Last December, I took the SAT and scored a 1330. I decided it would be good to study over the summer so after vacation I devoted a little less than a month to study for it. Of course, I wish I maybe would have devoted more time to it looking back, however, I was doing well on the practice tests–scoring from the mid to higher 1400’s range. However, when I took the actual SAT, my score was only a 1340! It pretty much stayed the same! I’m very disappointed because I plan on applying early to colleges and not through regular decision. I feel terrible right now because I feel like I wasted the summer months by not studying properly or enough, even though I scored well on the practice exams. I would like to improve my SAT score by at least 150 or 160 points, so hitting the 1490 or 1500 range. However, I’m very stressed and not sure what to do right now. I want to balance school with studying and I need some advice on how to coordinate this. Should I save the Subject Tests that I planned to take in October for November? So that I can take the SAT in October? Is there any advice you can give and is it possible for me to jump from a 1340 to a 1500 in approximately a month or so of studying? Any advice would be appreciated because I dream of getting into an Ivy and I know that this score is not good enough.
ACT?
My kids did infinitely better on the ACT then SAT for instance current senior 1280 SAT – 32 ACT
I was about to post the same thing about trying the ACT. You can do a practice test and see how you score.
Honestly I don’t see how you’d have enough time to adequately prepare for subject tests and a re-take. Even that month isn’t going to buy you much time.
You may want to re-consider the schools on your list and look for better matches, and/or schools that don’t recommend subject tests at all.
I don’t think I’d do very well with the ACT, I would like to stick with the SAT, but I’m not sure how I can improve 160 points in one month
Find some safeties you love. Ivy’s are overrated and your chance there - even with a perfect SAT - are extremely extremely low without a special hook.
Check out the company PrepScholar! I used them (admittedly for ACT prep) and the free resources on their blog are fantastic. Study guides, nice consolidated lists of the info you have to memorize, etc. Really helpful.
What are your math/ebrw scores? Is one a lot worse than the other? Maybe you could focus on that. What grade are you now? What resources have you been using to prepare? Did you do the practice sets published by CB? Try to find your weakest areas and work on them. Good luck.
I recommend using Khan Academy for practice tests and reading and writing practice questions (not for math, their math practice questions are nothing like the actual SAT) and you can get the free one month trial of UWorld for good practice questions for every section.
Why resistance to ACT? Have you taken a practice test? My kids all scores better on ACT.
If your practice scores are higher than actual. Try practicing in a way that mimics teat day environment.
It’s not impossible to improve your scores in one month. Do the schools you’re applying to superscore? If they do just work on the math. Just do the practice tests from the college board website and concentrate on doing the math perfect and then do it timed. I got my daughter to raise her score from a 670 to a 780 in one month by just doing a section a day untimed and watching videos on the ones she got wrong on YouTube. Identify the type of math problem you are working on before solving it. We only worked on the math for the August test and she still raised her English score by 30 points