{"id":1720,"date":"2014-03-10T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T09:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/?p=1720"},"modified":"2015-04-14T23:46:47","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T23:46:47","slug":"how-to-teach-the-sat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/how-to-teach-the-sat\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Teach the SAT"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s funny, really. We ask a lot of our high-school teachers\u2019 qualifications\u2014graduate degrees, certifications, and thorough background knowledge on a subject, to name a few\u2014but what hoops do SAT teachers and tutors have to jump through? The primary qualification you\u2019ll see most prep companies and tutors touting is high scores. There\u2019s no certification, no minimum education; after all, it is<\/b> the scores that most people care about. And the upshot? Well, a lot of SAT teachers go into lessons with little or no teaching experience.<\/p>\n

That was how I got my start teaching, and I\u2019ve known plenty others like me. Personally, I thought that wasn\u2019t such a bad thing. I was happy to dive in headfirst, to find out right away what it means to be at the front of the room. I knew I had something important to say, and I felt like I could connect <\/i>with my students. After all, I was only a few years past the SAT myself. But I did, like I know so many teachers do, feel a bit lost sometimes. Teaching isn\u2019t an easy job, not if you\u2019re invested in it. And while I won\u2019t go so far as to say teaching the SAT is more difficult than teaching traditional school subjects, it\u2019s absolutely true that it\u2019s a unique<\/i> thing to teach.<\/p>\n

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Know Why You\u2019re There<\/h2>\n

Everybody knows that teachers are there to \u201cmake a difference\u201d and \u201chave an impact,\u201d right? It\u2019s trite, but it\u2019s true. As an SAT teacher, you\u2019re in a remarkable position. You can improve the scores of dozens (or hundreds!) of students each year. And we\u2019re talking about tangible results, here. The gap between a 1500 and a 1700 might be the difference between acceptance into a target school or a reach school. Yes, I realize that not every student makes such clear progress, and I know not every teacher is taking on so many students. But even so, this is a special kind of teaching, one that opens the door to some very real job satisfaction: getting to know students, seeing them improve, then hearing about their test results is fantastic. <\/i><\/p>\n

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Make Sure Your Students Know Why They\u2019re There<\/h2>\n

How many of your students are studying with you by choice? It would be nice if every student cared enough about the test to sign up for lessons and devote their full attention to what you have to say, but that\u2019s not always how it works, is it? If you want your students to listen, you have to show them why they should care beyond just doing what they\u2019re told. Don\u2019t get me wrong\u2014clearly, there are plenty of students out there who do<\/i> understand the importance of improving their SAT scores and will share your enthusiasm, but you can\u2019t sit back and expect that of everybody. Instead, it\u2019s up to you to get them motivated<\/p>\n