<p>Last chance efforts on both SAT and ACT coming up in Sept and Oct. Looking for best advice on how to get my scores up as follows:</p>
<p>SAT Current: 1840 Need: 2000+</p>
<p>ACT Current: 28 Need: 31+</p>
<p>Should I take a class, get private tutoring at this point or just hit the prep books really hard and take a lot of practice tests.</p>
<p>I only have 7 weeks. Help!!!</p>
<p>When were those tests taken?</p>
<p>If you studied enough, I believe it would be possible. I had a 150 point increase from pure book studying for 6 weeks and a year of schooling on the SAT, so 1840 to 2000 is definitely possible, particularly if your scores are somewhat lopsided and you allow superscoring.</p>
<p>what’s your breakdown? I can offer advice but I don’t want to if its like, 800 CR 800 W 240 M (it could be possible)</p>
<p>SAT - CR600; M640; W600
ACT - 28 - E31;M26;R26;S26;W;30</p>
<p>Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>May SAT (with math tutor and some class prep but didn’t study on my own enough)</p>
<p>June ACT - (didn’t prep for it)</p>
<p>See breakdown of scores above. Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>I can’t help with the ACT (never looked at one)
But you had similar CR and W scores compared to mine when I took it my first time (March)… a 620 CR and a 610 W. I managed to bring it up (June) to a 680 and 760 respectively. An increase like that would bring you up to a 2080, well above 2000.</p>
<p>For CR I think it’s just luck. In March I missed 9 or so sentence completions (the vocab ones) yet in June I only missed 2 I think. Yet I didn’t study any vocab besides downloading the iPhone app “SAT Vocab challenge” which I don’t think helped me anyways, it counted stuff correct that I guessed on bc it was MC. And for the passages I did about the same on both tests, but my whole strategy with that was go to the questions first and read the passage only looking for answers to that question.</p>
<p>For writing I recommend you know by heart the grammar rules (<a href=“Best Colleges - Rankings, Statistics & Data - CollegeStats.org”>Best Colleges - Rankings, Statistics & Data - CollegeStats.org), which I know can get confusing but you have to know those lol. Also for the essay I went from an 8 to an 11 by filling up the two pages and using 3 solid examples (Historical, Current, Literary)… if you can do that for the essay you should do fine.</p>
<p>For math I got an 800 in March and a 780 in June (didn’t read the damn problem correctly…) but anyways. I don’t really know how to prep for it, I would just recommend doing lots and lots of practice tests, get used to the types of questions, and work fast. My personal strategy is I answer one question, and then check it directly after by plugging in numbers or variables or whatever. But I always do that to make sure I have the correct answer, and then I move to the next question. It’s worked well for me seeing how I have only missed one SAT math question 
Even when I do that I still have ~5 minutes to spare at the end so I just go back and check the ones that were confusing again and again. Also <------READ THIS------> DO NOT DO ANY MENTAL MATH. I seriously did not put down my calculator throughout the math portions of the test and I filled up the pages with my work. Mental math is more likely to cause you to make stupid mistakes, but if you write it all down and use your calculator then you are more likely not to make those mistakes</p>
<p>Strosfan had pretty good advice for the mathematics section.</p>
<p>I would say that for the ACT you should use:</p>
<p>Barron’s 36
Barron’s Writing, Reading, and English
Barron’s mathematics and science</p>
<p>Yeah I got an 800 on math as well (up from 710 the year before), I’d say just take practice tests - and get a feel for the problems.</p>
<p>Also, know how to use the matrices and rref() command on a TI-83/84 and you can solve linear equations very quickly… There’s actually a lot of math tricks you can do with a TI-83 for solving problems really quickly. Like using the store command to quickly plug numbers into an equation, to name another. I can’t think of it all off the top of my head, but if you give me a calculator or a computer math system like maple I can often derive things I’ve forgotten how to do and whatnot…</p>
<p>You have seven weeks; which is plenty of time. </p>
<p>SAT:</p>
<p>Math:
There are only so many math related questions in the SAT I. Know by heart how to do each one [this might take a week or two]. If you don’t know HOW to do it, that’s the easiest part.</p>
<p>Second, once you know HOW to do it, you can start grinding through a practice section a day. Review what kind of problems you miss. You might find a particular type of problem that you find problematic, and you can focus in that area. If you are just making stupid mistakes, try taking it slower and remembering what kind of mistakes you are making when taking your next section.</p>
<p>Reading:
Reading is not all luck. You might not know all of the vocab, but if you learn roots/prefixes/suffixes you can pretty much nail down the vocab section [might miss one or two]. The critical reading passages - that’s something that cannot be easily raised. Do a couple of run downs and see what type of problems you miss and try to fix those problems.</p>
<p>Writing:
I hate writing. What I do to study for writing:</p>
<p>A. First learn grammar rules used on the SAT [sparknotes will help you]
B. Grind through sections and see what errors you make</p>
<p>Thank so much for your reply. I will follow your suggestions and let you know how I make out.</p>
<p>I only have the ACT red book and just purchased Princeton Review 1296. Do you feel the books you mentioned above will be more helpful and are just better overall?</p>
<p>THANKS!</p>