<p>I'm a Junior and I am starting to prepare for the SAT's in May. I had a pretty low PSAT score of 164, and I have to drastically improve this to at least in the 2000 range. Math seems easy for me to improve I got a 650 missing 6 problems. My problems are with CR and Writing. Im in the 500 range in both of those sections. I heard the writing portion is one of the easiest to improve, due to memorization of rules, but I dont know about the CR part. How do people drastically improve their scores in the CR and Writing portions? Help Please</p>
<p>Bump your a** off and study day and night...Thatz ur only option</p>
<p>I studied for countless hours to improve my SAT score, and it would not budge.</p>
<p>I got a 27 (1830 SAT) on the PLAN test, which predicts a 30 (2010 SAT) on the ACT. I studied for 6 hours the day before I took the ACT and got a 34 (2300 SAT).</p>
<p>I have found that the ACT is under your control far more because you can learn almost everything it tests you on. Not so for the SAT. An example: the ACT English will test you only on a few grammar rules. The SAT will test you on any combination of words in the English language its makers choose.</p>
<p>It seems that you're a guy who can benefit from test prep. I know that most people at College Confidential swear against test prep but they're pretty much all smartasses that are in the 99th percentile.</p>
<p>I got a score of 188 on PSAT last year and this year I got 217. All because of the test prep and follow up studying I done after that.</p>
<p>1) Buy books.</p>
<p>I, and like 99 "Gillion" %, of ppl here recommend Rocket Review.</p>
<p>*2) Read books. *</p>
<p>NOT PREP BOOKS. Books! There's absolutely no substitute for READING in prepping for a critical READING test. Only about 30% of questions are directly testing your vocab. The rest test your. . . . What, class? READING.</p>
<p>It's really about practice, knowing grammar rules, and generally being well-read. Classic lit especially. But the more comfortable you are from practice, the better you'll do. I would get Cracking the SAT, the College Board practice test book, and 11 Practice Tests for the SAT. That will give you a ton of practice.</p>
<p>The ACT is definitely another option. It's a less screwy test.</p>
<p>I must say that I'm not a very bright person either, but I have good memorization skills. So, to improve my abysmal CR reading scores, I've just been memorizing vocab. Although there are only like 6-8 sentence completion questions every section, there are also tons of questions on vocab and how you use it in the passages portion. Just keep on learning vocab and I'm sure you'll improve your scores in CR.</p>
<p>as one who enjoys reading time, newsweek, and the new yorker, i say yea, outside reading is immensely helpful. what hurt me though was vocab. I screwed up a vocab in context and sentence completions and got a 780. but yea, do vocab as well, for most people i know, it's like free points for them.</p>
<p>Put your dream colleges in front of you and PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE</p>
<p>pray alot :)</p>
<p>practice ... learn from your mistakes ... practice ... learn ... etc</p>
<p>So, I cant really hit the SAT books right now, cause i have some midterms coming up. If I start preparing on Feb.1 for the May 3 test, do u think I could improve my score from a 164/240 to at least a 2000/2400. I have the work ethic, I just want to know if this is possible. Thanks for the posts.</p>
<p>3 months to improve ~400 points!!!</p>
<p>Of course it is possible :)</p>
<p>If you practice properly, learn from what you do wrong and keep the concept and techniques fresh in your head, any score increase is possible (about any)</p>
<p>What I found to be the best thing I did was practice routinely. I mean day after day. Sometimes I would skip a day, but all you need is a little practice a day (4 math problems, or 5 grammar, or 1 cr passage) and your mind will work towards achieving better. It will become second nature to you, I promise. If you base your study and practice on the mechanisms of the mind, you will succeed. So keep practicing, repeating, until its part of you (you can divorce it after test day) and keep the nature of the test in your mind. If you got something wrong and you realize why collegeboard thinks the right answer is the right answer, remember it, apply it later.</p>
<p>They can only come up with so many new things.</p>
<p>^^I realize the above rant is incoherent and unorganized, but bottom line- practice</p>
<p>nike: that's a large hole to fill, but i guess it's possible. most people raise it 200 points or so, i only know of one person raising it 300. but if you get it up to a 1900 even, that's a very respectable score for some very solid colleges. gl!</p>