This guest post is by Charles Horn, a Princeton PhD, Emmy-nominated comedy writer, and author of The Laugh Out Loud Guide: Ace the SAT Exam without Boring Yourself to Sleep!
Comedy is probably the last word you expect to hear with regards to SAT test prep, but a good laugh can add precious points to your SAT score. How, you might ask?
1. BY INCREASING RECALL
Official test questions are boring. Boring isn’t memorable — it goes in one ear and out the other. So while it’s true that you need to answer the boring official questions on test day, that doesn’t mean your entire test prep should consist of ONLY boring questions. A smarter approach would be to include some comedic, offbeat, pop culture, and outrageous questions that are more memorable so that you can learn the overall concepts more effectively and remember them better on test day. Boring test questions are a key element of any SAT prep, but if you really want to increase your recall on test day, add some comedy to the mix as well.
2. BY REDUCING STRESS
With the huge importance placed on the SAT, stress is definitely a factor. We avoid things that are stressful. We push them off. Even when we try to study, we’re not 100% there. By reducing stress through laughter, we make it much easier to absorb the material and not be constantly freaking out over it.
3. BY NOT PUTTING YOU TO SLEEP
When you try to study with one of the standard massive test prep books out there, do you often find yourself procrastinating, re-reading sections over and over again, or even falling asleep? Let’s face it, the material is mostly stuff that you can’t relate to, and stuff that is outright snooze-inducing. It’s pretty much designed that way. By adding in some humor, silliness, outrageousness, and pop culture, you can get a lot more out of your test prep simply by BEING AWAKE during the process.
For all of these reasons and more I wrote The Laugh Out Loud Guide: Ace the SAT Exam without Boring Yourself to Sleep! It doesn’t completely replace your boring test prep, but rather it enhances whatever standard prep you choose to use. That way, you can get the most out of your test prep, increase your test score, and get that final laugh on the SAT.
Good luck!
Here are a few sample questions from The Laugh Out Loud Guide: Ace the SAT Exam without Boring Yourself to Sleep!
1. After a _______ investigation, the inspector _______ that faulty wiring was foshizzle the cause of the fire that burned down Snoop Dogg’s hizzouse.
(A) lengthy, realized
(B) complete, prognosticated
(C) cursory, ruled
(D) thorough, determined
(E) copious, charged
2. At a Saks Fifth Avenue store, Winona Ryder examines four distinct blouses, five distinct dresses, and two distinct handbags. How many different combinations of items can she shoplift if she takes exactly one blouse, two dresses, and a handbag?
3.
In the figure, if x = 5 – y, what is the value of y2 + 25?
(A) 7
(B) 32
(C) 39
(D) 56
(E) 64