1. Ask your teachers early.

In the fall of your senior year, your teachers will be flooded with rec requests from your classmates. Get ahead of the rush by asking your teachers in the spring of your junior year. They’ll appreciate having the entire summer to write you a recommendation.

2. Decide which of your teachers – past or present – will represent you in the best light.

Are there certain teachers who have made it clear that they think highly of you? Don’t limit yourself to classes in which you excelled. Someone who taught you in a particularly challenging class and saw your commitment to improvement might write you an even more compelling recommendation than a teacher who saw you begin and end with a solid A. Also consider teachers who have seen you in areas outside the classroom.

3. Only send out a supplementary recommendation if someone other than your teachers can provide unique and meaningful insight into your character.

While sending an extra recommendation from a drama teacher or hockey coach might help round out your character to an admissions committee, do not send an extra recommendation if the college to which you are applying specifically asks you not to do so. And don’t send more than one: it can make you look as if you’re compensating for a less-than-impressive application.

4. Ask your teachers in person.

Don’t send an email, and definitely don’t get your parents involved in requesting recommendations. The request should come from you personally.

5. Don’t expect an automatic “yes.”

Your teacher may have already committed to writing recommendations for others. That, or your teacher knows that he or she wouldn’t write you the best recommendation.

6. Provide your teachers with an outline of the kind of recommendation you are looking for.

Consider your application as a whole and the specific attributes you are trying to emphasize. Ask your teachers to write to these attributes if they can. Provide them with a rough outline of the points you would like them to cover. You are not “ordering” a specific recommendation, but helping your teachers focus on what you most wish to convey to the schools of your choice.

7. Write thank-you notes to the people who took the time to recommend you.

It’s just polite.

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Top Test Prep’s tips for getting the best recommendations will hopefully help you when you apply to college. For more information on college admissions counseling, call (800) 501-7737.

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1. Spot errors by listening for them.

In the error identification section, your goal is to identify grammatical or structural errors in a given sentence. The upside: you don’t need to know how to correct these errors. All you’re required to do is recognize when an underlined portion is wrong, or when there are no errors. Pronounce the sentence in your head and listen for anything that sounds off. If it sounds off, it probably is.

2. Remember that this is a test of written English.

Though tip #1 generally holds true, there are things we can get away with in spoken English that are not appropriate for written English. Some questions will spell out a common mispronunciation Рsuch as “could of” in place of “could have” Рthat might sound right, but isn’t correct in writing.

3. Watch out for “I” versus “me.”

People often confuse the two, or assume that using “I” is always correct. Not so. Here’s a tip for figuring out which one to use: take out the other person or people, and see how you’d write the sentence if “you” were the only person. For example, if the sentence is : “My parents lent Sarah and I their station wagon,” take out “Sarah” and see how you’d rewrite the sentence if you were the only borrower of the station wagon. You will realize that “I” sounds wrong Рthat the correct phrasing should be “Sarah and me.”

4. Check for subject/verb agreement.

Ask yourself whether the subject is singular or plural, and whether the correlating verb is conjugated accordingly.

5. Check for verb tense agreement.

Ask yourself, “When did the event described take place?” in order to check that the verb is in the proper tense. If one event in the past happens before another event in the past, the earlier event will require a past participle such as “had talked” or “had eaten.”

6. Be able to recognize sentences that are too “wordy,” expressing an idea in too many words.

One example of wordiness on the SAT may be an adjective that is unnecessarily modified, such as “completely silent” or “very unique.” The words “completely” and “very” are not needed here: you are either silent or not silent; you are either unique or not unique.

7. Keep in mind that the essay portion of the SAT may be compared to your admissions essay.

Admissions officers may compare the two in order to verify that your style and writing level are similar for both essays. In some cases, a good SAT essay may give your application the edge you need to take you from borderline to admitted.

8. On the essay portion of the SAT, aim for clarity and good organization.

Apply all the rules for essay-writing you’ve learned in school. Organization and paragraph-parsing are key. It doesn’t matter what you know in a certain subject area; it matters how well you are able to express your opinion or to relate an experience relevant to the given prompt.

9. Proofread your SAT essay for grammatical errors.

Be as vigilant about checking your own writing for errors as you are on the error-ID portion of the exam. Small errors can add up, lowering your score.

10. Give your SAT essay a title.

It never hurts to title an essay. A title can intrigue your reader and summarize the main theme, giving your essay a feeling of completeness.

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