<p>^^
No, not if he's a sophmore. If you read my post, I would advise during summer if you don't have much going on.</p>
<p>But dont start any later than July if you can help it. And most certainly dont start once junior year begins. You'll hate yourself for it.</p>
<p>to find what works for you and practice incessantly.never give up!</p>
<p>well its really information that you have already learned in high school, combined with new knowledge of taking the SAT. the questions in the SAT math are different fromt he ones in yur high school math class. i know many friends who scores 2300, and the reason they can do that is practice. when you read a math question for example, your mind has to instantly know what equation to use, it should already know how to solve it. my teacher told me that people who score incredibly high on the SAT can solve any math problem in under 20 seconds, every single math question was made by collegeboard to be solvable in 20 seconds, if you can't do that, then you most likely won't get a 800. for reading and writing, you need to know A LOT of vocabulary. the reason you can't understand a passage is not becuase it was made to be tricky, but because you lack vocab to help you understand the passage. for writing, the sentence completions and grammar errors are really easy, you just need to do many problems, the writing questions on the SAT are repetitive. if you practice a lot at home, chances are you will get many of the same questions on the real SAT, it may not be the exact same words, but same style, you will notice the error and answer right away if you practice. i can't really help you on essay. that has never been my strong point. ive heard many theories, such as: the readers only get paid 3 dollars an essay, so in order to earn more money, they only look at the body paragraph, and forget the intro and conclusion; the intro is the only paragraph readers look at; if you write about a music artist, you will get over 10 points. iono if any of these are true, but i suggest use good vocab and make the reader understand clearly what your argument and points are.</p>
<p>Aaah I know the thing about the math problem. I got 800 in math, and practically every problem I see I can do in less than 1 min, and less than 10 seconds if I've seen it before. That is where the benefit of practicing comes in. On my SAT test in March in the writing section, I could have sworn I had seen a similar question before in one of my practice tests. The math questions, at least 70% of them, you would have seen before or a variation of it before, IF you had studied adequately.</p>
<p>My son got a 2350 first time. Did all the things you guys say, prepped, etc. But in addition:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I had him take the sections in less time. Do a 40 min section in 30 and so on. That is, try stressing yourself, so when you have more time it will be a breeze.</p></li>
<li><p>I had him read articles, New Yorker, Economist, Atlantic Monthly, and rewrite them based on his understanding. Also had him write editorials on various subjects and topics. This for the writing section.</p></li>
<li><p>Had him do vocab drills based on the Oxford English Dictionary. Had him look up words and etymology to get sense of word play.</p></li>
<li><p>Had him read way above understanding to get ease with complex material. Read Nietzsche and Kant and struggle.</p></li>
<li><p>Finally, most important, on testing day: had coarse grain cereal breakfast, with a drink of skim milk with protein powder added. Protein to stay the distance, whole carbs for energy over the testing, then gave him two choc bars to eat during breaks. Then, 10 minutes before start of test, poured some tea out of thermos , second time he had caffeine, first time a few days earlier during practice test to test for adverse reaction to caffeine. I suggest tea because its xanthine compound increases alertness with less anxiety than coffee and colas.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Best</p>
<p>2400=a lot of prep and a lil bit of luck.</p>
<p>Figure out which section is your weakest point. For me it would be math, so I would just study study study SAT math questions. I wouldn't bother studying writing because I'm naturally good at it.</p>
<p>Oh man, the doing sections in less time idea is brilliant. I kind of wish I tried that when I was preparing, but I'm pretty satisfied with my score and uni acceptances anyway so I guess it doesn't matter.</p>
<p>Aim for a 2400, not a 2200+ or 2300+. The test is out of 2400, nothing less.</p>
<p>Concentrate very hard while reading the passages.
When answering CR, answer the question.
To study vocab, write down any new words you hear (along with the definition)... looking through lists (probably) won't help--you should already know most of the words.</p>
<p>On math, concentrate really hard. Learn stuff if necessary. Practice a lot.</p>
<p>A year or so of preparation is totally unnecessary. A month is good enough. If you're very smart, a week is good enough. Don't use prep books, they're worthless. Just get books full of tests.</p>
<p>Have fun. The SAT is all about fun, after all.</p>
<p>I keep trying to convince my daughter of that. I tell her to think of the math problems as puzzles that are trying to trick her. She loves doing puzzles like sudoki and mensa-type questions, but I don't think she agrees that SAT problems are "fun" yet.</p>
<p>the SAT math problems aren't fun. You're daughter has a condition called sanity. That's why she doesn't think they're fun.</p>
<p>Yeah, but she has to take the test, so it was worth a shot.</p>
<p>Tyler, it all depends on how you see the test. All can be funny, as long as you view them under a specific light. If you choose to be intimidated by the test, that's fine. But if you view it as a puzzle, as a game to be solved, then BINGO. Even Xiggy recommends that we view the SAT as a game, a riddle to be solved.</p>
<p>can someone send me the link to the college board data that shows how many students got above 2300 or above 2350 etc? There was an entire chart or table that showed how many got what scores. Thanks.</p>
<p>I got a 2400 on the May SAT. It was my first time taking it. I didn't participate in a prep course, nor did I begin studying the summer before junior year. In fact, I didn't study more than an hour or two, and that was literally the night before and the morning of the test.</p>
<p>Different things work for different people. My advice, don't stress about it; as long as you are confident, and you have a wee bit of luck, you should do fine!</p>
<p>P.S.--This is assuming you have a fair degree of innate intelligence as well, because, while you dont need to be a genius to get a 2400, you cant be stupid... :)</p>
<p>ramaswami, just go to wikipedia and search for SAT .. i think 2300 starts at about the 99th percentile, or 99.5th</p>
<p>High SAT scores are not necessarily innate. In my sophomore year I got 4 wrong on the writing, 8 wrong on reading, and 1 wrong math. I got a book which explained EVERYTHING about grammar and I started getting perfect writing MC scores (consistently- on practice and actual PSAT). I studied more algebra II and geometry and got perfect math scores. Reading is probably the only section where you can't raise your score with some simple studying. For reading, it is to a large degree the analytical skills you have picked up over the years - stuff you can't quite "study" for and which people call "innate"</p>
<p>Well I got a 780 on the verbal section, which isn't an 800--but I was literally one question away!!! Argh!</p>
<p>Anyways, Princeton Review classes are good--you could take them this summer. For the passages, some people need to read the passage in its entirety before going to the questions. Others can skim and scavenge for answers. </p>
<p>For me, I read the entire passage thoroughly once, underlining furiously the lines and statements that I thought were most important to the passage.</p>
<p>For writing, I got a 730--a perfect 12 essay, and a few questions wrong on the fill-ins. For grammar and writing, the key is simply to know the basics of grammar--comma splices, subject-verb agreement (always a tricky topic), passive voice, etc.</p>
<p>mj93, can't get it at wikipedia. Someone had posted the link from College Board but I lost track. Can someone post it again, please?</p>