Can I raise my SAT score from a 1500 to a 1900?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

Hi! I took my first SAT and received a flat 1500. This was my first SAT.

CR: 560
M: 440
W: 490

I can say that I studied (not so hard) for this test with an aid of a test prep center. Moreover, I was pretty surprised when I received my score because I thought I would at least get a 1800. I took one practice test 3 weeks before the exam. As summer rolls in, I’m going to commit to study and practice for the exam. I’m going to be taking my second and third SAT in October and November. Any advice? Do you think I can raise my sat score (1500) to a 1900-2000 during the months of summer vacation? What test prep books do you recommend? Help!! Thank you.

2

Thank you so much! I appreciate your advice.

3

Yes you can. How? Well that’s another matter. Boost your vocabulary, reinforce your math and know your grammar rules, practice your essay. But most importantly, practice.

4

Do you know any good vocabulary books I can study from? I appreciate your help :slight_smile:

5

1100 words you need to know , is indeed an amazing vocabulary builder. i highly recommend it .

6

Raising your score from 1500 to 1900 would be a 400 point increase over the three subsections. Test data shows that less than 1% of repeat test takers will achieve that. So, it is very unlikely, particularly since you had the benefit of test prep on your initial test.

But, if you do manage to raise it to as much as 2000, let us know how it went. That sort of an increase is so rare it will probably get investigated for cheating.

7

200+ possible. 400+ probably not

8

Could just be an off day however. I went up 140 pts with absolutely no prep in between tests (but lots before the first)

9

I second jackrabbit14. I scored a 1960 on a practice test in October, and scored 2130 on another practice test I took yesterday with virtually no prep in between (besides browsing through the Blue Book and some grammar rules in Erica Meltzer’s book). Your score really can fluctuate inexplicably, depending on the day. I will also be taking the SAT in October, and, if I need to, in November.

What the posters above have said is true: statistically, it is very difficult to raise your score 400+ points. However, it is certainly a manageable goal, assuming that you are willing to dedicate a lot of your summer to studying (and I mean STUDYING, not browsing social media, etc.)

For the writing multiple choice, purchase Erica Meltzer’s Guide to SAT Grammar. This helped me improve from a 61 PSAT writing score to a 760 SAT practice test score (Assuming I got a 10. If I got a 12, it would have been a 790). Make sure to do lots of practice tests from the College Board blue book, and go through your mistakes when you are finished, marking which grammar rule you misused for each question you got wrong.

For the essay, there is an excellent thread right here on CC named “How to Write a 12 essay in 10 days.” Google it. Read it. Embrace it. Also, practice is key here as well.

For CR… I’m not one to give much advice. I’m still stuck below 650 for that section. There are some good threads on CC for the passages. For vocabulary, however, please don’t listen to people who tell you that you don’t need to memorize words to do well. No “strategy” can beat simply knowing the words. Besides, if you know the words, you’re doing yourself a favor by giving yourself more time for the passage reading, instead of deploying unnecessary, time-consuming strategies for sentence completions. I recommend Direct Hits 1 & 2. The 1000-3500 word lists are a waste of your time if you’re only trying to get up to 1900.

For math, I would really recommend that you take three math sections from the Blue Book, see which types of problems you commonly got wrong, and focus in on those areas. Instead of wasting time by going over everything, pinpointing exactly what you’re messing up and training yourself to fix those errors will be extremely beneficial. Also, remember that SAT math is not “hard.” It is TRICKY. Always underline what the question is asking, and make sure that you’re answering the right question when you come up with a final answer.

The above is probably nothing new for most CC’ers. I just thought it would be nice to summarize my findings on CC to help out this individual. Good luck!

10

I really don’t think so, unless your first SAT was just bad luck or a bad day and you can normally do better than that. I’d been studying for a year, three hours every Saturday (studying whole days over spring break cause I took it in March) and I still got a 2190. That’s pretty terrible. I know some people will immediately start yelling at me saying its a good score and whatnot but CONSIDERING the effort I put in, it’s lower than I expected. With over 300 hours of preparation, I still messed up. So I don’t think you will be able to increase your score that much unless you REALLY prepare.

11

Yes, please let us know if you raise your score 2000. A 3500 would be very impressive. Almost impossible :wink:

However, an improvement of 400 points is definitely possible. Use the advice provided by @LucidGman or this forum more generally and you could improve that much or more.

12

@marie122 Well, did you take a test before beginning to prepare? An overwhelming majority of students start below or at 1790, which would be 400 points lower than your current score.

Also, brute practice will not do much at the higher end, as YOU need to discover what errors YOU specifically are making, and must formulate your own unique strategies that play to your strengths and weaknesses. At the 2000+ level, working through numerous prep books and vocab lists won’t help you much, unfortunately. If you’re trying to improve from 2190 to 2300, merely “studying” isn’t going to help you improve too much. Now, of course, I have no way of knowing exactly how you’ve been studying for this whole year, but just remember that it’s not only quantity but quality that matters.

Please don’t tell this individual that it is nearly impossible to improve. Consider that your case, which may be a goal of getting from 2000 to 2400, will be extremely more difficult than getting from 1500 to 1900. I don’t mean to come off as rude, but it really is not too difficult to increase a score drastically with the right approach and work ethic.

13

over two or more future sittings, yes, i think that’s possible. but just from one sitting to another, that would be (As others have said) unlikely. it’s not uncommon to see an increase of about 200 points in between sittings, but a change of ~300 or more takes multiple re takes. to give you an idea, i went from 1980 to 2240 over three different sittings.
i recommend the official SAT review book; some of my friends have also had good experiences with test prep classes such as Test Master’s, and i personally used lots of apps (like the Official SAT Question of the Day) and websites (sparknotes and the collegeboard website) to review in my idle time as well.

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@LucidGman i did not mean that its impossible. Unless you skipped over the end of my post, you would have noticed that I said that @gobblet99 needs to really prepare for the SAT to do well not that it was impossible. Assuming @gobblet99 is finishing junior year right now, it would be too late to do the SAT more than once (in October) but if you are a sophomore, you have plenty of time. currently i have come to terms with my score and am not planning on taking it again. also i started with a 1990.

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plus as @JustOneDad previously said, most people do not manage to accomplish that. you have to think realistically based on how much time you have and how much effort you are willing to put in. if everyone got what they really wanted, everyone would be billionaires by now. Study hard and focus on your goal and you might be one of the few who manages to get that amazing score increase!

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@marie122 I did read the entirety of your post. One of the purposes of mine was simply to clear up what “really preparing” is. You may have not read mine carefully; I didn’t say that you told him it was impossible, I said “nearly impossible.” Sure, it will take a good amount of time, but as I stated earlier, an increase from 1500-1900 is marginally easier to accomplish than say, 1990 to 2390. The reason that a majority of kids don’t improve that much is because they don’t have the combined motivation, methodology, and work ethic to achieve such an increase.

You’re right in that time is limited for @gobblet99 if he/she is going into senior year. However, if a large chunk of his/her summer is dedicated to studying the correct way, as I mentioned above, his/her shot of achieving his/her goal is very plausible, considering he/she was expecting an 1800 the first go-round anyway. Good luck in your testing endeavors, @gobblet99 !

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If you look very, very closely, you will see that my post actually said “…raise it to as much as 2000”.

Critical Reading. I always used to wonder how anyone could get ANYTHING wrong on that section since everything was right there in front of you.

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^Woops. You are totally right.

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Thank you so much! It honestly means a lot to know that someone still believes I have a chance. Thank you for your positivity :slight_smile: I will let you know how it goes.