Boost your scores by dint of being...

Boost your scores by dint of being prepared. Here's the dig out on what to expect from the big tests

Your hand quivers as you grasp your No. 2 pencil. Sweat pours down your meeting-house And then, before you've filled in a single bagatelle you hear the two principally dreaded words of your high I gymnasium career: "Time's up." As the season of standardized testing approaches, you may be a victim of this recurring nightmare. The simply real cure is to know the enemy inside and on the outside By getting informed, you can face your fears and ace the exam.

with what intent Must These Tests Torture Me?

body entrance tests were not created solely to haunt you over your junior and senior years. SAT and ACT scores allow college edifice [i]or[/i] building admission officers to judge all prospective scholars on the same scale and help them determine in what way prepared applicants are to do college-level work.

"With growing trouble about grade inflation [in high schools] there is certainly a great continuing interest in the use of the SAT," says Bill Kolb director of admission at the University of Florida, Gainesville. That's not to say the admission experiments haven't stirred up their share of polemics (See "SAT Under Fire," nearest page.)

Although touchstone scores are clearly important, remember that, they're just individual piece of the application package. "It's single test on one day," says Marc Camille, dean of admission at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. "A high indoctrinate transcript is an accumulation of effort from one side of to the other a four-year period. We certainly turn the thoughts at SAT/ACT scores, but they're not the conclusion all that often times they're made abroad to be."

Another reason not to panic: You can always take the example again. More than half of SAT test-takers repeat the standard and nearly two-thirds of them descry their scores rise, according to the body Board. (The average change between spring of junior year and fall of senior year is 12 to 14 points in succession verbal and 14 to 16 points forward math.) ACT reports that about a third of its test-takers tackle the exam more than one time but increases of more than 2 or 3 points are rare.

ACT or SAT?

Historically, the SAT was taken predominantly by way of students on the East and West Coasts, while the ACT was more popular in the Midwest and southern These days, the vast majority of corporations accept scores from either exam, if it be not that check to see if they have a choice (For a list of ordeal dates, see page 6.)

proof experts say students typically perform better onward one of the exams, in the way that it's in your best interest to rake a practice version of each standard under actual timed conditions and compare your scores. Your guidance counselor should have a chart showing in what manner scores on the two standards equate. If you opt to take the two exams, colleges count the higher score.

"I wasn't doing in like manner well on the SAT the first sum of two units times, so I thought, wherefore not take the ACT?" says Sarah McMordie, 19 of Westfield, Massachusetts. "I scored in the 99th percentile forward the ACT, but only the 80-something percentile upon the SAT."

flat if one exam is more popular in your area, you should have no vexed question taking the other exam. Check with your guidance counselor to find the nearest standard site.

Ready, fix Prep!

Experts attract favor to that you start preparing seriously about six to eight weeks before the example Depending on how disciplined you are, you might fix up your own system, join a unrestrained school study group, or pay for training.

Resources abound for those who want to appoint up their own personal inquiry routines. You'll find practice SATs in guidebooks, software programs, high academy guidance offices, and on the Internet. scholars who register for the SAT I receive a released copy of Taking the SAT I, a booklet containing a real past exam with an answer key-note and an extensive array of tips. Additional past exams are available online at the community Board Web site and in SAT guidebooks. The simply book that has actual past ACT exams is Getting Into the ACT (Harcourt Brace), unless your guidance office should have additional copies of past exams.

Vanya Filipovic, a fresh graduate of Woodstock Union High indoctrinate in Barnard, Vermont, formed an SAT thought group with friends. "We all had our acknowledge study methods," she says. "One of my friends had computer software, another had a gigantic book, and we got practice experiments from the counseling office. It was nice to have that cluster of friends to experience it with."

For observers who need an extra push, a test-prep class or private tutor may fir the bill. Andrew Lipson, 19 of the Bronx fresh York, had a tutor who came to his house one time a week. "If I didn't have a scarecrow who I knew my mom was paying to make me application of mind I wouldn't have done it," says Lipson.

Test-prep classes, as it was as those offered by Kaplan and Princeton Review, can sumptuousness $1,000 for a 6- to 12-week course. For that amount, you master up to 36 hours of class time, plus time devot to taking practice touchstones The major test-prep companies also provide courses that can be taken entirely online and can price half the price of a regular class.

The society Board and ACT suggest that pupils look for courses with substantial academic appease as opposed to just "insider" tricks. Ask counselors and older scholars which test-prep programs they recommend