<p>Hi, I've lurked these forums for a year or two now and finally decided to make an account. I'm a junior, and I recently registered for the March SAT with the intention of spending most of my free time/February Vacation studying for it. Since it's my first time taking it, I set a fairly reasonable goal score of 2100. I have taken the PSAT three times in high school, and this year I got a 198 with no prep (a little disappointed I didn't get 200+, but hey, I didn't study).</p>
<p>So, last night, I decided to crack open the blue book and try the first practice test. I was pretty shocked to get a 2090 (700 CR 710 M 680 W). Now, I might have gone over the actual score for my essay (I gave myself an 8, my W MC scaled score was 68), but regardless, I got a 1410 for CR + M. I am already at my goal. My weakest areas were the CR sentence completion and W essay portion. Most of my other mistakes were due to careless errors and falling prey to the Collegeboard's tricks.</p>
<p>My question to you is, given that I have an entire month to prepare, 12 more practice tests to do (and several old blue books at the library), what should I set for a goal score? Should I just try to get as close to an 800 as I can in each section? I'm going to spend most of today going over the questions I got wrong, and strengthening my essay. </p>
<p>Thanks in advance! I look forward to being part of this community. :)</p>
<p>Bump! I went over all my wrong answers and looked at ways I could make the essay stronger. The “12 Essay in Just 10 Days” thread seems like it should be a big help. I’m probably going to take another practice test later. I’m planning on taking 1-2 every weekend and 1 during the school week until the test. </p>
<p>I’ve singled out the areas which need the most work for me:
-Writing an effective essay within the time limit (should come through many practice essays)
-Filling as much space in the essay as possible (difficult for me because I write quite small)
-Finding an effective reasoning method to attack the sentence completion without memorizing massive word lists 1/3 of my errors on the first practice test were on this section alone; I’m probably going to make a list of words I don’t understand which appear on the SATs themselves but I see memorizing hundreds of words off a list doing more harm than good)
-Moving a little quicker on the math section, especially easy questions (only one of my math errors was careless, the others were because I ran out of time and either didn’t answer it at all or picked an answer I would have known was wrong if I had more time to work it out)</p>
<p>As far as score-related goals, right now I’m aiming for:
CR- 740+ (I see this being the most work)
M- 760-800 (I think I can get a perfect/near perfect score just through practice)
W (Scaled)- 740+ (I only got 2 wrong on the PSAT writing and 4 on this practice test, so if I get a good essay score and make any improvements on the Writing MC, this should be attainable.)
W (Essay)- 10 (Again, practice.)</p>
<p>Going by the minimum goals I have a new goal range of around 2240-2300. Seems a little ambitious to me, but if I can really target all of my problem areas I think I have a decent chance of getting there. Again, any feedback is appreciated. :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the link TomerHd, looks really helpful :)</p>
<p>jdavis5331- That’s what I plan on doing, probably rip apart one practice test during the week then do one full out/timed on the weekend.</p>
<p>So, I tried another practice test (the 4th one in the blue book, saving the real ones for when it gets closer to the test date). The essay was a HUGE improvement, and I felt confident giving it a 5. (I had someone else grade it who gave me the same grade.)</p>
<p>The rest of the test was… mediocre. I got 20 wrong as opposed to 17 on my last test. 12 were from CR. My ranges were:</p>
<p>CR- 600-680
M- 680-740
W- 670-800</p>
<p>That gives me a range of 1950-2220 for the whole test, with a median score of 2090. (Look familiar? :p)</p>
<p>So, no more practice tests for me until next Saturday morning. Until then, I’m planning to:</p>
<p>-Keep researching essay topics, and decide when/how they will be used (I want to be consistently 10+)
-Review CR meticulously. Go over all my wrong answers/words I don’t know, start looking into good strategies for the reading comprehension, and break out some online flashcards for the most common words.
-Look into the grammar particulars that are tripping me up in the Writing MC
-Find out which math concepts I’m stumbling over (both this and the Writing section are in pretty good shape, so I can start to refine them. CR is a bit rougher.)</p>
<p>For math - buy PWNtheSAT: Math Guide. It helped me get a perfect PSAT math score(: It really helps you see how to approach problems QUICKLY. Remember that SAT math IS NOT school math. This book helped me prepare a good “toolbox” of problem-solving techniques. My friend borrowed my copy of the book two days before her SAT and she raised her math score from 650 -> 780.</p>
<p>Thanks for the recommendation I’m not sure if I’m going to get a math prep book, but if I feel I need one I’ll keep that in mind.</p>
<p>Reading, on the other hand, needs some serious, structured preparation. I ordered Direct Hits 1 and 2 and plan on going through them this week, then using February Vacation to really get them down. I’ve read lots of great testimonies for the Direct Hits books, and considering Sentence Completion is the place where I’m REALLY struggling, I have no problem coughing up $20 for them.</p>
<p>Finally took another practice test today… Overestimated how much time I’d have over February break to study for SAT, considering all the AP homework I had. </p>
<p>Practice Test #5 (Blue book, 3rd practice test)</p>
<p>Despite a pretty mediocre essay (I gave it an 8 but that was pretty optimistic) I was extremely pleased with this. It seemed like a pretty easy test to me overall, maybe that’s just because I’m getting used to them. Math was pretty difficult, though. This was the first practice test I’ve taken where more than one or two of the math questions challenged me.</p>
<p>I’m astounded by how few I answered incorrectly/missed- 9 across all three sections as opposed to 20 last time! I’m starting to feel a sense of preparedness and confidence with these tests which I hope I can reinforce and build on in the next few weeks. 2220 is extremely close to my goal range, and I still have 8 practice tests and a plethora of resources to get myself comfortably in that range. :D</p>
<p>Essay was a 10. Math was stupid mistakes (kicking myself over the one with the perpendicular line that I thought was parallel…) I need to focus mostly on reading comprehension and fine-tuning my math process at this point. I think the drop in score from last time (although slight) is due in part to a more difficult CR section and also to the fact that I was pretty tired toward the end. I would be pretty comfortable with numbers like this next Saturday, but I’d like to, at the very least, boost my math score a little and get CR consistently into the 700s.</p>
I’m not sure if I’m going to get a math prep book, but if I feel I need one I’ll keep that in mind.</p>
I ordered Direct Hits 1 and 2 and plan on going through them this week, then using February Vacation to really get them down. I’ve read lots of great testimonies for the Direct Hits books, and considering Sentence Completion is the place where I’m REALLY struggling, I have no problem coughing up $20 for them.</p>