SAT/ACT Prep: Why and How to Use a Journal

Keeping a journal is an integral part of standardized test prep. Writing down information greatly improves retention and provides material for review later on. On occasion, I have bought notebooks for entire class and handed them out in first lesson; this is how important I think note taking is. In this post, we’ll explore in detail how and why to maintain a journal as you prepare.

Why should you maintain a journal?

• You may be using any number of books and online resources to help you prepare. However, most of the material should be a straightforward review of concepts familiar to you except for a handful that appear more challenging or unfamiliar. Writing down these concepts will help you retain them much better than just reading them or bookmarking them

•  We previously established that practicing with previous tests is the best possible training for a standardized test. But this is only half the work. The second half is analyzing your mistakes in painstaking detail, understanding why you made each mistake, and writing the takeaways in a journal. This helps make sure you don’t repeat these mistakes again

• Having a journal with your notes makes for great review material in the days leading up to the test

• A journal is written using your language and notation, in a way that you can understand better than any other book or resource. It is your personalized notebook where even trivial details can be emphasized if they represent a mistake you often repeat

Let’s explore how to keep a journal and how to best use it.

Requirements:

Use a multi-subject notebook or loose leaf paper with dividers and a ring binder. I prefer the flexibility of paper where I can constantly shuffle, add, and remove material. Create different sections in your journal for each section of the test.

What to capture in your journal:

I will use the SAT as an example, although many of these strategies work equally well for the ACT.

•  SAT Reading: Strategies you wish to turn into habits, such as deciding on order of passages as first step, or starting with vocabulary questions, …etc

• SAT Writing: Grammar rules, or guidelines for sentences, such as transition between paragraphs or conclusion sentences

• SAT Math: Equations you have to remember, such as the quadratic formula or equation of a circle. Anything you have trouble remembering, e.g. a reminder for yourself on rules for operations on numbers with exponentials, or definition and examples of statistical measures such as the mean, mode, and median.

These are suggestions only, and you are welcome to write anything helpful to you.

Takeaways:

Maintaining a journal is a key strategy in your standard test prep. I find that maintaining one is useful in any learning context, irrespective of what other resources I use. Feel free to add your perspective below if you have additional comments. Best wishes!

Additional Reading:

 Want to Take Better Notes? Ditch the Laptop for a Pen and Paper, Says Science

Writing By Hand Improves Your Memory, Experts Say