Ask any question about SAT here!

<p>Hi guys. I see so many people asking questions and never getting answers. I was one of those people. And instead of jumping from thread to thread, I think it's easier to make a thread on what you guys want that includes everything.
So a little bit about me. I raised my SAT score from 1490 (470/550/470) in 8th grade to a 2310 as a junior (740/790/780)! I actually got a 1790 as a freshman without studying, so I'm not sure where I gained the 300 points from. Anyway, that's still like a 500 point increase! Don't hesitate to ask anything about:
-how to study
-study schedule
-goals
-attitude
-motivation
-specific subject tests (I did well on those too)
-ANYTHING at all! :)</p>

<p>I look forward to hearing from everyone.</p>

<p>MODERATOR'S NOTE: Anyone is free to ask or answer questions in this thread.</p>

<p>Nice to hear that some elite students still care about others.Anyway, I wanted to ask you a couple of questions.</p>

<p>1- I am very very good at math,but the problem is that I should make atleast 2 careless mistakes.Did you esperience any of that?</p>

<p>2-Did you do sat Bio?</p>

<p>3-How do you study? I am about to be senior and I need to study for sat 2(2 subjects) and sat 1.How do you manageyour time?</p>

<p>Entirely tangent to the previous post:</p>

<p>I struggle a lot with identifying idiomatic errors. Each time, it’s a new expression and I’m not able to pick up any patterns. Although I’m bilingual, I have studied and had exposure to English since I was a toddler. </p>

<p>Is there a resource that will help me better answer the idiomatic error questions?</p>

<p>Ok, another question XD
A non CB source – still helpful for drills.</p>

<p>The actors WERE EXHAUSTED, but each WAS ABLE to remember ALL the complicated lines ON OPENING NIGHT. NO ERROR</p>

<p>Why is “ALL” correct and not “ALL OF”?</p>

<p>The answer is NO ERROR, I put ALL</p>

<p>The previous question comes from Princeton Review (p. 360) for reference.</p>

<p>This next question comes from the same source p. 361</p>

<p>A RECENT conducted poll SHOWS that people are littering less frequently, a development THAT REFLECTS a great change in the public’s attitude TOWARD the environment. NO ERROR</p>

<p>I marked that TOWARDS was the error, but I wasn’t sure of the rules for prepositions. </p>

<p>Is “towards” and “toward” truly interchangeable?</p>

<p>@‌tau628</p>

<p>For your first question, “all of” is typically used in front of singular nouns and the plural objective case (them, us, you). “All” is used in front of plural nouns. Since “the complicated lines” is plural, “all” is correct.</p>

<p>For the second question, “towards” and “toward” are interchangeable; I think it depends on whether you’re speaking British or American English. Don’t get too hung up on those little things. The error is “recent” since it’s used incorrectly as an adjective here. “Recent” is describing another adjective “conducted”, so it should be in its adverb form “recently”.</p>

<p>(“all” vs. “all of” is not tested on the SAT)</p>

<p>Hey @alwayssona‌. I have a Barrons subject test math level 2 book. Instead of buying a complete different book for SAT math can i use that book for studying SAT math? Are SAT math questions similar to the sat questions? Thanks for the help!! :D</p>

<p>^Not a good idea. The questions are not similar, in fact, even the questions in the Barron’s SAT 1 materials are not similar enough to actual College Board questions.</p>

<p>@Parampreet‌ - Kind of to elaborate of @CHD2013‌ 's response, the SAT Math II tests topics through pre-calculus (including sometimes matrices and conic sections). However, the SAT I Math section tests algebra and geometry (at a fairly basic level), focusing more on the critical thinking aspect. As a result, the content varies quite a bit.</p>

<p>The Barron’s Math II SAT Subject Test book is a great study guide for the Math II Subject test; however, there are better resources than the Barron’s book for the SAT I. </p>

<p>@EngineBus2015‌ @CHD2013‌ </p>

<p>Alright thank you both for the response! </p>

<p>Okay guys. I’m gonna start answering your questions. Sorry for the long wait. I was at work.</p>

