How I Teach
From my 15 plus years of experience in teaching SAT, there are 3 imperatives for students to master to order to get the highest possible score that they can get
Concepts + Techniques + Strategies
= Highest Score Improvement
Concepts
In Reading & Writing, these include the identification of keywords, matching of keywords, the types of questions that they ask, and what keywords to look for in each type of question. They can also be grammatical rules, punctuation rules, and the understanding of the various parts of speech and tenses in Standard English.
In Math, these are the concepts and the subject areas that are in the SAT syllabus, including equations and formulas that they need to know and understand. Most important of all, it is the understanding of how these various concepts are linked together to form a coherent knowledge base.
Techniques
In Reading & Writing, these include techniques to eliminate unlikely answer choices, keywords to focus on in the answer choices and passage, avoidance of common traps in answers, and analysis of sentence structure for pattern recognition.
In Math, this is about using the easiest and most efficient way to solve a problem. Multiple methods are usually taught in the textbooks to solve these problems, but they never teach you which method is the most efficient for which kind of problem. For example, techniques to solve inequalities, direct proportions, ratios, and algebraic manipulation.
Strategies
In Reading & Writing, it is about picking the low-hanging fruits first – do the easier questions first so that we have ample time to do the more difficult and tedious questions last.
In Math, it is about going through the test in 3 passes. First pass is to do all the problems. Second pass is to check the answers. Third pass is to handle the toughest questions.
Conclusion
The practice of strategies mentioned here is iterative, starting with the practice test drill. After each module, the students are encouraged to analyze their mistakes and weaknesses, under the guidance of the tutor. Once the weaknesses are known, more reviews of the concepts and techniques are done and then deliberate practices are done to remedy the situation. This is the time where homework could be helpful. After such deliberate practice on the weaknesses, another round of practice test drill follows.