Preparing for the SAT How Many Hours is Enough

Preparing for the SAT How Many Hours is Enough SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Students online considering preparing for the SAT generally all have one big question: how many hours should I study for the SAT? When does prepping for the SAT become a waste of time? The short answer is that every hour helps, and unless you've already studied for 100 hours or more, it's not a waste of time yet. Why do you think that is? Why Students Need to Spend More Time Studying for the SAT The answer from research, from experience, from teachers and college counselers is absolutely clear. It's the natural combination of two factors. The first is that the SAT is so important in your life. A 100 point increase on average doubles your chance of getting into any given college, and raises your lifetime salary by $44,000. For almost all students, the value of increasing your SAT score is immense. The second reason is because the SAT is so studiable. A recent report shows that as few as 10 hours of focused studying can improve your SAT score by dozens of points. Students in any old SAT prep course improve their score by over a hundred points easily. In fact, we ourselves are so confident in your ability to improve (and the quality of our product) that PrepScholar even guarantee 160+ points on our online SAT prep program. You do the math: a better college, and a lifetime salary increase of $44k just for a few dozen hours of studying and spending a few hundred dollars on a good program. It'll be the best investment of time and money you've made in your life! Surely There's a Limit to the Benefits of SAT Study, Though? Yes, there is a limit, but for most people, the limit is their own willpower, motivation, and free time. In another blog post, I give some tips for overcoming these limitations. But suffice it to say, for almost all students, further studying will help. In fact, as a rule of thumb you should not even consider the possibility that you are studying too much unless you've hit the 100 hour mark. Students looking for a low benchmark so they can wing the SAT won't find solace in the facts above, but they are what they are. The SAT is important, and studying at the margin helps, even when you've already studied a lot. How to Tell You've Studied Enough First, if your score is 1520 or above, you've studied enough, even if you don't get perfect. I'll go into it in another blog post, but long story short, the difference between 1520 and 1600 often is just sampling noise. Second, the following only applies if you've studied more than 100 hours. If you have not studied 100 hours, do not pass go, do not collect $200, do not use the reasons below as excuses to stop studying. Likely they don't apply because you haven't even found your best way of preparing for the SAT yet. Third, a sign that you've studied enough is that you score has not improved by more than 40 points in the last forty hours of studying. Fourth, you might have studied enough if you're trying many different ways of studying (improving vocab, doing real practice, taking an online course, etc) and still don't improve. Found this article useful? Get a lot more helpful with our Free SAT Ebook!

15 Great Word Games

15 Great Word Games 15 Great Word Games 15 Great Word Games By Mark Nichol Writers and editors are among the most dedicated (read: obsessive) fans of word games. (I play Scrabble once a week a relatively low frequency that may indicate only a mild addiction.) As the name of an old Reader’s Digest feature suggests, they enrich your word power, but they’re also fun. Here is a roster of some of the most entertaining games, from traditional contests like Password to innovative variations like Upwords. Most games listed have children’s versions, and many are available in both analog and digital form. 1. Apples to Apples Players take turns judging which noun selected by a player from a hand of cards, each labeled with a noun, best matches on criteria such as funniest, most appropriate, or least appropriate an adjective printed on another card. (Cards) 2. Balderdash Players take turns crafting fake definition for obscure words in the hope that others will select the false meaning from a set of possible definitions. (Cards) 3. Boggle Players take turns jumbling a four-by-four grid of letter cubes, and all players try to form as many words as they can from letters displayed on adjacent cubes. (Letter cubes). 4. Bulls-Eye Players create words from cards labeled with single letters; they take turns rolling a die to determine the word length that earns points for each round, then advance tokens on a board according to how many points they earned. (Cards and board with tokens) 5.Catch Phrase Players take turns providing teammates with clues to the identity of a secret word before a timer goes off. (Handheld electronic timer with a database of words) 6. Password Players try to get teammates to identify a secret word by providing one-word clues; teams take turns, and the number of points awarded for a correct guess decreases with each failed attempt. (Cards) 7. Scattergories Players list as many words belonging to a category and starting with a given letter as they can. (Cards) 8. Scrabble Players use letter tiles to form words they can attach to words already placed on a grid ; they rack up points based on the relative values of the letters and of grid squares that, when used, multiply the value of letters or words. (Board and letter tiles) 9. Scrabble Upwords Players form words by placing letter tiles on a board, but, unlike in Scrabble, all letters have equal value, and bonuses are earned by forming new words by placing new tiles on top of some existing ones. (Board with letter tiles) 10. Taboo Players try to get teammates to guess a word by providing other word clues, but they are prohibited from using a list of the most obvious clues. (Cards) 11. Text Twist Players form as many words as possible from a randomly generated group of letters before a timer runs out. (Computer) 12. Word Blur Players use word tiles to prompt teammates to correctly guess a secret word. (Tiles) 13. Word Zigzag In this Boggle-like game with a grid of letters (unlike as in Boggle, in this game, the size of the grid is variable), players attempt to find as many strings of letters that form words as they can. Not to be confused with Zig-Zag, described below. (Application, or paper and pencil) 14. Words with Friends This high-tech multiplayer variation on Scrabble, which has achieved phenomenal success thanks, in part, to a number of celebrity aficionados, allows multiple simultaneous games with known or unknown opponents. (Application) 15. Zig-Zag Players try to guess each other’s secret words by testing how many letters of another word are in the secret word, and where the letters in common are positioned. (This game seems to be out of print, but used copies are available online, or prospective players could recreate the game materials from descriptions.) Update: Looking for more? We created another list with 50 more great word games, so check that out Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Incorrect Pronunciations That You Should Avoid50 Nautical Terms in General Useâ€Å"Least,† â€Å"Less,† â€Å"More,† and â€Å"Most†