A lot of people have been asking me how to ace the SAT. I scored a meager 2310, but I will help you with whatever I know.
So, coming to the books, I studied from a Kaplan book I found on Flipkart and a Princeton Review book they gave me at PR. And no, I didn’t study at Roads, though a lot of my friends say it is very good. I studied at TPR (The Princeton Review) and found it pretty cool (Yes, ManyaGroup. You are welcome) The teachers, Anindita Ma’am and Saikat Sir, are fantastic! I also met the tennis stud Richie here, as well as Mallika, the chick who threw a bottle at me twice, and Parthivi, the dancer, and Varun, the eternal stud. They kept the classes alive, with the help of Avirup, the dude I figuratively grew up with.
If you want some for-the-record advice, just be good with vocabs. They are the only reason I managed an 800 in Critical Reading. For math, the best advice I ever got was- “RTFQ”. It means, Read The Frigging Question. The only hard work involved in my prep time was doing the homework TPR gave. I would have given you the books, but I already gave them to a friend of mine who helped me a lot in the initial stages of prep. Ankita, from MHS.
Coming to the test hall experience: If you have taken the SAT already, you know what it is like. For the first timers, you get three five-minute breaks. You are expected to refresh your mind by getting out of your place and walking about. People use this window to talk and discuss probable answers among themselves. My advice is, don’t go out. No matter how tempting it is.
I will tell you what happens. In each section, there will be one question everyone will have a doubt about. And in the social gathering that takes place outside during the break, there will be a smart-ass guy like me, who will pretend to know all answers. More often than not, he will tell you the wrong answer so confidently, that you’ll change your own answer, even if it was correct originally. So my advice, again, is Don’t!
Now that we have prepared and taken the test, what do we do? Come out of the test hall with a downcast face. Tell everyone how you sucked up your mathematics section. How you made silly mistakes, etc. Trust me, people get a cynical pleasure out of people who don’t do well in exams. They get stuff to talk about, like “See that dude! Always talks big but fails to deliver.” Give them the surprise of their life when your results come out.
FAQ 1. “What motivated you, Shurjo?”
The fact that I did not get the Presidency of my school. I had to show “them”. In a way they could not ignore. Aman Golechha showed the way with his brilliant results in his law-related exams. And me, in my humble way.
FAQ 2. “What did you do the day before SAT?”
Well, I will be perfectly honest. I watched two movies. One was “Get Smart” (the story of a JohnnyEnglish-esque spy) and the other, OMG (a Hindi movie which deserves a watch). Yes, my mom did not spare me. “SHURJO YOU HAVE YOUR SAT TOMORROW AND YOU ARE WATCHING MOVIES?” And I was like: “Yes mom. Movies help enhance creativity. It will help me write my essay tomorrow.”
Well, it didn’t.
FAQ 3. “Will you take the test again?”
Thaak boss.
Disclaimer: This is not a show-off post. This is merely to share smiles!