Taking tests was always a struggle for me. I did well in school, but I always found myself running out of time when it came to testing. This was a big concern for me as I started to prepare for the SAT. I decided that I wasn’t going to study for the test and just see how I would perform.
When I got my first score back, I was disappointed. It was a decent score, but it was not where I wanted it to be in order to get into my dream college. I decided to take the SAT a second time. And then a third time. Unsurprisingly, I was still getting the same score. My family thought that I was crazy for wanting to take the test for the fourth time, and I can definitely understand why. What could I possibly do to make the outcome of this test any different?
Honestly, I did not have the money to afford an expensive private tutor, so I turned to whatever free resources I could find. College Board has a free prep tool in collaboration with Khan Academy that gives you practice recommendations based on how you performed on previous SAT tests. This kind of targeted studying really drew me to use this tool as much as I could. When I took the SAT for the first few times, I thought that I was not improving because I had bad days or because I kept running out of time. I wish that I had realized sooner that practice ahead of time could help with my time management. Using the prep tool, I would incessantly study for hours; I just really wanted to get a better score.
On the day of my fourth SAT test, I was really nervous. Not getting a better score would mean that all of my hard work was for nothing and that I might have a hard time getting into my dream school. I knew that I could not take the test again, so I tried to not let my nerves get the best of me. When I took the test, I was more confident as I recognized concepts that I’ve studied over and over through Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy. When I got my score back, I was so excited to see that my score went up and I was within the range of my dream school’s average scores.
It was great to finally be satisfied with my SAT score and not have to worry about taking the test anymore. With the help of Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy, I was able to significantly improve my score and get into the college I wanted. Now that I’m at the University of Michigan, I feel like I have a strong handle on knowing how to efficiently and effectively prepare for tests. Official SAT Practice taught me how important practice is to get better results.
