<p>Hi all. This is my first time posting on College Confidential, but I've been reading a lot of threads for SAT Prep, and it helped me a lot. I just ended up signing :D
Anyways, here are some of my scores.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.85 (Sophomore Semester)
PSAT: 165 (First time)</p>
<p>That's all I have. I was not ready for the PSAT, as it was mandatory for every Sophomore and Junior highschool students to take it during November.
If I remember correctly, some of the people here got above 2350s, and I was quite impressed. I would like to get some advice.
I've gone to SAT Prep academy called The Princeton Review, and to be honest, it didn't help that much. All we did was memorize 150 words per day, and have a 70 question vocab test every morning (Mon through Fri.) We did some practice tests, and on the final one, I got 670 on CR, and 620 on writing. Assuming that I got 800, I had the score of 2090.
Although I highly doubt that I will get 800 on Math on my first SAT test, I would like to improve my CR and Writing section.
Any recommendations? I have Barron's SAT Prep book, because I read from one of the thread here where the guy recommended Barron's because it's a lot harder, and makes the real SAT seem easier.
Should I just practice, practice, and practice?</p>
<p>Yeah, you should just practise. The Collegeboard blue book is filled with practise tests, and I basically did all of them until I was comfortable with my score- it also offers you techniques that you can use for the maths sections that can save you a considerable amount of time and energy. But yeah, just practise and look over your mistakes. As for writing, learn the basic grammatical rules that the SAT tests (subject-verb agreement, pronouns etc) and you should be fine.
Hahaha, I just joined College Confidential as well :)</p>
<p>:D
Thanks! Looks like practice and patience is the only method.</p>
<p>What was the break-down for the PSAT?</p>
<p>Just wanted to say: if you prep seriously (for me, I mostly just did tons and tons of practice tests and tried to figure out what types/categories of questions were usually asked, and then tried to categorize the questions while I was doing the test) it’s totally possible. Gruber’s Complete SAT Guide was superhelpful for some technique bits…it does get way too in-depth sometimes, so just skip around and focus on the sections you get most confused about. Get the Blue Book of practice tests and practice on those in the month leading up to your test date.</p>
<p>Miscellaneous extra advice: for the essay, I found it really helpful to brainstorm good books that could be used as examples for all kinds of questions, ones that covered love/jealousy/loss/betrayal/death/identity. So. Shakespeare. And write as much as possible…length appears to be a huge factor in your essay score.</p>
<p>Don’t go to those fancy prep classes! They’re a waste of time and money.</p>
<p>I got a 2200 with no prep classes at all first time. I took it today and am aiming for a 2300+</p>