<p>I just wanted to say that the OP is probably NOT Chinese, since Southeast Asian indicates Laos/Malaysia/Thailand etc.
Way to jump to conclusions, guys. BTW, I'm Chinese :)</p>
<p>i was wondering which company's books are good to study from because i just bought the college board SAT study guide and was thinking of getting a few more from other companies, any suggestions?
And also, does anyone know which "pretty good" schools require and don't require subject tests?</p>
<p>I thought he said he was Chinese Southeast Asian. Like Chinese Americans are technically American but they're Chinese by birth.</p>
<p>nlh330: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/469784-book-should-i-study-first.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/469784-book-should-i-study-first.html</a> Here's my advice about what books to get.</p>
<p>where do you live? our entire school is majority of minorities</p>
<p>
[quote]
I just wanted to say that the OP is probably NOT Chinese, since Southeast Asian indicates Laos/Malaysia/Thailand etc.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, the OP did say he (or she?) was Chinese at birth, but from a Southeast Asian county. </p>
<p>Enough with the Chinese-ness, I can't wait to see the guide!</p>
<p>uhhh i'm surprised no one has pointed this out, maybe i'm just being too judgmental, but no wonder the op got a 2400....it was his/her fifth time taking the SAT for crying out loud!!!</p>
<p>I'm sure if anyone who really cared about SATs put in that much work and preparation for an extended amount of time, we'd all eventually be able to break 2300 and even maybe achieve a perfect score.</p>
<p>sooo while i want to know what the OP might have to say, i don't think it will be very valuable to those of use who want to get the SAT over with in under three tries.</p>
<p>Is op a native Chinese and now is studying in China?</p>
<p>Happy Easter Sunday everyone. Sorry I am writing this so late - yesterday I was swamped with work and this morning I went to church - apologies for keeping some of you guys waiting.</p>
<p>Before I actually start writing, I have to address a few things:</p>
<ol>
<li>I realised that my "guide" is not going to help everyone. It's mainly going to help only three groups of people:
i) people currently in the 2100 zone, who are trying to break 2250.
ii) people currently in the 2250 zone, who are trying to reach 2400.
iii) non-native speakers of English like myself, but who have already possessed a good grasp of English grammar, as well as a reasonably strong reading and writing ability.</li>
</ol>
<p>I will explain this more in a while.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>To those who say that this post is going to reek of ego, even before I have even written anything substantial at all, I have three things to say to you:
i) I'm a college sophomore now, and when you're a college sophomore, NO ONE cares about your SAT score. You discuss and boast about your SAT scores in only high school, or perhaps in college only if you're a freshman. If you boast about your SAT scores after your freshman year, people will think you're a loser. And I am not a loser.
ii) I have better things to do on Easter Sunday than writing this. I only do this only because people on this CC forum have helped me tremendously before, and I want to contribute something back.
iii) I only took this annoying test again because I am planning on transferring. Thank you Harvard College for making my effort all in vain.</p></li>
<li><p>To those who think that I spend hours and hours preparing for the SAT, I don't. In fact, I think overpreparing for SAT is counter productive. I will explain later. In fact, for the two years in between my third and fourth attempt on the SAT, I practiced for 30 minutes just to re-familiarise with the format again, and in between my fourth and fifth, I practiced for zero minutes.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>****One of the reasons why I decided to write this is because I don't want some of you guys to make the same mistakes I did while preparing for SAT. I wasted a lot of time on inefficient methods. Unlike some people who got a 2400 on their 'first' try (I didn't take the PSAT or anything like that), I recognise that not every one has that ability - and I say again and for the last time, I have better things to do on a Sunday morning than to brag about my score. So desist from making puerile comments such as 'this post reeks of ego' - you have no respect from me nor from anyone else from the CC - you spoil the very nature of this CC forum, which is designed for people to help one other.</p>
<p>this DOES "reek of ego." a college sophomore instructing high school juniors on how to take the SAT while achieving a 2400 on his flippin fifth try? i'm sorry but if you're that old and took so long to get a 2400, i don't think your study methods are really that efficient and i would be wary of posting them. i got a 2400 on my first try (and im chinese), but i'm not nearly pretentious enough to post my study habits so people can emulate my godly (sarcasm) act of 2400. everyone needs different guidance.</p>
<p>My full score reports:</p>
<p>First Attempt:
March 2005
CR - 670 , MA - 740, WR - 690, (69, 9)</p>
<p>Second Attempt:
November 2005
CR - 750, MA - 750, WR - 760 (78, 9)</p>
<p>Third Attempt:
January 2006
CR - 720, MA - 800, WR - 740 (69, 12)</p>
<p>Fourth Attempt:
December 2007
CR - 750, MA - 770, WR - 730 (72, 10)</p>
<p>Fifth Attempt:
March 2008
CR - 800, MA - 800, WR - 800 (80, 12)</p>
<p>Okay, some of you will wonder - why I took the test so many times, esp since my second, third, and fourth attempts were already pretty strong and there was no sign of any significant improvement. That's because I'm a freaking perfectionist - but that's not the point of this post at all. I also understand that my "guide" is NOT going to help everyone. In fact, it may help no one at all. But this is just a journal to tell you the things which I have done, and all the things which I did that I have found pretty useful, or entirely useless. You will find VERY SIMILAR ADVICE THROUGHOUT THE CC FORUM, and this post is not going to be too different from some of the rest, really. Because really good advice will work for many people.</p>
<p>I'll just start writing and ignore all other comments, because I have no time.</p>
<p>I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but why would you bother to take the SAT twice after it didn't mean anything anymore.</p>
<p>juenatics, you sound very similar to a person I met at a SAT camp in China this past summer. Do your name happen to be Jack?</p>
<p>Just ignore those other people. They are definitely jealous.
