<p>I'm in 10th grade and I just took the SAT for the first time. I didn't study at all prior to it (most of you probably consider that really stupid, but I just wanted to see where I was starting from, since I was definitely taking it again my junior year anyway). So I just wanted to ask some of you if this is a good starting point:
CR- 680
Math- 670
Writing- 590 (I'm thinking this is pretty bad, any advice on how to improve? I think it's the 20 minute time limit that killed me.)</p>
<p>I'd like to get into Brown, Yale, or Duke. So what should I do to get it up to their standards?</p>
<p>that's a pretty good starting point with 0 studying/preparation. before you take it in a year, make sure you get a prep book and take lots of practice tests. if you study well and take it in a year, i wouldn't be surprised if your total score goes up 200+ points (which is adequate for some of the schools you're looking at).</p>
<p>Here's how to improve:
- Take a sample practice test from the official guide.
- Look at what questions you got wrong, and seriously ask yourself why you got them wrong. Was it because you didn't know the material, wasn't reading carefully, made a dumb mistake on the calculator, what?
- Then ask yourself what you can do to avoid making the same mistakes over and over again.</p>
<p>That's the idea behind improving: getting a bunch of prep books won't help as much as not making the same mistakes over and over again. Prep books might help with this, but they might not.</p>
<p>It's a great starting point. Pay attention in class, read a couple prep books, and figure out your weakness, and you should be set. Also, I love your username. :)</p>
<p>Thanks everyone (and Butternut- I got it from the Emily Dickinson poem ^_^). It's good to know writing is the easiest to improve... what a god-awful score.</p>