<p>I need to get my 650 Writing 10 essay to an 800 or something close. I have about 1 month, any tips/advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>I think it’s definitely possible for you to go up. I increased a fair amount. What I suggest is for you to memorize the grammar rules tested. This site, [Reading</a> and Writing Tips for the SAT and ACT: Complete SAT Grammar Rules](<a href=“http://ultimatesatverbal.blogspot.com/p/complete-sat-grammar-rules.html]Reading”>http://ultimatesatverbal.blogspot.com/p/complete-sat-grammar-rules.html), has like basically all the rules you need to know. Also, many recommend buying Meltzer’s Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar. I bought it and I found it to be quite helpful in greatly minimizing my errors to 0-2 per test. As for the essay, a 10 is not bad, but what I strongly advocate is to use an essay template and read academic hacker’s post on “how to get a 12 essay in 10 days” Remember the SAT essay is based more on strategy than raw writing skill. I did well on the essay because I created a template and preplanned examples which made my essay on the test more coherent and logical. Lastly, I strongly exhort you to practice taking CB SAT exams after you learn the grammar rules on the site aforementioned and/or buy the book. Silverturtle’s guide is very comprehensive and may have more than what you really need, but if you read through that and fully understand it and practice you’re golden. In the end, I find the more you practice the more you are able to become aware of the errors on the test and score higher. Writing used to be my weakest section. Background, in sophomore year I was scoring in the low 500’s for WR but after learning the rules and practicing I got an 800 on the Dec. SAT WR (77 MC/11). So overall immerse yourself in the rules and make sure to PRACTICE. Never say never. Good Luck!</p>
<p>I went from 680 to 800 in a few months by studying the problems I got wrong. It took me 2 hours tops.</p>
<p>But if you have questions, feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>If you’re getting a 650 and a 10, you’re missing about 7 or so on the MC. To get a 800, you can’t miss more than 1 or 2 assuming you get a 12. To improve drastically in a month, you need to get a copy of 10-20 real tests, solve them all, and then buy a folder, cut out all the questions and categorize/paste them into different sections such as SV ERRORS, VT ERRORS, IDIOMATIC/DICTION ERRORS, and thoroughly review everything to get a clear idea of exactly what is tested.</p>
<p>Those who usually fail to get a 800 but close to it usually miss a NO ERROR question, make a careless mistake such as misidentifying a subject-verb disagreement error, or can’t identify an idiomatic error. </p>
<p>The writing is all about PATTERN RECOGNITION, and in order to recognize patterns, you have to solve as many tests as possible and create that folder I told you about and review! For example, do you know who Marie Curie is or have you heard of Magadascar? Do you know that most faulty comparison errors in the Sentence Identification portion are either B or D? Do you know that most errors in the sentence identification part are not usually A unless the sentence begins with an “ing” like “Comparing…” although “raining”… </p>
<p>Do you know that the adverbial error “calm…calmly” has been recycled in over 4 tests? </p>
<p>This is stuff they don’t teach you in books and stuff that only astute students pick up on…but they’ll never tell you cause why share secrets? Sure, you need a solid understanding of the fundamentals of grammar but you also need instant pattern recognition skills…</p>
<p>In identifying no errors, you need to review what common errors students make in choosing something that is not an error…for instance, “NEED NOT” underlined is usually correct but many students will choose it in an no error question simply because they have never seen it used before and it sounds awkward to the average illiterate American kid. </p>
<p>Getting a 800 is not as easy as you might think. Sure, those who have gotten a 800 will make it sound easy cause ****, they did it, and why can’t you? That’s like Michael Jordan telling you he can dunk a ball, and it’s not as hard as you might think since he can do it. It takes an enormous amount of dedication and effort in analyzing past test questions and brushing up on the intricacies of SAT grammar</p>
<p>gl</p>
<p>My son scored an 800 on the Writing section on the December SAT. I don’t know what the essay score was yet but he scored a 10 on his essay on the November SAT where he scored a 740. On the previous year’s PSAT he only scored a 58. We attribute the 800 to using Erica Meltzer’s, The Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar. After working through the entire book, my son used the book to analyze Blue Book test errors. In the back of her book, she has a section that will match your missed answers with the grammar rules that you need to brush up on (very much like the PWN math guide). You can then review her explanations on that rule, which are excellent. She just came out with a practice test book (we received our 800 so I will not purchase this until my next child needs it). From reading her blog, I know she would be somewhat fanatical in attempting to match the official SAT questions. I would imagine having an explanation for each missed question might be more specific than the chart matching subjects to Blue Book problems in the Ultimate Guide. Using this approach, my son consistently only missed 2 to 3 questions per BB test after completing his first three practice test and reviewing the subjects he needed help with. </p>
<p>By increasing your essay score to an 11 or 12, you will increase your chances of an 800. But it appears that working on the multiple choice questions will be where you get the most bang for the buck. There is an excellent CC forum post called something like How to Score a 12 on the SAT Essay in 10 Days. I’ve seen some debate on whether two or three example paragraphs work better and I’m not sure it matters as much as filling in all the space. The difference between a 10 and an 11-12 is going to be level of detail and the luck of drawing a scorer who will give you the 6 over the five. I had my son do some practice essays and then revised them to show him how he could have made it just a bit better (the lawyer in me). If you can find someone to help you add that last bit of polish, I’m sure it would help.</p>