<p>I've had it; I'm sick and tired of people laughing at my low SAT score - the ultimate symbol of my intellectual inferiority. With only a 2010, I am not even allowed to think of applying to the Ivies, especially when I'm frigging chinese...</p>
<p>I'm sick and tired of it, and therefore in the next four months, I will study my ass off to get that 2400 (is that even possible)? But the thing is, I don't know where to start. I get ~700's on Math and Writing, and ~650s on CR. What SAT guides should I use first, and when should I start using actual CB tests (only 11 of them!). I am serious about increasing my sat score.. I'm willing to dedicate 2-3 hours on weekdays, and 4-6 hours on weekends... Please help... I really want to get a 2400.</p>
<p>Thats the same exact situation I am in right now! Im Indian and i got a 2010 i have no chance at those top schools! It sucks! And i have this summer (4 months) to prepare and i badly want a perfect. Since I just found this thread this is probably super late, but all the advice I get from the people who get perfects is practice practice practice. Like literally everyday and even then it somewhat comes down to chance. I didnt realize how much practice made a difference until my score went up from an 1800 to the 2000s in a month (i just did 6 practice tests from CB book) . Yup so this summer I have to really work. How did you end up doing and how did you prepare?</p>
<p>For me, vocab always got me on CR. If you study a lot of common SAT vocab words, you’ll get a good 50-70 points right there. I used the list from the “Up Your Score: The Underground Guide to the SAT” but I heard that “Direct Hits” had a tremendous vocab list too. As for math, it’s all about timing, checking your work, and not falling for the obvious trap. Writing requires you to study basic grammar rules. Check out silverturtle’s grammar guide or some in review books. I used the “Ultimate SAT Tutorial” book’s grammar section and it helped me go from a 710 Writing score to an 80 on the PSAT Writing and 800 on the SAT Writing.</p>
<p>Practice tests work, but you also need to study vocab for CR and grammar for writing. Find someone you know who got 2300+ to help you too.</p>
<p>^first of all, 2400 is NOT necessary for admission to any college, especially to the top ones - they care more about your curriculum and grades, activities, and letters of support. high sat/act necessary for some awards and schoalsrhips at public schools.</p>
<p>also, if your grades are not good, then perfect sat will not gain you admission at top schools. if your grades are great and sat is low can make your curricular rigor suspect.</p>
<p>that said, it’s desirable to have a higher score and one can “learn” to test well. one-on-one coaching may be helpful for some, but it’s rather expensive for the results that are NOT guaranteed.</p>
<p>if you want a high score, one section that allows easy improvement is math. good vocab and writing mechanics/grammar rules will also help.</p>
<p>so, finally it all comes down to practice and how good are you at taking standardized tests.</p>
<p>some of you struggling with sat may find act more to your liking. i encourage looking into it. but act math is a bit harder and reading does not give much time.</p>
<p>aim for lower schools then ■■■■■. You think that being “indian” or “chinese” means you MUST get high SATs and get accepted to ivy league schools. Well I have some news for you. It doesn’t. Rofl you guys (jolly and sam) let the SAT control your lives lololol. Makes me laugh</p>
<p>I think the CR section is probably the hardest to raise out of the three. Due to the fact that memorizing every possible vocab word isn’t practical or really that useful and that interpreting meanings of passages is much more skill-related than knowledge related, while math and writing is basically formal knowledge.</p>
<p>I’ve always thought that CR was the section where you either have it or you just don’t.</p>
<p>Don’t aim for a 2400. Bluntly its nigh impossible. Make your goals more reasonable, no Ivy league school or top tier schools requires a 2400. Aim for maybe 2250+ which maybe a much more reasonable goal. Math and Writing-wise, get the tricks and traps down and practice your essay. CR wise, practice, practice, practice, practice and on the day of the test, focus aka don’t lose concentration. I swear I could have burned a hole in paper I was glaring at it so hard.</p>
<p>getting a 2400 in itself isn’t a guarantee to admission into ivy league schools. even brown accepts only 30% of applicants with a perfect ACT score, the SAT statistic is probably similar for brown and most other ivy league universities. you don’t need to get a perfect score, plus a lot of it depends on luck, no matter how much you study. you would be in good shape with a 2200</p>
<p>and i don’t know what kind of people who you hang around with, but i have never encountered anyone who laughs at people with lower SAT scores. that seems like an extremely nerdy thing to do, and i would probably consider making new friends</p>
Read as much great literature as you can. The only way to effectively do well on the Critical Reading and Writing sections is to have a keen ear for the English language. The only way to get that is to read a lot of literature.
<p>lol i know how u feel. i’m chinese and i suck at SAT. i’m sick and tired of this intellectually inferior bull when all my friends are getting 2200+. I seriously suck at test taking and unfortunately that’s part of nearly everything for me later on…like LSAT and MCAT…sigh. ■■■.</p>
<p>2400/36 juts prep (no matter how much and how well) isn’t enough. you need a bit of luck, which you don’t control. so do your best and be contented with a good/great score rather than a perfect score.</p>
<p>^ I agree. Once you have certain skills and they are refined enough, you can just walk in and hope for the best. You’ll know that you can at least do this well, and hope for higher :)</p>
<p>For critical reading: practice makes perfect. Get your hands on as many practice exams as possible.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.freerice.com%5DFreerice.com%5B/url”>http://www.freerice.com]Freerice.com[/url</a>] is pretty good for practicing vocab, although the Up Your Score book is really great. There’s a book by Barron’s that is directed towards people trying to get perfect scores; it’s pretty good as well.</p>
<p>For writing: come up with your examples ahead of time (use fluid ones that can be applied to more than one prompt). Practice not panicking - that’ll will help most.</p>
<p>For math: PROGRAM YOUR CALCULATOR! You’re allowed to do so - program formulas into it.</p>