Is there a significant difference between the scores you get when you take the whole SAT practice test (10 sections at once) and when you take individual SAT sections in different days and add up the scores?
For example:
I took Section 2,4,6 on day 1
Section 5,8 on day 2
Section 9,10 on day 3
I got: Maths: 710
CR:690
Writing: 740
If I had taken these tests in one sitting, would my score be lower?
Possibly. Test fatigue is a real thing. Sometimes a student’s brain will just start to tire in the last quarter of the test. Other students, however, find that the ten minute breaks in the actual exam tend to break their stride.
It’s better to take them all at the same time for practice since you won’t have the chance to do the sections individually during the actual test. I agree with @neatoburrito, it makes a difference because breaks can break your momentum and concentration. Taking it together adds the little bit of pressure you’re probably going to get when you take it for real.
It is definitely harder to do it all in one sitting and i think you can predict that your score will be a bit lower. On the actual test you really go from one section to another almost without stopping (except for the scheduled breaks) so fatigue and lapses in focus are a real issue. If you are still a bit of distance from your actual test date then I think it is fine to do the tests broken up but as you get closer to your test date you need to practice in a realistic setting and should probably do at least a few tests all in one sitting (and with the proper breaks). If you search for online proctor you can find a youtube video with a proctor actually mock proctoring an exam with proper breaks.
Definitely important to take entire practice tests leading up to the real test. However, taking sections is a good way to improve your worst sections once you’re fine with the others.
For example, I continuously did writing sections only for about 2 weeks, with some reading scattered in. However, the week or 2 before the actual SAT, I started doing whole tests to prepare me for the fatigue.
I scored in the 700s when I took the sections separately. However, when I took the entire test my scores dropped to high 600s. When taking sections separately, I felt confident and happy and calm (lol). But when I took the whole thing I started feeling very nervous and I was taking very short breaths. When I couldn’t answer 2 questions in the maths section, my mind said “you fucked it up, now you wont get a 800 no matter how well you perform in the rest of the test… you should give up”
Also, when taking the sections separately I gave myself less time (15 mins for 20 mins sections and 20 mins for 25 mins sections). With this strict time constraint, I finished my sections well before the time and got only 1-2 wrongs. When taking the whole test at once, I gave myself FULL time but I made MUCH MORE errors.
I have the test in a week. Really worried.
Can someone advice me please?
Well regarding the panic that you feel when you can’t answer a question, one good thing to remember is that since most schools superscore, you don’t necessarily need to nail the entire test in one shot and in my experience very few people do, especially on the first try. I think its helpful to expect that you may take the test more than once and to remember that if one or two of the section scores come out good that is already a partial victory. So even if you think you blew it on one section you can still come away with great scores on the other sections. Also, one of the sections is going to be experimental, so you never know…if you get a little lucky the one that you screwed up on may not count anyway. So I think its best to just take one section at a time and not worry too much about what happened in a previous section (its a bit easier said than done but I think its foolish to do anything else).