Hi, today I took my first SAT test and needless to say, I had a panic attack after looking at the clock and realizing I only had 32 minutes to finish three reading passages. I ended up skimming the passages and just guessing on the answers because I was out of time. I don’t feel confident in any of my answer choices as I didn’t even check or read the passages thoroughly. I came back from the SAT with the gut-wrenching feeling that I failed because of how bad I screwed up on Reading. I don’t even know how I screwed up my timing so bad! I’ve taken many practice tests before and my highest was only 1490 and that was when I didn’t screw up. My goal was a 1500+ for this SAT but that seems very bleak as of now. I’m pretty disappointed in myself and feel like an utter failure.
My parents will murder me if I get below a 1550/1600, but with the way things went today, I’m not even sure if I got a 1400. A part of me has died knowing that I screwed up my one chance to prove to myself that I can achieve my goals. I’m retaking the test in January, but this one today really killed my confidence and I feel like I’m just physically incapable of getting a 1550 or anywhere near that.
All I can do now is wait for my tragic test score and failure. I just can’t stop thinking about my doom. But, the question of today is has your gut-feeling ever correlated or not correlated with your actual test score and how to go on knowing you screwed up?
The same here. The reading was totally a surprise to me. It’s OK this is only your first time. Your score will depend on the percentile. If you don’t do well, neither do others. I have taken 3 times(including this time), and both the reading and the questions are the hardest of all I have seen,even compared to the Barron’s hardest passages. No panic, just say you tried and practice hard for the next time. Good luck!
Scores are not based on how other people perform on reading; the curve is determined by CollegeBoard as according to test difficulty (decided by CollegeBoard). Also, you can miss 8 questions on reading and still get a 1550; your score depends on how you did on writing and math. Just relax and prepare over the winter break for January. Also, I thought I did really well in October and my gut feeling was wrong. Do not psych yourself out. Good luck.
Also, I would use Khan Academy to prepare for the next test. It will sync your scores and personalize your preparation.
I honestly felt the same way. I was aiming for a 1550 or higher because I consistently scored well on the collegeboard practice tests…but after yesterday I felt like I completely screwed up the reading. I’m so glad that I was not the only one that felt terrible about the reading though.
I’m just hoping that my gut answers and guesses in the reading section were somehow correct because I was literally guessing on half of the reading section. However, the curve might be nice because everyone seems to have struggled quite a bit on that section. I’m expecting that the January test will probably as hard as the December one because the tests are getting progressively harder.
I also ran out of time for the Grammar section… There were 4 questions on the Grammar that made me think for a while… CB is attempting to increase wording for questions I believe.
I know how you feel :/. I took that test too lol. I’m honestly hoping for a miracle… I’m afraid it didn’t go as well as I wanted to; however, stressing about it now will only make things worse. You already took the test, there is not that can be done anymore. Start prepping for the next one, you’ll be fine. Also, how did you study? Did you practice under “testing conditions”? Maybe you panicked, because you were new to the testing conditions. You should time yourself, if you haven’t been doing that already. I think that a mayor part of getting the score you want on the SAT is mental preparation. Make sure you calm yourself before you take the test. Good luck! May the curve be in our favor :)!
@CelestialAP I think you’re right in that I started panicking during the test 
I will take mental preparation and timing into mind next time. But haha may the curve be ever in our favor 
I felt that I did much better than october’s test. The reading was much easier than the october’s. It is just my opinion
@Lookuptothesky the reading passages were ok,but don’t you think that CB made the questions harder to process? That’s what slowed me down.
Sure did… The first passage was the toughest for me. I spent a lot of time there :(. Hopefully something will turn the tables for us 
Thank God, I’m not alone too. I kinda screwed up on the reading section because I spent way too much time on the first passage. Having done that I had to cram up fast by skimming through the other passages. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish with the last passage and the time was called in. I had about 8 more questions left of which I just shaded randomly. So we’re all kinda same here but we’re hoping for the best though. Good things can happen when you least expect them… Be optimistic from that perspective bcs it is better to be feeling this way and then get surprised with something good than to be overconfident and then shrouded with shame when you don’t make it to the extent of your presumed prowess… OPTIMISM NOT OVERCONFIDENCE!
hey, it’s alright. ik that a 1550 is very important to you, but me as a second-guesser, i spent so much time on reading that i had to guess on over 20 questions, plus i barely had time to fill in random answers. i ended up with 96th percentile reading and writing scores. there’s a chance that you scored really well.