<p>I know that you can't really say for certain that doing "so and so" will guarantee a perfect on the SAT, but what are several steps to at least greatly increase the chances of this? </p>
<p>If I studied several "thousand word vocab lists, like Barron's or Gruber's" thoroughly and took almost every SAT practice test out there and reviewed wrong answers, will it really increase my chances of getting a 2400, or at least very close? Really, how much of it is determined by luck and how much is set into stone by practicing/studying/reviewing beforehand? </p>
<p>I'm seriously willing to work at this in any way possible and is there absolutely anything else I can do to make this happen? Thanks.</p>
<p>I got a 2400. No need for all those ridiculous vocabulary lists; it is all about learning words you don't know. During "life" in the past 2 years, I simply wrote down SAT caliber words I didn't know. This amounted to a 200 word list on an Excel spreadsheet; I knew each word cold the day before the test. In November, when I took the SAT, 9 words on my list were sentence completions. </p>
<p>Taking every practice test out there? Not quite. Take every Official College Board (i.e. "real") practice test out there and review wrong answers, especially explanations from the Online Course. That's the best advice I can give you.</p>
<p>As far as a 2400, yes it is luck. Gifted mathematicians can make careless mistakes on the math section because it is so trivial. For God's sake, be on your toes in math on test day - you can't miss even one. In critical reading, get all the sentence completions right; that usually leaves you with 2 to miss on the passages. In the writing section, get an 11 or 12 on the essay! Then you can miss a couple (maybe three) for an 800 there.</p>
<p>For me, my 2400 was a "perfect" 2400 - I didn't miss a single question. But remember that there is a bit of slack on the curve; know how well you have to do.</p>
<p>^ Wow, thanks! That really helped boost my confidence, kind of. I guess that even if you know it, you have to just avoid those careless mistakes.</p>
<p>Go in, do the practice CB tests, don't stress and like John said, colleges don't really care if you get a 2370 or a 2400, so if you are already scoring around that area, don't worry too much.</p>
<p>meh, i scored 2400 without doing much to prepare</p>
<p>for vocab, i memorized a list of 250 words that i got from princeton review i think and every single right answer on the sentence completions was one of those words...so yeah i got really lucky</p>
<p>for writing and math, all it took was lots of practice. i took 8 practice tests before taking the real one (blue book)</p>
<p>lol my val from last year got a 2400 without having opened a single book. but if you knew her she was like USAMO, writing competitions, etc. in fact when she spoke it sounds like shes quoting some of th CR reading passages >_> haha jk not that bad but still, it was like no matter how many times she takes it she'll probably still get a perfect 2400. no luck involved.</p>
<p>Contrary to Narcissa....luck is definitely involved.</p>
<p>The first time I took the SATs, I got a 650 in CR. I was shocked because on my PSATs I had gotten 780 and 800 (freshmen/sophomore year). But guess what happened when I took the SATs a second time? I got an 800. No studying, memorizing words, anything. And I didn't find the first SAT CR I took to be harder or more difficult, and I wasn't "feeling bad" or whatever on that day. IMO luck is definitely involved lol</p>
<p>One of my good friends (who was invited to USAMO but he rejected the invitation to go to RSI and has already been accepted ED MIT and UChi, basically a huge genius and polymath) didn't get a 2400. He got like a 2370 or something, I don't think it's because he lacked the skills to get those last points...</p>
<p>^well did he get those points off of the math section? cuz being a USAMO qualifier and RSI admittee doesn't also make him a literature/writing genius :)</p>
<p>There's some luck to it, but for some people, there's more luck than others. What I mean is that 2400 is the very top of the scoring range for a few who do get that score (they might get a 2400 once out of twenty tries) whereas others really are capable of getting a 2400 and the mistakes they make are practically all careless.</p>
<p>Like I said, genius polymath. I work with him as an editor on newspaper, and he's a brilliant writer. His essays have won awards, and his vocabulary is insane. In no way does he "lack" in writing and critical reading... it amazes me sometimes how great he does in every subject. lol</p>
<p>I don't know in which subject he lost the points, but as far as I'm concerned I see absolutely no difference between a 2400 and a 2370.</p>
<p>lol true. The points he lost are probably from careless mistakes. After all, if i go back and do single-digit multiplication, i'd probably still get a lot of them wrong >_></p>
<p>I bought the Princeton Review's practice book like barely a month before the test, and just did the last few questions on each practice test (supposedly the hardest questions). Then, about 2 days before the test, I took a look at the vocab list and memorized it.</p>
<p>I got a perfect score on my first attempt. =P</p>