<p>Judging from previous threads, I found three books that look fairly promising for now as a first time 1900's range guy.</p>
<p>The Rocket Review
Official Guide (Blue Book)
Gruber (2400 or complete guide?)</p>
<p>I'm getting the Rocket Review for help in writing and CR, but mostly CR. I want Gruber's for help in the math section, such as strategies, which I've heard it is worthy of. So my question is: 2400 or the regular complete guide thingy? </p>
<p>I do plan to pretty much get a 800 on the math portion (I got a 640 last time, but I believe I can do a lot better.)</p>
<p>Edit: Also, about the blue book, I noticed 2 editions on Amazon. Which one should I use, as a soon-to-be-junior right now?</p>
<p>I am not trying to discourage you ,but keep in mind that it is veeeeeeery hard and quite unlikely to improve your SAT I Math from low/mid 600s to high 700s/800 .The fact that you have 640 means that you already know most of the concepts but you have trouble solving all this tricky question for the allocated time.With a lot of practice ,and of course some luck ,it is possible to improve to 700-720 but I doubt you can score high at the range of 760-800.
The difference between 640 and 760-800 is huge ,like 8-10 errors.I dont want to discourage you ,just want to give you an advice to have reasonable goals - there is nothing bad of aiming high ,or being optimistic ,you will be very disappointed to practice like hell and see your score improving by 30-40 points only.
It is possible ,quite common actually to improve your WR from low 600s to high 700s,because all you need to do is to learn the different types of questions ,and even if you make 2-3 errors and have 9-10 on essay,you still can get a great score of 740.WR is a different story because every time the questions are basically the same.On the other hand ,there is a myriad of logical questions that can be asked on SAT M…
Critical reading is also hard to improve ,but if you learn a lot of vocabulary and read some novels,it is possible to improve from 550 to 650-80 .However,it is very hard to improve more .</p>
<p>It is up to you,Keep working hard and don`t be discouraged .Just make sure your goals are reasonable :)</p>
<p>CR7_ManUtd, I beg to differ. I originally had a 640-650ish on my BB SATs. In may, I got an 800 on math. </p>
<p>Gruber’s definitely is a lot of help, but make sure you actually practice. A lot of people just buy the books and leave them sitting there, thinking that they will magically improve. Sounds stupid, but it happens. Everyone wants to procrastinate.</p>
<p>As for the book, it’s the normal edition. Not the 2400 version. The BB is coming out with a new version this summer, but it’s unknown what practice tests will be contained in it. So get the old one (new one isn’t out yet, I don’t think), and wait and see.</p>
<p>I took the SAT in June of 2009, and the day wasn’t very good for me.
I remember looking at the first math section, and noticing right off the bat that it was really different from the princeton 11 practice tests I had been practicing from. </p>
<p>Anyway, the test just didn’t go so well, so I believe the 640 was just a bit of a fluke anyway.
I do very well in my math classes anyway, which helps me believe I can reach my goal.</p>
<p>Improving low math scores is definitely possible. In march I got a 570 in math. I was going to retake the SAT in october, but I decided to sign up for the June one on the last day. I did about 3 weeks of prep for the math section and towards the end of my practice tests I was getting 790-800. On the June SAT, I’m hoping for a 760 since I omitted one, and messed up on a grid-in, but everything else in the math thread has been correct. Come June 25, I’ll post the SS here for proof. </p>
<p>All I did was the practice tests in the BB and I checked my answers with khan academy. TBH, I didn’t really need any concept review, I just needed to familiarize myself with the tricks on the SAT.</p>
<p>Also Kamikaze, If you do well in a lot of your math classes that means that improving for you should be no problem. I did really well in my pre-calc class and I had a very good background in math. Similarly, I also had a pretty bad day when I took that SAT, and I just froze on easy stuff. Honestly, just get your hands on as many college board practice tests that you can and do them all and review ALL of the questions. It is safe to say that you can reach the mid 700 range. Getting higher than that is sometimes pretty difficult not because you don’t know the questions, but because silly mistakes do happen.</p>
<p>SAT I Math section is part practice, but mostly of critical thinking. I did not study for math section and got 700’s (I had 800’s in practices, but on test dates, I must have had brain freeze from CR). You can improve by doing practices… But I’ve seen so many students who struggle with math sections because sometimes, you meet problems that look different from what you’ve been practicing from.</p>
<p>Rocket Review is OK. It’s little bit better than TPR but I’m not that much of a fan for it (I scanned through it at bookstore before).</p>
<p>Gruber’s is a joke. A joke because it requires much more stuffs than what you actually need. If you want something harder than the real one, get Barron’s. Stay off from Gruber’s.</p>
<p>Blue Book is and should be your Bible for SAT. Worship it.</p>
<p>I also agree that in math it is possible to improve. I got a 64 as well on my sophomore PSAT and now am only getting 1 wrong(780 approx) on all the BB practice tests I have taken so far (5). One piece of advice I have is to start from the last problem on the math sections, from just doing this I went from my 64 to my 1 wrong. Now I don’t know if this was the only contribution or if my exposure to math over the year also helped me. Anyways good luck</p>
<p>^ I woud never start at the end and go backwards. Rememeber, easy questions are worth as much as hard ones, so make sure you get as many easy and medium questions right before plunging into the difficult ones.</p>
<p>Yes, while that is true, when you are aiming for a 800 you will have to answer every question either way :). I guess its just preference and whatever you feel comfortable with.</p>