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7 Habits to Help You Score High On the SAT and ACT

7 Habits to Help You Score High On the SAT and ACT

At Hillview Prep, we’ve seen students raise their SAT or ACT scores by incredible amounts. Some of them have brought their SAT up by over 500, and others took their ACT composite up by over 10. Along the way, we noticed that there were certain habits that many of these students had in common.
Scoring well on these tests is all about one thing: being responsible. Your tutors and prep curriculum can only take you so far. At the end of the day, you have to work hard to get those good scores. So, here are the 7 things you can do to get a high score:

#1 Do Your Homework and Do It Well!

Pretty obvious, but the less homework you complete, the less likely you’ll be able to raise your score. Of course, no ACT or SAT prep course is going to work like magic, so completing your homework with maximize your chance of a better score. Furthermore, don’t just get your homework done for the sake of finishing it. Try to absorb the material and don’t rush through it. If you put some heart into, you’ll get a lot out of it.

#2 Review Past Work

While you’re doing your current homework, you should also review past assignments. Many of those will have techniques and strategies that will help you with newer material. Also, going back and reviewing old work will reinforce what you did. This will help you remember it easier.

#3 Spread Out Your Homework

Some of the best students we have don’t cram their homework in right before it’s due. They do it slowly and meticulously over the course of the time between lessons. By doing multiple short homework sessions instead of one long session, you can absorb the material better and it will be much easier.

#4 Don’t Do Your Work When You’re Tired

Try to avoid doing homework at the end of the day. We know you have so much going on and there may be times when your SAT/ACT prep work isn’t your top priority, but if you save this work until after you’ve done everything else, you probably won’t get much out of it. You need to find balance and give your test prep work its own attention.

#5 Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Questions

The best students come to lessons with questions—even if they didn’t have a hard time with the work. Usually, if a tutor sees a correct answer, they’ll assume you knew exactly how to do it and move on. Don’t be afraid to ask them if your method was right or if there is a better way of doing things. This will help you identify similar questions on the real test and do better!

#6 Try to Stay Consistent

Every time you miss a lesson, you’ve just given yourself another setback. This will result in more time between lessons, meaning you’ll need to spend more time reviewing past material. This, in turn, results in a lack of forward progression. Everybody misses lessons or forgets to do homework every now and then—it’s ok!—but try not to make a habit of it.

#7 Take Advantage of the Time You Have During Lessons

When you’re finally in a lesson with your tutor, be as alert, awake and ready to learn as possible! We get it, these lessons can be long, boring and seemingly endless, but giving better attention to them gives you a greater chance of acing the exam down the line.

Improving your score is not impossible and all it takes is a little extra effort on your part. Our tutors can help you develop these techniques even better. Head over to our Registration Page and get started today!