First of all, prep classes aren’t necessary. There’s no need to waste thousands of dollars.
I used three books.
I did all the practice tests in the official SAT Blue book. This book is by far the most important because of its accuracy/legitimacy; it’s produced by College Board, the organization that creates the SAT exam, so your results from those tests will be the most indicative of your SAT range. 2) I did sections of the Barron’s SAT math book just to cover some more difficult math problems. 3) I did around twelve practice test from Dr. Chung’s book. People say that those tests are ridiculously hard and not reflective of the real test, but it can be useful. I’ve seen some actual SAT questions in Dr. Chung’s book, nearly verbatim, except harder.
In summary, if you’re aiming for a 2250+, I recommend all three books. No matter what, the Blue Book should be your primary focus.
General tips:
CR (went from mid 700s in 7th grade to 790): This section is the hardest to improve in. Usually people who read a bunch of difficult books build up good vocabularies and are just better at analyzing passages. It’s hard to improve quickly because a lot of this knowledge is cumulative. There are tons of websites that say top 300 SAT vocab words. Just check those out for vocab. Meanwhile, I suggest that you read the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, etc. The last two are more literary.
Writing (went from mid 700s to 780, although my essay score decreased from an 11 to a 9)-This section is arguably the easiest to improve in. There are very noticeable patterns; they test the same grammatical rules every year. A lot of people say that Erica Meltzer’s guide to SAT grammar is good, although I personally didn’t use it.
Essay-Okay, this one is tough. I consider myself a fairly good writer (I’ve won national awards), but I got a 9 on the essay. In contrast, I got an 11 on the essay when I took the SAT three years ago. So I have no idea how College Board grades this section. I don’t think my writing got worse in three years. Lol. Some people suggest memorizing generalized essays beforehand, which I didn’t do. At least make sure to think of possible examples (1 literary, 1 historical…)
Math (went from high 600s to 780): Most problems are basic algebra and geometry. Some of the trickier ones can be covered by Dr. Chung’s book, as I previously said. A lot of ostensibly hard questions can be solved by brute force, b/c the majority of the SAT math section is multiple choice. If there are variables, just substitute simple integers, and you’ll often be able to get the correct answer. I cannot emphasize how important this skill is. I got at least 3 hard questions right using it. Don’t try to find elaborate patterns or derive formulas in a short amount of time. That usually doesn’t work.
I know I was really stressed out about the SAT just a month ago. Also, a word of advice: try to refrain from looking at the official SAT threads here on College Confidential after the test. A lot of the “answers” are inaccurate/wrong, and you might be led to believe that you scored much worse than you really did. That’s what happened to me, at least. I wish all future test-takers the best of luck.
I definitely second what you said about not buying too much into the threads posted right after the tests. CC led me to believe I got around a 700 on writing when I actually ended up with a 770. Anyways, thanks for the guide.
@marvin100 lol, I know. I just wanted to give people an idea about how much I improved (not a lot, except in math). I think some people’s scores just plateau after a certain amount of practice.
Also received a 2350. From my experience, I wouldn’t disregard sat prep classes so quickly, although self-studying is also a viable option. Obviously classes aren’t guaranteed to raise your score (depends on your motivation, quality of the class, etc). I think the good thing about classes is the amount of practice you’re able to get, since you can do many practice problems and tests (for some ppl more than they would be able to motivate themselves on their own), and really fine tune the strategies they can teach you.
Besides that, some general advice: do at least a few practice tests until you can consistently get around a certain score. If you are starting early, ( for old sat) you can start looking at vocab words if you really want to prep. I studied from the Barron’s list, but in retrospect that might have been a bit overkill. Know the grammar rules really well, and you’re solid for the writing portion mc.
Definitely recommend the blue book for practice tests, and Barron’s for vocab. OP’s advice is also pretty sound
Great guide! I moved from a 1760 on my first diag SAT to a 2300 on the real one, and from what I see on this guide I have to agree with it. I only used the blue book. My biggest jump was in CR (530 to 730), and I have some advice on the passages:
Label the main idea of each paragraph
Answer the question in your own words before you look at the answer choices
Don't try to apply outside knowledge.
Everything is text based, not inference based (unless it specifically tells you to infer, which, then again, still means no use of outside knowledge).
@Dew123@DaedricSaiyan Great job! Care to share to the CC community what books
(besides the blue book) aided you guys in achieving 2300+ as well as how long you studied per day?
@Evangelise Thank you! I’d be happy to help!
For me, I mainly prepped during the summer of my rising sophomore year at a sat prep place called Harvard squared (HS2), although I don’t think the test prep companies are too different in quality, In that time I would say that I prepped for around 5-6 hours a day with classes for maybe 4 days a week, with a practice test every Friday. I have a tendency to overprep, but overall I may have taken around 15 practice tests (including the ones that continued into the school year leading up to the test). Although my case might be fairly unique because I took it so early, in retrospect I’m glad I did it earlier since it freed me up for future summers(I digress, but just some advice for ppl who want to get a head start).
I mainly relied on the Barron’s and the blue book for prep outside of that class, and the grammar concepts/ cr / math strategies I learned in class.
For cr, there is a good book called the 501 questions for cr, which has a ton of practice cr mc questions with pretty thorough explanations. Feel free to check it out if you want. Other than that it was mostly just practice and trying strategies until something works for you. For me, in cr the strategy of doing the questions as you read along the passage ( since they are In Sequential order) has greatly helped me not only in sat, but also for the aplac test and the PSAT. However, it really varies for everyone.
@Dew123 Thanks! I struggle mainly with math, the last few questions 15-20, I have Dr. Chung’s and Barron’s and looked at Gruber’s which I didn’t like. Aiming for 700 here, but thanks for your tips!
Omfg im in literally the EXACT same position as earlier u. I took my diagnostic in june and got 1790, 540 CR. Please tell me everything u did day by day to get 730. Pleaaaase
@Evangelise In addition to the blue book, my prep class gave me 400 SAT vocab index cards which everyone had to memorize. Those were my main tools for the SAT. Other than that, I would read books and do alot of practice exams. Hope this helps
@OneDoubleThree I understand how it feels lol. Starting from a 530, I can say for sure that the fastest way to get your score up 50-70 points is to ace that vocab section. It helps to memorize SAT words, but also memorizing roots of words is key. Do that, and you’ll be in the upper 500s/low 600s. Then come the passages. My advice on these is:
Label the main idea of each paragraph
Answer the questions before you look at the answer choices
Only use the evidence given in the text. Take it literally
Don't get too hung up on one question. Try to get through most of the questions of a certain passage and then move on to the next. You'd rather spend 5 minutes getting an additional, say, 5 questions right rather than use those 5 minutes to get 1 hard question right--which doesn't have any value over another question.
Ah alright. I just bought barrons sat 27th edition for the vocab. It also has a list of roots (quite a lot). Should I memorise those or a different list of roots? For vocab, I’m memorising the yellow cards at the back of the barrons Book. They’re pretty good IMO.
