Lifestyle

Things to Keep in Mind before Starting SAT Preps

Published

5 years ago

June 9, 2021

SAT is an entry-level exam used by most colleges and universities to make admission decisions. The SATsare multiple-choice, pencil-and-paper test created and administered by the College Board.

Many high school students take the SAT, ACT, or both during the spring of their junior year or fall of their senior year. You should know that it is important to leave time to re-take the test if you need to raise your score before you apply to college. The SAT exam is held multiple times around the year; in March, May, June, August, October, November, and December.

You can never spend too much time preparing for the SATs. Some students spend months, while others try to finish preps in a couple of weeks. To know how long you need, it’s a good idea to take a free practice test available from the College Board and see how much you score. You can compare the total score and your section scores with to the scores of the schools you plan on applying to. The lower your score is compared to the school scores, the more time you should spend studying and preparing.

Of course, you should know that strategy matters when it comes to making the most of your test preparations. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you get started.

First of all, understand the basics. The SAT length is 3 hours, you get additional plus 50 minutes for taking an optional Essay.

SAT is divided into three sections which are Mathematics, Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, and Essay writing (optional).

SAT costs around $46 and $60 if also choose to take the essay test as well.

Moving forward, many students think that if they experience any test anxiety, then they are doomed to poor test performance. It is very normal to experience some level of anxiety when preparing for SATs. Anxiety is a part of the fight-or-flight response which helps you focusing and thinkingquickly. Instead of trying to get rid of your anxiety, you should keep a more balanced approach and don’t let the anxiety get to the point of panic as there’s no need to overly control your emotions.

Another great tip is that if you’re like most students at the start of their test prep journey, then you have a lot of different areas you could improve in. Anyhow, you should be zeroing in on a few key concepts and mastering them rather than trying to understand little bits of many things. By progressing through concepts one at a time, you’ll see more improvements in your score.

One more tip is that knowing math facts can help you solve questions quickly &efficiently, especially since you’ll likely be using at least some pencil and paper to find answers. It is recommended to students to review and brush up, include exponent rules and the common squares and cubes of numbers.

The Writing & Language Test is not only about testing your knowledge of grammar, but it makes up a big portion of it. The Standard English Conventions sub-score is based on 20 out of 44 questions, or about 5 questions per passage, and it is the canon-calculator sub-score to work on. There are many short books available at public libraries, or you can find grammar lessons online to help you as well.

Back to the mathematics test, many of these tips also apply to the Math with Calculator portion, but because they greatly improve your performance on the no-calculator portion, you should follow them.

Calculators allow you to easily work with decimals, so many of the no-calculator questions use fractions specifically. You should feel comfortable rewriting fractions, finding the least common denominators, and how to divide fractions

You should choose single-digit numbers or numbers like 10. You should not choose 1, because 1 has special mathematical properties that can lead you with two “correct” answers.

The fact that there are concepts and vocabulary terms needed to be memorized, Mathematics mirrors other subjects as well. Along with these, you must often know formulas. It is useful and recommended to make flashcards with the aforementioned terminologies to help remember them.

There are many coaching and classes available that can help you prepare for the SATs if you’re not able to study on your own. One such initiative is taken by the Randolph Foundation.

The Randolph Foundation strives to provide students with a high-quality education so that they can excel in their career paths. The Randolph Learning Center offers students an interactive space to study with all their needs as well.

Lifestyle

Why Toba Ogunremi Believes High-Performing Teams Start with Belonging, Not Pressure

Published

4 days ago

July 23, 2026

Michelle Langton

Most teams don’t fall apart all at once. It happens slowly, missed conversations, quiet disengagement, people doing what’s required but nothing more.

Toba Ogunremi has spent years working inside care environments where that kind of shift is easy to miss until it starts affecting everything. Leading operations at Samorem Care in the UK, he has seen how systems can appear stable on the surface while teams underneath struggle to stay connected to their work.

One experience early in his career changed how he looks at leadership entirely.

He had taken over a team that wasn’t in crisis, but it wasn’t working well either. The people receiving care were safe, but they weren’t thriving. The same was true for the staff. There was no urgency, no energy, just routine.

The usual solution would have been to tighten control by setting new targets, increasing supervision, and creating performance plans. He didn’t do any of that.

“I started with conversations,” he says. “Real ones. Not rushed, not formal.”

One by one, he spoke to each team member. What came out wasn’t frustration with the job itself, but something quieter and harder to spot.

“They weren’t disengaged because they didn’t care,” he explains. “They were disengaged because they felt unseen.”

No one had asked what they thought. No one had taken the time to understand how they were coping. Over time, that absence had turned into distance. That moment stayed with him. It shaped how he leads today.

His approach is simple, but not always easy to apply: people perform better when they feel they belong.

He believes high performance usually comes when people feel like they genuinely belong and know that what they do actually matters.

In healthcare, where pressure is constant and expectations are high, this idea can sound secondary. The focus is often on outcomes, compliance, and efficiency. Toba doesn’t dismiss those things, but he questions what happens when they become the only focus.

Even when all the processes are in place, if the people delivering the care feel disconnected, it eventually reflects in the quality of the work.

At Samorem Care, this thinking shows up in small but consistent ways. Recruitment is not just about experience. It’s about how someone responds to people, how they handle pressure, and how they communicate. Once they are in, the focus shifts to keeping teams stable and supported, rather than constantly rotating staff or reacting only when something goes wrong. He also pays attention to how leaders show up day to day.

According to him, leadership is not just about giving direction; it’s about being present enough to understand what your team actually needs.

That presence matters more in care than in most industries. The work is demanding, often emotional, and not always recognised for what it takes. When teams feel stretched or overlooked, it affects how they interact with the people they support.

For Toba, resilience is less about constant pressure and more about creating a work environment where people can do their jobs well without burning out. In his view, strong teams are not just coping; they are supported enough to stay clear-headed and consistent in their work.

His background outside healthcare still shapes how he leads. Having worked in sales and communications, he understands how important it is to read people and build trust. In healthcare, though, the impact is far more direct, as decisions affect someone’s everyday life, not just an outcome on paper.

That shift makes leadership more personal. Teams need more than instructions; they need stability, clarity, and a sense that they are understood. What defines Toba Ogunremi’s approach is its simplicity. He focuses on being consistent, listening carefully, and addressing issues early rather than reacting late.

In the end, his belief is straightforward: teams perform better not because they are pushed harder, but because they feel valued and part of something that works.