<p>I know SAT prep is already a forum, but it wasn't terribly helpful...</p>
<p>I just got my SAT scores back, and it was my first time taking it, but I was still pretty disappointed; my PSAT led me to believe I'd do a lot better. So my question is, what did you do to prepare? I read through the math section of princeton review's study guide, but waited till the night before to take any practice tests (big mistake). I'm scheduled to take the SAT again in May, so any advice for short-term prep would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>i didn’t prepare and got a 1900. alas. i’m 32 and married with a job and going to school full-time; i figured i’d get what i got and that would represent my abilities best. :)</p>
<p>i’d get a tutor if you can. the biggest thing is identify where you were weak (was it the stress of taking the test itself, in which case do the practice test a few times; was it your test strategy, like did you waste time on questions you couldn’t answer, or give wrong answers; which section, etc…).</p>
<p>Thanks for your help! I’m planning to get a tutor for math, but I’m concerned that three weeks won’t be enough time to get my score where I want it to be (ideally fifty to a hundred points higher). Of course, I can always take it a third time…but I’ve heard that’s a bad idea. Any thoughts? And I get my analysis back Monday, so that’ll help me identify what specifically I need to work on.</p>
<p>I didn’t really prepare for the SAT and got a 2280. all i did was study prefixes and suffixes for the vocab questions, and skim some book summaries on sparknotes for the essay the night before the test. my parents signed me up for a writing + reading prep class, but to be honest, i slept during the class sessions and never did the work :P</p>
<p>i have friends who just studied collegeboard’s official sat big blue book (reading over, taking the practice tests) and got over 2300 their fist time taking it. You can take a class if you want, though i don’t find them extremely helpful, especially if you’re an incredibly lazy and unmotivated person like me</p>
<p>With only three weeks left, the Blue Book is going to be your best friend. Take all 8 tests if you can and thoroughly review your mistakes after each one. If you have extra time, throw in some vocab, grammar, and math review.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help you guys! I don’t have the blue book but I have princeton review’s study guide and the book with 11 practice tests (would you say the blue book’s better, or about the same?). Sadly, I just took the math section and got lower than my score on the actual test. Hopefully I can bring it up, but with only three weeks…</p>
<p>Right. If you study with the BB, on test day you will feel like you’re doing something you’ve done 8 times before. If you study with something else, the test will feel foreign and different form what you’ve practiced with. I’ve done it both ways, and it makes a huge difference.</p>
<p>I took all the BB tests before i took it in 8th grade and got a 1980, then took it cold now and got a 2380. Honestly, I think the test just measures your ability to take standardized exams and get into the mindset of test writers. Studying will only get you so far imo, you can learn the format etc, but the rest is just luck. Good luck tho :)</p>
<p>112358: Ah…I’m definitely getting the blue book, then. Thanks for the clarification.</p>
<p>member2008: that’s interesting to hear. For me, studying a little for the PSAT brought my score up nearly two hundred points from one year to the next, but for the SAT itself, studying didn’t really have the desired effect. I’m hoping that’s just because I went about it the wrong way, but I do agree that studying will only get you so far.</p>
alas. i’m 32 and married with a job and going to school full-time; i figured i’d get what i got and that would represent my abilities best. :)</p>