<p>I am preparing for the SAT and just need some feedback on how to study. I have the BB and have gone through the entire book as well as taken the practice tests. I have problems on the Critical reading and want to improve my score on that. But I'm not sure how to approach it. Do I just keep taking practice tests? I know the strategies and apply it but I don't see a lot of improvements on my score. Let me know from your past experience/study methods. Thanks!</p>
<p>Hey kingkay1! I got a decent score (above 2300) and this is how I studied:</p>
<p>I took the practice test only to find out what kind of material I needed to work on. My greatest struggle was 19th century English because no one ever talks like that and uses of language. I started reading many many older stories like King Lear and I checked out some books on 19th century poetry just to be safe. Next I studied some of the terms I wasn’t familiar with like verbal irony or situation irony, basically all the ironies. </p>
<p>As for math I used khanacademy.org and went all the way back to arithmetic. Sometimes the simplest stuff like negative exponents and commutative rules slip my mind. No shame in going back to 7th grade. </p>
<p>For writing I just wrote a lot. I read good books and then I wrote. I would look at what I wrote and question myself on every single piece.
Is there anyway I can make that sentence clearer?
Is my point clear to my audience?
Do my paragraphs connect to each other?
Is that really the correct usage of ‘insinuate’? </p>
<p>I believe the first thing you should do is
1.) what questions on critical reading are messing you up?
2.) work on those parts. If it’s grammar, review your grammar. Look things up. If it’s vocab, study vocab!
3.) don’t take so many practice tests. It’s gets all up in your head and you start going crazy. It’s about the learning, not the score.
4.) study quality not quantity. If you’re not feeling up to it one day, kick back and watch a TV show. If you havn’t been out with friends in 2 weeks, go out and see a movie. When you do study, make it count. Focus down and give yourself an hour or so to really nail it. Get some iphone vocab games and study while in homeroom or stuck in traffic. Make your study time count and fit it in, but don’t make it useless studying. </p>
<p>Strategies only go so far and they will never trump knowing the material. I improved from an 1860 to 2360 because I threw out those silly practice tests and I focused on relearning the material and enjoying myself. </p>
<p>Other things I did:
I created a study space where nothing ever happens there except serious studying. There are motivational posters and a desk full of supplies so that I never have an excuse to get up.
I limit studying to 1 hour of sitting down. This doesn’t count the time I spend playing vocab games. About a week before the test I will take another practice test just so that I know what 3 hours+ feels like.
Exercise and eat healthy every day. I notice after I eat ice cream, fries, and chocolate that I slow down. So I tend to stick to a diet of rice, veggies, and fruit.
Reward yourself after the test, not after each studying session. I found that after I rewarded myself for studying I was constantly focused on the reward and not as focused on studying.
Real life gets in the way sometimes, but if you can avoid stressful situations, it’s best to do so. I normally volunteer for 40 hours a week. During cracked down study sessions I limit myself to no more than 15 hours. Some of my friends are known drama starters so I avoided them for a few weeks. I made it clear to my parents that unless soemone was dead or dying, I was not to be disturbed. I also made my cat leave me alone during studying. </p>
<p>Good luck friend!</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I know my weaknesses for CR but I don’t how to improve on it. I’m not that good with the reading passages, so how do I approach them?</p>