Those of you planning to take the SAT this Saturday, read on: this post will help you prepare! We'll be wrapping up our series on the SAT Writing section with a look at Improving Paragraph questions. Improving Paragraph questions test your ability to critique both the overall content and the sentence composition of multi-paragraph passages. Here’s an example passage:

We recently gave some advice on handling the aftermath of bombing the SAT. One Sparkler’s frustrations came through loud and clear in the comments section of that article. AsterSelene wrote:

But what if you get a bad score the second time? Did everything on this list after the first failure. Got the SAME EXACT score on the second one.

It doesn't seem fair, does it? You plan out your study time, make your flashcards, think positive thoughts... only to receive a disappointing score once again. For AsterSelene and others in the same situation, a lack of improvement means that something is going wrong in your study efforts, but pinpointing the problem can be tricky. Here are some methods you can use to figure out what you need to do differently:

Tired of hearing your teachers, parents, and coaches tell you that “practice makes perfect"? Yes, it's a cliché, and yes, it's annoying to hear, but when it comes to the SAT, practice really does make perfect.

In terms of the SAT, practice means timed practice tests. They are the best way for you to get to know the specific types of questions you’ll find on the test, and the best ways to answer them. But it's not enough simply to do a practice section, grade yourself, and move on to to the next section. In order to make your practice effective, you need to analyze your results. Here are some ways to do that: