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Improving My SAT Math Score in One Year

Written by Pattarawadee Yuhong

Some people might question now of what is SAT score and why do people need to know about that.

According to Heimbach (2018), SAT is a standard of college admissions tests in the United States which is running by the College Board. People use the score from SAT to show on how well they are prepared for the college by using different skills. It is important to take SAT examination if you want to study in U.S., Canada or in some Thai universities due to its requirement to show that students have reached an acceptable standard from the universities (International House Bangkok, 2017).

For me, I need to use this score to apply for the international universities in Thailand. At first, I don’t know anything about SAT examination at all. This is because I had studied in Thai schools since I was young, so they never taught me about this test as Thai universities don’t need to use it.

I started to find the information about SAT of what does it is, how does it looks like, and how does it scored.

According to Ben (2017), SAT testing divide into 2 sections which are the evidence-based reading and writing section and the math section. For math section that I would like to mention about it in this blog, there are 58 questions in this section which includes no calculator and calculator section. The maximum score for math is 800.

After I made the research, I felt kind of scare because everything in the test will be in English language which I am not so good at it. Therefore, I decided to take the SAT examination for the first time so that I would know what score I will get.

My first math score didn’t quite good as I got only 590 score. With this score, I can’t even use it to apply for the international universities that I wanted. Hence, I began to go to the tutorial schools so that I would know some techniques from them.

My main problem from doing this test is that I hadn’t finished the test in time as I only had 1 hour and 20 minutes for doing the math part (Ben, 2017). This makes me missed many questions from the exam.

After I had more techniques from the tutorial schools, I decided to take SAT examination for the second time. My score is much better but I’m still not appreciate with it.

I changed the tutorial school after I was taking SAT examination for the second time because I believed that I will receive more techniques from the different institution. At that time, I didn’t have enough time to review of the exercises due to the work and quiz from the school. This causes the score result from taking SAT examination for the third time become not good enough.

For my fourth time of the SAT testing, I decided to take this as my last time for the exam. The reason from this is that the cost of taking SAT examination for each time is very expensive. According to College Board (2019), it costs around 47.5 dollars for each time. Therefore, I need to strive and try harder as this is my last chance.

I had do a lot of exercises everyday from many books that related to SAT examination such as Kaplan and Panda. I was very tired at that time because I didn’t even have time to rest. However, I still believe that success will not come to us if we don’t have enough effort to do of something.

When the date of the exam had come, I need to take the test at Shrewsbury international school. There are more than 20 test centers in Thailand (College Board, 2019). On that day when I was arriving, many people had already come before me. Most of them brought books from their home together to review of the knowledge, but I didn’t bring anything with myself because I believed that I had already prepared of everything and that I didn’t want to be stressful before the exam.

I am very excited and glad that I got 740 score out of 800 score on this time. Even though some people might say that this is not a high score at all as there are so many people that got higher score than me, I’m still proud of myself as I can improve my score from 590 to 740 within 1 year.

I believe that nobody can become successful if they have no effort to do of something. Some people might be disappointed from getting low score for the first time, but it doesn’t mean that they will get low score everytime that they take of the test. They just need to try harder and never give up on themselves in order to improve the score as practice makes perfect.

However, please don’t be upset on yourself if the score is lower than what you expected as you had already do your best.

Image by Pattarawadee Yuhong

References:

https://blog.prepscholar.com/what-is-the-sat-a-complete-explanation-of-the-test

https://www.ihbangkok.com/exam-preparation/sat-and-ged/

https://www.petersons.com/blog/increase-your-sat-scores-by-knowing-what-the-test-is-about/

https://blog.collegeboard.org/how-much-does-sat-and-sat-subject-test-cost

https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/register/find-test-centers

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My Experience of Fears in Shanghai, China

Written by Pattarawadee Yuhong

Having trouble with new culture? Here is what you can do.

I had studied abroad for one month in China since 2 years ago. The university that I went to study named Shanghai University of Finance & Economics which I had studied in the program for foreign students. The main problem of staying in China is language. I didn’t understand anything of what others was talking about as they normally use Chinese language to communicate with each other (Sawe, 2018). Also, there was no other Thai students that I had known in this university, so this makes me felt quite lonely and fears.

After having a hard time in China, I had started to find some ways in order to overcome of that problem. Then I realized that the best way to adapt with new culture is I should not be afraid to talk with other people (Jilliann, 2018).

There were many people of different nationalities in my classroom, but most of them stay in the same group. I begin to talk with my Korean classmate first. She is really nice to me as she never judge me on my pronunciation or even criticize on how bad I’ve speak of other languages. I am lucky to meet with someone like her.

Another way that I did while studying abroad was to think positively and had an open mind (International Business Seminars, 2018). I found out that my life become much better from thinking in this way. According to Cherry (2019), positive thinkers will have more ability to deal with stress. Therefore, I learned to accept of new things and tried to think that I am not the only one who face with this problem. Also, I believed in myself that I have my own ability to overcome of fears.

If you also have the same experience with me, you can follow from what I’ve done in order to overcome of fears.

Some additional information:

Have you ever heard of bad things about China?

“The air pollution in the country is really bad that people need to wear face mask everytime that they go outside.”, said Chen (as cited in Wyns, 2018).

“Discovering public toilets without doors are the norm in China just seems unfathomable to me.”, said Yoong (2014).

I had heard all of these things before going to study in China, so I was kind of afraid to go to China at that time.

However, the reality is very different from what I’ve heard. The environment in China is very clean and nice. I hope that everyone could come and see the beautiful of this country from their own eyes.

Image by Pattarawadee Yuhong

Overall, I hope that I will be able to study in China again in the near future. Studying in China made me open my worldview of new languages and lifestyles. It was amazing to know the difference of other country culture compared with my hometown. 

References:

https://www.ciee.org/go-abroad/college-study-abroad/blog/message-students-afraid-study-abroad

https://www.dw.com/en/life-behind-a-mask-chinas-cities-still-choking-on-smog/a-42199104

https://www.theculturemap.com/dealing-culture-shock-china/

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-languages-are-spoken-in-china.html

https://ibstours.com/blog/common-study-abroad-fears/

https://www.verywellmind.com/benefits-of-positive-thinking-2794767