<p>@meumeu No problem. I remember how it was trying to find answers and not knowing who to ask. I try not to forget that there are people like me.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Definitely! My best subject has been math since elementary school and I just could not figure out how to get those last couple questions! Over time, I figured out that it’s really more about concentration. It’s apparent that you’re good at math if you can figure out the hard questions. So it becomes a matter of carefulness rather than skill. So the first time I took my SATs junior year I focused on English and sped through math, because I thought that math was my strongest subject and I expected an 800, because I was getting 760+ on practice exams. Well turns out I got a 680. That really taught me my lesson. The next time I took the test I focused my concentration on math. I really zoned everything out and did whatever I could to keep my mind on the current problem. I thought of every way I could go wrong (based on the MC answers) and I tried to pick the right answer. This really comes from practice. Concentration is like a muscle. You have to exercise it. You can’t just walk into the gym the first day and bench 200 lbs. You have to constantly work on your muscle mass and repeat until you gain the capacity to bench so much. So I suggest that you work on your concentration by doing 3 sections of math a day. One day, it will just click and you’ll get into that concentration zone and you’ll be banging out 800s on every practice test. Trust me.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes I did do SAT II Bio. Though I did not do as well as other CCers, I don’t regret it. I didn’t study for my bio exam. I got a 700, though and I am somewhat content.</p></li>
<li><p>As I mentioned before, I didn’t study for SAT IIs. I just took a couple of practice tests and saw scores above 700. I had an advantage, because I had a very rigorous AP Bio teacher who gave 2 hours of busy work per night. It really helped to mold the concepts into my brain. I don’t know if you have taken an AP course or not, but they make SAT IIs a piece of cake. Even if you have taken a bio course of some sort, you can review the material and take a couple of practice tests and you should be fine. The reality is that the same topic is tested over and over. You just have to know the material. That’s all.
Regarding time management, I was lucky enough to plan out my SAT I venture. I decided to study over winter break and take the test in January of my junior year. What I did was I set everything aside (including school work). And I studied for only 10 days rigorously, meaning I tried to do 3-4 SAT practice tests per day. After I did each test, I would look through and write down why I got an answer wrong, why I chose the answer, what the correct answer is, and why that answer is correct. I know this sounds tedious, but trust me this is how you’ll make your money. I would also underline any words I didn’t know and I would learn them. If you want, ask me how to memorize vocab in one go. Once school started up after those ten days I would make a plan. I told myself I would do one section of each subject per night. Without breaks, that’s about 75-90 min. I would always do that before I started any other homework. This ensured that I always got a good amount of SAT studying in. On the weekends I’d aim to do 2-3 tests a day. You might be wondering how I found the time. Truth is, if you plan everything and write down what you’re supposed to do each hour of your day, you’ll be surprised at how much time you have in a day. And always take breaks every several sections. Don’t burn yourself out. Don’t hesitate to ask any more questions!</p></li>
</ol>

<p>@tau628 OMG! I was in the same situation as you!!! I am trilingual and I had exposure to English starting at age 3. Idioms are really just about memorization. Look up common idioms on Google and look out for their different usages. What helped was knowing that the same writing rules are used over and over in the writing section of the SAT. So with enough practice, you’ll be able to know what writing rule is being addressed with every question. When I got to a question and knew it was an idiom, it was only because I couldn’t match it to any other writing rule I had come across. And for every idiom question, I would look up the usage and try to find other sentences with the same expression. If you need clarification, just ask.</p>

<p>Sorry guys. I will be back in an hour to answer more questions. I’m about to enter a no WiFi zone. -_- Why isn’t WiFi ubiquitous already?</p>

<p>@allista Thank you. You beat me to it!</p>

<p>@parampreet Hopefully, they answered your question. If not, just let me know.</p>

<p>Come on guys! You’re missing out on a golden opportunity here! Take advantage and ask away!!!</p>

<p>@‌alwayssona </p>

<p>What was your study schedule?</p>

<p>How did you study for the SAT?</p>

<p>What books did you use?</p>

<p>I have about 1-3 hours a day to study for the SAT. I am taking the PSAT this fall and SAT in may. I already have many SAT books that my sibling gave me. (Princeton Review 11 Practice test for the SAT & PSAT, Princeton Review Cracking the SAT 2012, Barrons SAT book (includes Flashcards and a CD-ROM), i also have the SAT MAY 2012 from my sister (It has the answers to). I also ordered the blue book and SAT 2400 in Just 7 Steps (my friend used this and he said it helped him raise his score by 400 points). I will only be taking practice test from the blue book because it has previous SAT and the other books for tips and help with each section. I also follow SATquestion on Twitter and they tweet the official SAT question of the day. My goal is 2100 +. </p>

<p>I been using Khan Academy SAT prep and its good! Do you know any other SAT online prep? </p>

<p>Anyways thank you so much for helping me out!!! :D</p>

<p>I have another question about idiomatic errors. This question comes from the Magoosh GMAT app. (It’s one of the few resources that focuses exclusively on idiomatic errors–even though it’s GMAT and not SAT stuff). </p>

<p>It asks between two choices of idioms: </p>

<p>In the 1960’s, almost 80% of Lake Acheron was polluted with hazardous contaminants, but after years of restoration and recovery in this lake, MANY FEWER ARE toxic now. </p>

<p>In the 1960’s, almost 80% of Lake Acheron was polluted with hazardous contaminants, but after years of restoration and recovery in this lake, MUCH LESS IS toxic now. </p>

<p>According to Magoosh the second sentence is correct idiomatically.
"For percents of something we don’t count, we would use “less” ". </p>

<p>It seems that fewer = counted and less = not counted. So I could say</p>

<p>Fewer than 10 people signed up for the club.
Or
Less people than I expected signed up for the club. </p>

<p>How do I know whether the percent in the sentence is something that can be counted or not? Maybe the answer is obvious–just need a pointer. </p>