SAT 101 Chapter 4 - Common Mistakes
The 5 rules do a great job at telling us what to do, but I want to talk a little more about what NOT to do. There are many common mistakes, and most of them involve forgetting or failing to follow one of the rules.
Figure 1.4
The Most Common Mistakes
Together, the rules mean that you should never do certain things you might be used to doing on other tests. So, my little zoinkers, here are the most common mistakes you should avoid.
Mistake 1
1. Asking yourself which answer is better than the rest
There is no better answer. There is only the correct answer, and the wrong answer. Anytime you find yourself between two answers, don't fall back on trying to figure out which one is better. If you think two answers are decent, it just means you've missed the reason why one of them is completely wrong.
Mistake 2
2. Going with your "first instinct" when you're stuck
For some reason, y'all have this dumb idea that you should go with your first instinct on hard questions. This probably works on school tests, but do not do this on the SAT. Remember, the SAT creators have decades of experience experimenting on high schoolers' brains, and thus know what your gut instincts usually tell you. They then put answer choices that purposely take advantage of those instincts to trick you into picking them.
Stay disciplined, and stay angry. Don't give into your instincts. Unless your instincts are finely honed "F*CK the SAT" instincts you gained from me. Then go ahead and follow them, I guess.
Mistake 3
3. Wasting time on shit you don't understand
You read a sentence. It made no sense to you. You read it again and still have no idea what you just read. You start to panic.
Bruh. Chill the fuck out. If you don't understand a word, sentence, or even a paragraph, don't waste too much time on it. Just skip it. Chances are you don't need to know it anyways, especially if it's just a difficult word or phrase. Even if you need to know it, it'll probably only be for one question. Don't let it get to you, just accept it and move on. Come back to it later.
Mistake 4
4. Overthinking the easy questions
Remember that all questions are easy. If you find yourself thinking you need to do some crazy literary analysis, know the exact meaning of some scientific terms, or do calculus on the math section, you've gone way too far. Stop, take a breath, and reset. The question is easier than you think, and you just missed some small detail, sentence, or shortcut that turns the question into a simple one.
Mistake 5
5. Trying to go too fast & refusing to slow down
When you're pressed for time and under pressure, it's extremely easy to psych yourself out and start reading and thinking as fast as possible. Unfortunately, that's a great way to open yourself up to little mistakes like missing key words, punctuation marks, and negative signs. Your first priority should be to get the straightforward questions right. Make sure you don't make any careless errors on the questions that you know you should be getting right. Only then should you even think about the harder questions.
Mistake 6
6. Forgetting to be strict and objective
I wasn't quite sure how to word this mistake, but this is when you forget your training and start allowing incorrect answers to sound pretty good. A lot of people, stressed out and low on time, will default back to old habits and start letting answers that seem "close enough" pass as good answers.
For example, a reading passage might say "memes are usually quite amusing" and an answer choice to a question says "most of the time, memes are extremely funny." When under pressure, I know a bunch of you chunguses are gonna pick that answer. But since when does "quite amusing" mean "extremely funny?" Sure, it's pretty close, but pretty close isn't good enough. Be strict, and never forget your training.