<p>Can anyone please help me with this? I am the valedictorian at my school, I have all As. But I'm constantly getting scores around 400s?! I don't know what to do... Oh and Im not born in the states, I came when I was 14(in 2008). Anyway, I really want to get a good sat score to go to MIT or Princeton. Ppl with perfect scores!? How did you manage to get a 800 on the CRs??? HELP!!!!!</p>
<p>Okay, I might not be getting perfect scored in CR sections, but I will do tell you this:</p>
<p>1) You must have a vocabulary base of at least 500 words that are very common on the SAT, whether in passages or in Sentence completion questions.</p>
<p>I greatly recommend this book: [Amazon.com:</a> Hot Words for the SAT I (9780764118753): Linda Carnevale: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Words-SAT-Linda-Carnevale/dp/0764118757]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Words-SAT-Linda-Carnevale/dp/0764118757)</p>
<p>Unlike other test prep companies, this one has the most common SAT words you can find, Learn these along with other words you learn on Official practice tests and you’ll be good as a start. I actually don’t recommend putting all your time into vocabulary words, because most of the questions are about the the understanding of the passages themselves. Of course, without some minimal knowledge of vocabulary, you won’t understand the passage questions!</p>
<p>2) Reagrding the passages questions, the only thing that I could tell you is to practise! Get the Blue Book if you don’t have it and solve it all. You can log via your collegeboard account into the answer explanations. Review all the answers that you did wrong and even the ones you did right, because this is what made me understand the struction of the questions. Don’t give up because this is what I did at first. The answers may all sound to you the same, but remember: THEY ALL HAVE ANSWERS! You’ll get a feel for them after a lot of practicing official tests only. Don’t use other unofficial tests unless you’ve run out of official tests because their ways of putting the question are very different.</p>
<p>I hope this helped. If you want to ask about a specific type of questions, I’d be glad to help :)</p>
<p>Thanks for your help! So I found a lot of words, how exactly do I do with them? Do I just write them down on note cards and try to memorize them? Or is there some way to to build vocabularies? What if I found over 5000 words?!</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>You could study a few everyday.</p>
<p>Add a very serious reading regiment to your daily routine. While there are a handful of good magazines that you can choose for this regiment, I would recommend the New York Times. Reserve an hour or more for this daily regiment. Pick the analysis articles, the editorials, and the articles in the weekly magazine. Read thoroughly with the goal of understanding the finer points of the articles. Underline words you don’t understand, and look them up. And if you’re up to it write brief summaries of the articles – focusing on the main themes and arguments.</p>
<p>This will take you a long way toward succeeding on the CR section. It will also help you on the SAT essay.</p>
<p>Also set realistic goals. To go from “400s” to near “800” is something that you may be able to do in 2-3 years. I assume you don’t have that kind of time for the SAT.</p>
<p>Insofar as memorizing vocabulary, my sense is that while this can’t hurt, it’s boring and hit-and-miss at best. Words don’t stick without context. So read, and read some more.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips and advises!! I’ve been working on the practice tests in the blue book, and I’m getting 700s now! :)) I’m so excited!! :D</p>