50 Encouraging Reasons Why The SAT Is Important

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“How important are SAT scores?”

This is a question I hear a lot as a tutor.

Students and parents want to know if SAT scores are more important than grades or extracurricular activities.

Oftentimes, the students with low SAT scores come up with reasons why “the SAT doesn’t matter,” while the kids who get high scores on the SAT sometimes think that “my high SAT scores will make up for a lack of challenging courses or effort.”

The truth is right there in the middle.

SAT scores are very important, but not all-important. Since SAT scores don’t make or break your college application, it can be hard to maintain a strong work ethic towards improving your SAT scores.

But your test scores, while not all-important, definitely deserve some study and attention. So, I came up with a list of 50 encouraging reasons why doing well on the SAT really matters!

15 Personal Achievement Reasons the SAT is Important:

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Bragging rights as a student and adult
Teaches and develops your goal-setting ability
Develops your self-motivation which helps throughout life
Improves your concentration under stress
It’s a significant milestone in your life – after the SATs come college!
Develops your ability to work effectively even when fatigued (believe me, this will come in handy in college and the working world!)
Helps you test your limits – the SAT is probably one of the most mentally demanding tests you’ll ever take
Teaches you no matter how well or poorly you do on one test, life doesn’t end – even the kid with a perfect 2400 has to wake up the next morning and continue building his life into something worthwhile. Even the kid who does really terribly (by their own standards) can wake up the next day and do something amazing with his life.
Teaches you to stop grumbling and “just do it!”
Is recognized worldwide as a rough measure of academic ability
It proves you are responsible for yourself (because you understand the importance of a good education)
The SAT offers an opportunity to challenge yourself to become more educated
It challenges you in general – your patience, your endurance, your focus, your academic skills – and challenges are what teach us to grow
A high SAT score opens doors for a better education, scholarships, career, and income.
It has always been considered a mark of academic distinction to do well on the SAT!

5 People who will be proud of you for doing well on the SAT

It will make your parents proud
It will make your teachers proud
It will make your friends proud (even if they may tease you about it)
It will make your girlfriend/boyfriend/crush/dog/cat proud :)
It can show friends and family another side of you – if they know you as the artist, the athlete, the musician, the actor, they’ll gain newfound respect for you for being smart, too!

7 Reasons a high SAT score is important for school:

Getting in to any college is easier with a higher SAT score
More colleges and scholarships will seriously consider your application with a good SAT score
Better colleges will seriously consider your application with a high SAT score
Higher SAT scores may improve your odds for an academic merit-based scholarship or financial aid
Taking one test can be a golden key to dozens, even hundreds, of the finest learning institutions in the world today
Winning the National Merit scholarship will help cover the expensive costs of going to college
The National Merit scholarship will also help for the recognition – even National Merit semi-finalist helps when you’re putting it on your college applications!

4 Key benefits of developing a better vocabulary for the SAT

Vocabulary helps in high school: perceived as smart, better grades, easier reading
Vocabulary helps in college: college reading is dense with high level vocab, you are expected to be proficient in their usage, professors will use these words in class and you won’t be able to pause and look the words up in a dictionary like when you’re reading, and there may not be time to ask like there was in high school
Vocabulary helps in romantic relationships: almost every male or female alive would prefer a mate who isn’t limited by their vocabulary
Vocabulary helps in the professional world: from businesspeople to authors to attorneys to non-profit workers, a strong vocabulary impresses peers, and the boss, and makes navigating the working world a little easier

8 Ways the SAT Critical Reading Section Is Important to You Personally

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The reading passages develop your critical reasoning
Provides a motivation to read more
Provides motivation to learn to read faster
Proves your ability to work with a wide variety of reading topics
Showcases your skill at answering difficult or confusing questions
Develops your ability to analyze potential responses and eliminate illogical answers
If you already read a lot, here’s your chance to show off a skill that people may not know you for
Might even learn something interesting from the passage!

5 Benefits of doing well on the SAT Math section

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Basic mental math skills make life so much easier
Reviews fundamental math concepts used in many different fields from science to shopping
Develops your ability to solve complex word problems
Teaches you to use all available information at hand to solve a problem, like a detective
Working on a problem, even if your first approach doesn’t work, is more effective than just thinking and/or worrying about how hard it is – JUST LIKE IN REAL LIFE! This is a great life lesson to learn from the SAT.

6 Important reasons to study your SAT grammar and writing topics!

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A good reason to review your grammar fundamentals in late high school, which will help you get higher grades in English and History
The SAT grammar review will help in college when your writing is expected to be free of grammar errors
The SAT grammar is “by the book” and presents no surprises for a student has prepared for the writing section
If you know your grammar you improve employment prospects in all fields, particularly communication-based careers
Need to know the rules before you break them for the sake of creative writing; it sounds trite, but it’s true. Writers without disciplined grammar knowledge sound amateurish, not “creative.”
The 25-minute SAT essay helps you prepare for difficult employer interview questions (It’s similar in nature to answering personal interview questions – even if your heart isn’t necessarily in your answer, it’s more important to provide a reasonable answer in a limited period of time)