I’ll be giving the SAT, for the first time, this October. I got a 1140 on a Diagnostic Test.
Is it possible for me to raise my score to the 1500+ range in just 2 months? Seems too ambitious but I’m willing to put in the work.
I think that it could be possible ,however that depends on the amount of studying you are willing to do. I think practicing for at least an hour a day on khan academy,doing practice tests every week and along with the math an english you take at school. Of course practicing more like 2 hours a day for example is better.
Possible, but very unlikely–especially without professional help. Occasionally it happens, but–as I just responded to someone else–studying for the SAT is not the most straightforward thing in the world. It is not like studying for the knowledge-based tests you see in school where your grade is heavily determined by how much studying you did.
In cases where students do improve this much this quickly, they usually already have the core skills needed to succeed on the SAT. They are normally already strong readers and strong problem-solvers who may need to brush up on a few topics and learn how to apply their skills to the SAT.
For perspective, I am a tutor. My AVERAGE student who wants to improve this much (over 360 points), will generally need anywhere from 8 months to 1 year of tutoring (meeting for a few hours each week and doing hw) and some still can’t break the 1500 mark after that point.
What grade are you in? A lot of the material is only taught in more advanced courses in HS. Tutoring in SAT will help with familiarity with the format and understanding what type of answers are required, but no tutor can teach you the years of material that you may be missing.
An SAT tutor will not be able to teach you the years of material you need to be able to do well on the SAT. However, if you already know the material, a Tutor or an online course may be able to teach you how to use what you have learned to answer SAT question correctly.
On the other hand, simple familiarity with the exam provides a huge boost. My kid improved her score by 250 points from her first PSAT to her SAT without a tutor or an online course, simply because she did 3 PSATs before the SAT and had already learned all of the material required for the SAT.
So, if you have not taken pre-calc, and have only taken a couple of non-honors English and science courses, a tutor won’t help you get a 1500+. On the other hand, if you have learned all of the SAT material in the class room, and still got a 1140, than, yes, a tutor may help you learn how to take the SAT and help you do a lot better.
However, no tutor can “guarantee” you any score, unless they are part of a scam like the “Varsity Blues” admissions scam.