I am really looking forward to your guide since your CR score increased dramtically from your first attempt to your second. I am in eager anticipation!</p>
<p>They have SAT camps in China? I thought SATs can't even be taken in China...</p>
<p>No, they just go to China for those SAT camps and take the test here. I heard that the Chinese students in my school did that last summer.</p>
<p>I also got a 2400.</p>
<p>I got the perfect score this past March test as a junior--my score was a full 200-point bump from the last time I took the SAT last June. </p>
<p>My "trick" was taking as many practice tests as possible and strategically studying vocabulary--the Princeton Review has these lists called "hit parades" full of the most commonly used words on the SAT. A stack of 1,000 note cards will NOT do you any good!</p>
<p>My other major tip is to not study AT ALL during the two days leading up to the test. Reviewing the commonly used vocabulary might be a good idea, but cramming will only leave you totally stressed and full of self-doubt.</p>
<p>Well, I don't want to come to the conclusion that this post reeks of ego, but so far all you have done is tell us your lovely scores, and rebuke people calling you an egotist. How about you share your grand strategies?</p>
<p>Contrary to popular belief, it's a lot more difficult to climb from 2100 to 2250 than from 2250 to 2400, even though the score curve turns very sharply at the tip. </p>
<p>To jump from 2100 to 2250 requires you to understand how SAT test-setters are thinking and to 'crack' the SAT code; but if you have been hitting 2250, it means that you have already more or less 'cracked' that code, and it's now all about finetuning your understanding and strategy. I'm not sure how many people would agree with me on that, but this is my opinion based on my own experience.</p>
<p>For me, it was enough difficult getting a 2100 in the first place. I was scoring high 500s and low 600s for CR, and low 700s on Math, giving me an average of low 1300s (just the CR and math sections) in ALL my blue book practice tests, before I took my first attempt at the 3-part SAT. </p>
<p>When I took my first test, I thought I would hit a low 600 on CR, and frankly, I thought the 670 on CR was flattering. I made something like 8-12 mistakes for Writing MC for every test, and I had no idea what went wrong. I thought my essay, while not perfect, was reasonable, but I had no idea what a 12-point essay looked like. I thought my math score was reasonable for the first try.</p>
<p>Mistake #1 (that I made) : I thought the SAT was like one of those Mensa tests, which are full of random questions that test on anything and everything - that there is no real way to prepare for it, and it is all up to one's natural intelligence to score well. </p>
<p>I know, I was so silly right? That's because I haven't read the CC forum at that time. And I will explain how the CC forum helped me. Thanks to people like Xiggi and the rest, you guys today are much more informed than I was at that time.</p>
<p>SAT is actually a very organised test - there are fixed patterns everywhere that repeat from test to test, and the first trick is to recognise this.</p>
<p>Mistake #2: I was reading books like Barron's and PR and all those stuff. Kaplan's was particularly useful for CR (and I still think so), but I just read rather indiscriminately every guide book I could find --- and I formed an "all-round" general strategy by piecing together all the dos-and-don'ts I picked up in those guide books, which I thought was very clever of me, because I thought I got the essence out of every available guidebook.</p>
<p>The "all-round" strategy killed me. First, I don't know what went wrong when I go wrong. Second, I neglected one important truth about the SAT - there are 'fixed patterns' in the SAT, and the general strategy which I have self-formulated doesn't prepare me for that.</p>
<p>All I really needed was one good strategy for each of the section that tackles all the questions in the section ystematically.</p>
<p>Mistake #3: I spent time doing practice tests in Barron's and Kaplan's. </p>
<p>Don't do that. There are long reasons I can give you, but I am too lazy to write out and you should trust me on this, if you trust me. You should just practice on the tests found in the blue book. If you run out of tests, do those in the old red book (10 real SATs) or pay $60 and get the tests available online. Test every strategy you pick up from guide books (if you use them) only against the official collegeboard tests.</p>
<p>Ok, may someone answer WHY it is a bad idea to do practice tests in Barrons, Kaplans, or Sparknotes? Is it inaccurate or like a waste of time?</p>
<p>SilverDragon, the Barrons/Kaplan/Sparknotes tests can't use actual questions. They have tests that try to come close to the SAT, but they don't want to get sued. So they're writing their own mock SATs that may be harder/easier/different from the real thing. If you want practice for the real thing, take an old version of the real thing, not some company's rendition of it.</p>