Preparing for Success on Test Day | Transformative Tutoring

One Week Before Test Day

Start reviewing & reworking past mistakes as you lead up to test day. So, go back through all of your practice tests and find any questions you missed and make sure you can do them with ease. If you find any that still are awkward, then make a list of which test #, section # & question # and we can review them in the final week before you crush this test. Keep up the great work. Your extra effort in this final week can really make an enormous difference. You’ve got this! Finish strong!
Buy some peppermint gum. Peppermint helps with concentration.

Go grocery shopping to be sure you have a great breakfast available for Saturday. See https://www.scoreatthetop.com/blog/blog-1/brain-food-5-best-foods-to-eat-before-a-test
Review the registration start time and test location.
Review the driving directions on how to drive to the testing location. Perhaps load the address into your phone’s mapping app.
Review my full SAT study guide.
Do another practice test or two. https://transformativetutoring.com/official-sat-practice-tests/
Review the official SAT website: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/taking-the-test/test-day-checklist

Find an old school watch if you want to bring one on Saturday. Advanced watches such as the Apple Watch are NOT permitted.
Pack your backpack:
- Bring your registration confirmation information.
- Bring your picture ID.
- Find your calculator.
  - Make sure your calculator has lots of battery life.
  - Make sure your calculator is in degree mode. If you don’t know what that means, then it won’t matter what mode you are in.
- Sharpen your trusty handful of #2 pencils.
- Pack your peppermint gum.
- Pack a snack or two.
- Prepare your water bottle.
Review my full SAT study guide.
Do another practice test or two. I recommend section 3, test 8.
Pick out your favorite outfit. Do you have something you wear that makes you feel awesome, powerful, smart and/or relaxed? Wear it on test day to improve your mood.
Set your alarm early enough to have a quality breakfast and arrive to the testing center early. You don’t want to be nervously standing at the end of a long line.
Go to bed at your normal time or a little bit earlier.

Wear your favorite power outfit.
Optionally, brush your teeth and hair. LOL!
Wear your old school watch.
Eat your healthy breakfast. (https://www.scoreatthetop.com/blog/blog-1/brain-food-5-best-foods-to-eat-before-a-test)

Arrive early.
Leave your phone in the car. Phones can only get you in trouble inside the testing center. They are NOT allowed during breaks.
Have your picture ID and registration form ready.
Start chewing that peppermint gum.
Use the restroom one last time.

Do the less difficult non-multiple choice problems first. 80% are easy!! Do the hard ones later. Do these easy problems first. They’re a nice warm-up.
If you have to guess on a non-multiple choice problem, guess “2”.
Quickly decide if a question is easy (1), medium (2) or difficult (3). You probably don’t want to invest much time on difficult questions. 90-95% of the questions are 1’s and 2’s. Stick to the 1’s and 2’s and you’ll do great. Battle the 3’s and you’ll get bogged down and potentially lose confidence. You can always do the 3’s last if you have time. Spending 5 minutes on a problem 95% of people will get wrong is a terrible use of valuable time.
Always pick the most likely answer before going to the next question. That’s your best guess and you’ll have to use it if you run out of time.
Put a question mark next to answers you are not certain of. You can review these questions as you fill in all the bubbles near the end of the test.
Write “+” next to questions you are certain are answered correctly.
To save time, bubble in all of your answers for each page once you have completed the page. That is faster than going one question at a time.
Review my test problem solving strategies in my full SAT study guide.