<p>Do most of the people here with great scores study or are the scores from natural talent? I know some people just do well in their courses at school and get 750+, but others work their butts off all year with prep books and get the same thing. How about all you guys? I know CC is overrun with perfect scores...hahaha.</p>
<p>if you prepare for the SATs an hour a day for two years, i'd bet my left cheek that you'd score 2300+, provided that you are not legally retarded</p>
<p>is that a word of advice from your own experience?</p>
<p>yeah...same as above.
60 seconds...this is annoying...</p>
<p>no, just simple logic. i studied for about 20 hours and got 2300+. so i am confident that 700+ hours is even more assuring.</p>
<p>I think it's more natural ability, especially for the CR and verbal sections. I mean, the people I know who've gotten amazing scores are just plain smart. They don't study for hours. It's a standardized test--if you're above average, that's probably how you'll score.</p>
<p>I'm above average...but I got a 2040. Maybe I'm an exception, because my GPA is pretty good and our school does NOT have grade inflation. In English, it's definitely DEflation.</p>
<p>Having natural ability probably helps a lot, but I think you mostly need to get used to the test and the kind of stuff they ask. The problems themselves aren't very difficult. </p>
<p>I was reading an article the other day about the CR section of the test, and how you can't really study for it. Yeah, you can memorize vocab words. But the majority of the CR skills you need are what develop over the years as you learn to read. Pretty much, according to the article, the kids who do better are the kids who read a lot, and have been doing it for years. (I like to think that this will help my CR...I was always the dorky little kid who was always reading. :P)</p>
<p>2040 is above average.</p>
<p>I LOVED vocab on the SAT. That was the only part I was good at on the verbal portion (always got perfect/near perfect on vocab). I still got a 600 on the CR part, but I wish it were higher. Then again, if I had studied a bit more, I probably could have gotten 700+.</p>
<p>I'm also good with foreign language (I got a 720 on the Spanish SAT II). A lot of vocab I learn comes from rooting, morphology, and the likes. Basically, I can look at a word and just knowing its primitive source know what it is. For example, the word "odium"; "odi-" has to do with hateful feelings, and "-um" is the suffix which makes it a masculine noun in Latin. Therefore, it's most synonymous with "hate". The exact definition: "hate coupled with disgust". In Spanish, the word for hate is... "odio". You take "odi-", drop "-um", replace it with "-o" to make it masculine in Spanish and VOILA! You get "odio".</p>
<p>2040 is not average, it is great...i know people with 1900-1950 who have gotten into Penn (Wharton) and other great schools</p>
<p>
[quote]
I was reading an article the other day about the CR section of the test, and how you can't really study for it. Yeah, you can memorize vocab words. But the majority of the CR skills you need are what develop over the years as you learn to read. Pretty much, according to the article, the kids who do better are the kids who read a lot, and have been doing it for years. (I like to think that this will help my CR...I was always the dorky little kid who was always reading. :P)
[/quote]
Oh, definitely. I got an 800 CR even though I didn't really study, and I'm positive it's because I read so much when I was little (still do, for that matter). </p>
<p>I took a prep course to improve my math and went from a 660 to a 650. A few months later, I retook the test with only a few practice problems the night before as preparation... and ended up getting a 760. I'm not sure what that proves, exactly.</p>
<p>How could you study for CR anyway?</p>
<p>sleeping :D</p>
<p>I took a few practice tests, but my scores were 800's or in the high 700's on all of them, so it didn't actually make a difference.</p>
<p>I know it took a lot of studying for me to go from a 2090 (700M, 680CR, 710WR) to a 2240 (800M, 730CR, 710WR). It still ticks me off how my practice WR sections were never below 770. But anyway, I prolly did 5 whole practice tests to improve that much. I am also a pretty good and frequent reader. So from that you might think it takes studying, not skill. But then I took the ACT completely cold, and got a 35, with all 35s for subscores. Who knows?</p>
<p>This thread has turned into the "Look at my high SAT score, foolish underachieving minion; I'm better than you."</p>
<p>LOL that's just a characteristic of us CCers. I remember thinking the same type of thing before I got the scores I did.</p>
<p>Yeah...I'd brag if I had scores like that too.</p>
<p>Well, it doesn't matter any more because you're already in college. And a good one, too..</p>