<p>I just received my first SAT scores from the June test, in which I didn't prepare for at all. My lack of preparation reflects my terrible scores: CR-640 (no vocab practice), WR-600: Essay- 8( one of those bad writing days, since my AP lang essay scores usually are 6's but on bad days a 5's. It's weird but sadly true.) Math- 580, I fell flat on my face there. I was completely rusty on the geometry portion and I'm almost certain I failed on that part. Any suggestions on how to improve at least 200 points for the SAT's on Oct? I really need help.</p>
<p>First and foremost, USE THE BLUE BOOK - it’s the best book out there.</p>
<p>Critical Reading - Brush up on vocab with Direct Hits and/or Quizlet/flashcards. For passage-based questions, try to first go through a couple tests without timing yourself. Take all the time you need, but try to get all the questions right. For additional untimed practice (so that you don’t exhaust your test supply on untimed practice), try going back to those AP Lang multiple choice passages (if you can find some). All the multiple choice practice we did during AP Lang this year was by far the the biggest driving force in my CR score improvement. As you improve your accuracy, go back to timed tests and gradually work on timing. </p>
<p>Writing - Most sentences can be corrected by the way they sound. If something doesn’t sound right, it probably isn’t. That being said, I must warn you that it’s easy to second guess even “no errors” once you get into the 700s. As for the essay, the SAT essay is similar to the AP Lang argumentative, but for the fact that your examples don’t need to be extremely developed and analyzed. Use literature, history, current events, etc. as you would with the AP Lang essay, but oftentimes, just using people gets you to that 10. Also, study the format of typical College Board essays and derive your own formula based on that. That way, you could write a crappy essay on one of those bad writing days, but still get a 10 (trust me, I’ve been there).</p>
<p>Math - Definitely brush up on geometry, algebra and counting/probability concepts since your score shows a lack of conceptual knowledge, rather than a timing or accuracy issue. Just as with critical reading, do some untimed practice. When you come across a question/concept that you don’t know, look it up. I’ve heard that the Barron’s Math Workbook is helpful, but I would suggest that you also look at other threads on this forum for books specifically targeted towards the SAT Math section.</p>
<p>Hope this helps! Good Luck! :)</p>
<p>Agreed, Blue Book is the best tool you can use because you can take full practice exams.</p>
<p>Second the crappy essay and 10 if necessary 
happened to me. </p>
<p>Thank you for the help. I saw my discrepancies in the full report: for critical reading I did really well on the completing passages aka vocab ( I had one mistake only everything else is in the passage.) In writing I only omitted one out of everything in the find the error section. My math mistakes are sporadic, so I’ll generally improve in math.</p>
<p>You have already gotten good suggestions on how to improve, so I’m here just to say one thing:
Your scores aren’t terrible. Please don’t beat yourself up over an 1820. Average is ~1500. Of course, there are colleges where your score would be relatively low, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. You’ve still done much better than most students do, especially without prep. Be proud of yourself for that, and don’t let a test determine your self-worth.</p>