<p>What did you do to obtain such a score?? How many hours did you study?? How long did you study for? Which materials did you use?? What study method did you use?? ANY Advice would be valued..</p>
<p>PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ENLIGHTEN ALL OF US WITH THE WORDS OF THE WISE... <3 x 1 million</p>
<p>ANY COMMENT WOULD BE HELPFUL! I AM DYING TO GET MY SCORE UP THERE!</p>
<p>(800 M, 800 CR, 730 W)</p>
<p>Weekly full timed practice tests. Nothing preps you for taking a 4+ hour standardized test like taking that same test under as similar conditions as you can create (2 10 minute breaks and 1 5 minute break, proctored by a parent or something, no cellphone, no checking answers till the end, etc.)</p>
<p>When I prepped I did this every saturday leading up to the test and during the week I would go over answers and complete another full test throughout the course of the week. There are ample practice tests available through Kaplan and Collegeboard and they are fairly accurate, perhaps a tiny bit harder than the real thing.</p>
<p>(760 CR, 800 M, 800 W)</p>
<p>For reading, I did practice tests (six the week before the test alone). Also read through the Critical Reader by Meltzer and drilled some vocabulary as well.</p>
<p>For math, I legitimately did nothing. Math just comes easily to me, was easy just to apply everything I learned in my math classes. Focus more on logic than formulas, if you can logic your way through the test you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>For writing, I worked a little bit on the essay formula and just paid attention to grammar in everyday life. If you’re trying for those last points, make sure to look up stuff on passive voice, subject/verb agreement, and the subjunctive and conditional forms of words.</p>
<p>I didn’t get 2300 (2200) but I got 800 on CR so I’ll give you some tips on that. While I’m generally quite good at critical reading when I first started prepping for the SAT it was my worst section, worse than maths which I’m awful at. Then I read this <a href=“http://criticalreadingmethod.blogspot.co.uk/”>http://criticalreadingmethod.blogspot.co.uk/</a> which totally changed how I approached the exam so was really useful, especially in terms of annotating the test. In terms of vocab, I never memorised any. I’ve studied Greek, Latin, and Spanish, so I tended to look for cognates and work it out based on that. If you can do that I’d say it’s much more efficient than memorising words that might not even come up.
Also - READ! Especially more challenging texts. This will improve your vocab and your reading speed, both of which are helpful in the SAT. I’d recommend some Austen or Dickens, or ‘Wuthering Heights’. For something a bit more modern try ‘The Secret History’ - it’s narrated by a pretentious college student, so it’s got some really good ‘high level’ vocab in (expect a lot of verbose rambling passages).</p>
<p>(800 M, 800 CR, 780 W)</p>
<p>General: I think it’s important to remember that there are no secret tricks to getting a score over 2300. That said, the most effective method of studying for me was to just sit down with the College Board SAT book and take the test section by section. When checking, look up the explanations not just for the questions that you got wrong, but also for those you got right. This confirms that you got those questions right for the right reasons. This will also give you a sense of the College Board’s question patterns. </p>
<p>Math: I found that my biggest struggle with math was not that I didn’t know how to do the problems, but I wasn’t answering the question the test was asking. We are so used to finding “x” in math class that whenever I saw a problem that included “x” I assumed that the question was “find x.” This often is not the case. In many ways the test makers are trying to trick you. Underline what they are asking for and when you go back and check make sure you answer the question. Don’t let them trick you!</p>
<p>Critical Reading: Scan the passage to start. Don’t worry about details, just get a sense of the layout of the passage. For each question, find the line it refers to and read one line above it, that line, and one line below it for context. Skip the mood or tone questions, until the end when you have a better sense of the passage.</p>
<p>Writing: For the essay, prepare a few versatile examples ahead of time that can be widely used so you are not scrambling during the test to find examples. Ex. Scarlet Letter, Great Gatsby, the civil rights movement, etc… Don’t worry about accuracy of information, just write a lot. For the multiple choice section, cross out prepositional phrases in agreement questions and rely on process of elimination. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>2400 on the December test.
I didn’t work with any of the test prep agencies (i.e. KD, Kaplan, Princeton Review); my school had a small PSAT prep class so I bought the SAT prep book from College Board and went through a couple of tests in there.</p>
<p>General: Time management is critical. I was able to work each section twice and then go back and bubble. Maybe a factor in this was that I’m a fast reader, but probably the most important thing is not to let your mind wander.
Even if you’re not sure of the correct response - ANSWER EVERY QUESTION! If you can eliminate one choice and then randomly guess you statistically will get positive points. I know this is written on the front of the test booklet but so many kids leave answers blank.</p>
<p>Critical Reading: I think the key for this is just close reading. The passages themselves aren’t that complicated. A good way to prepare for this is just to read a lot. I think they prepare you well in school for this. Besides that, I think you have to work practice tests. I read the passages first and then looked at the questions - if you read the questions first you have to read them again when you’re answering, and that wastes time.</p>
<p>Math: The problems themselves aren’t terribly difficult (you learn everything you need by PreCalculus) but they can be tricky. Definitely go back and rework questions - at my test site I saw one kid lay his head on the desk and doze off midway through each section. DON’T DO THAT!!! Use all of the allotted time on each section, even if it is just to check your answers.</p>
<p>Writing: I didn’t study a lot for writing - on most questions I just read the answer and “heard” the mistake. If that didn’t happen, I looked at each portion of the sentence and tried to determine what kind of question it was (i.e. subject-verb agreement, idiom, etc.) Normally you can easily eliminate 1-3 answer choices and then apply rules to the other choices.</p>
<p>This is a bit light on specific strategies for the test, but hopefully you find this helpful. Good luck!</p>
<p>Any Books you high scorers recommend??</p>
<p>2400 October 2014</p>
<p>Just the Official Collegeboard Blue Book. It has the most accurate practice tests, since they’re from the Collegeboard itself. Most other practice books don’t really grasp the essence of the SAT questions; they’re always a little bit harder, or more confusing, or just less well-written than real practice test questions. If you’re dying for more practice tests, there are a lot of old SATs (from between 2005 and 2012 or so) online, downloadable in PDF format.</p>
<p>@normanxi How many practice tests did you take?? About how many hours would you say you devoted to SAT prep total?</p>
<p>@ABCGIRL i took around 40. i devoted maybe 100 hours over the course of 5 months to SAT. i started in June and practiced up until my test in October. </p>
<p>THANK YOU for all the great advice…only thing left is to try them out! ~:> </p>
<p>When can you take the SAT as a junior? Is it only in the spring?</p>
<p>@ndemazita the SAT is offered six times throughout the year. You can choose any of the dates to take it. The next test is January 24. Go on the collegeboard website to learn more. </p>