Rather than trying to learn every vocabulary word in the book, focus on learning prefixes and suffixes. These will help you understand more vocab words later on. If you struggle with the essay portion, set a timer and practice trying to write an outline in under five minutes.

Study groups may be helpful for those in test-prep courses as well.

This will save you time on test day and could buy you an extra couple of minutes for answering questions.

Additional practice tests can be found online, though you may need to pay for them. If you don’t trust yourself to focus for the full amount of time, ask one of your parents to act as the test moderator and sit in the room quietly while you work.

Be very careful about marking the appropriate spot on the answer sheet if you’re not going in order. Glance between the question number and the answer number before marking anything to make sure it matches.

If you’re waffling between two possible answers, defer to the one that was your gut reaction when you first read the question. Your instincts are often right, so employ them if you’re going to guess anyway. [7] X Research source

Be careful not to rush through the test. You don’t want to make careless mistakes because you were rushing and not carefully reading the questions. [9] X Expert Source Jennifer KaifeshTest Prep Tutor Expert Interview. 8 November 2019.

They also provide scrap paper, so use this to work out any math problems. Write the question number beside the work in case you want to come back to it later.

Make your two body paragraphs more well-developed by backing up your claims with several examples from the text. Aim for a length of about 2 to 2. 5 pages total, but don’t fill the pages with overly long quotations from the passage or large handwriting. Test graders will see through this.

If you’re having trouble falling asleep the night before the test, direct your mind away from racing thoughts. Picture something relaxing, like lying in a hammock, then gradually fill in the rest of the imagery and details. [14] X Research source Try reading a good book (not a test-prep book) for 30 minutes to calm yourself down enough to fall asleep.

There are a couple of short breaks during the test. Take a granola bar or bag of almonds with you to snack on during these breaks to help keep yourself focused. [15] X Research source