabulary hurdle. If you are short on time, you will have to get on a more focused program. Begin reading a difficult work and after each chapter, or passage, ask yourself questions like “what was the point of that passage?” Asking yourself questions like this will force you to be focused as you read the words on the questions that the SAT likes to ask. Alongside of this, flashcards must become your best friends. As stated earlier, the human mind learns rote facts through repetition. One can find several banks of commonly tested vocabulary words online. Make flash cards of these and go through them many times. The more times you go through with them, the better your score will get. It is that simple.

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