Taking the Sat French test is a great way to show off your skills and get a distinctive college placement for your college admission. If you have enough cumulative knowledge and French skills are at their sharpest and freshest point in your mind, then this test is for you. Here are a few tips to help you prepare efficiently and optimize your test performance:
1. Be strategic
It seems so basic but keep in mind that your goal is to answer as many correct questions as possible. It’s best not to answer a question than giving a random/wrong answer. So first, read the questions, then read the answer choices, then, read the questions again and try answering. Skip the question and circle back on it later if you can’t choose your answer quickly enough. Don’t waste valuable time on questions you may be having wrong. Remember that no point will be deducted for an unanswered question. You can skip a few questions; Just don’t skip too many.
2. Make sure you understand the directions
It seems so obvious, but yet a lot of students bypass this test, certain that they will figure it out. It is however the very basic things to do: know what the directions mean. It will save you some time when taking the test.
3. Before answering the questions, read the whole entire sentence
Don’t confuse speed and efficiency. If you read a sentence too hastily you may miss a valuable clue and pick the wrong answer.
I can’t stress enough, how important it is to get a general idea of a sentence, SAT French test are based on contextual meaning.
4. Eliminate the answers that don’t make sense first
It is indeed easier and more judicious to proceed by elimination. Once, you have removed from your pool of choices. Answer, look carefully at the one and see if you can eliminate another one. If you can’t, don’t waste time, move on to the next question and get back to that one later.
If you are down to two, you can make an educated guess.
5. Beware of false cognates
False cognates are called faux-amis in French (literally “false friends”). They are similar or very similar in French and in English but mean something completely different. For example,
La librairie (The bookstore in English)/ The library (la bibliotheque in French). The best way to differentiate them and not fall in the trap is to study and memorize the most common ones.
6. Be intuitive in the reading comprehension questions
In order to understand a text, you don’t have to understand everything. Actually, you are not expected to.
You can figure out most of the elements in a sentence and understand the general context. Here are a couple of tips to best prepare for that part, first things first read the questions, then read the text carefully, focus on what you understand (not what you don’t understand!!). Remember to make educated guess. If there is a word, you don’t understand you will be able to figure it out with the context.
7. Review (learn and practice) your grammar, conjugations, vocabulary and idioms
To attain your best score on the actual SAT French test, it is necessary that you reinforced the basis. Have a study calendar/program to make sure you have reviewed all the necessary rules and vocabulary when answering question incorrectly when you practice, make sure you study and review the related notions and apply them the right way.
Comments