<p>I'm taking the SAT for the last time in October 2010 (I'm a rising senior). I took it a couple months ago and I got a 2080 without really studying. I haven't really studied much over this summer for the SAT. How much time does it normally take to raise your score? What should I do to raise my score? Also, what are some good books to prep? I'm using Grammar Smart and Princeton Review SAT.</p>
<p>I got about the same score on the June SAT and have since raised my practice test average to around 2250. Find an SAT vocab list/book and go through it at your own pace (I personally did it about an hour a day for about 2 weeks). Also make flashcards for ones you don’t know and review them periodically over the summer. This will likely boost your CR score considerably depending on where you are at right now.
For Writing/the grammar MC once you have done enough practice questions and reviewed enough mistakes you become very familiar with the types of errors and how to recognize them. I have taken about 4-5 full writing sections since June (some as part of a full test and some just writing) and am now consistantly missing 0-1 MC.
As for math personally I think you have to develop a system that works for you. For example I was having trouble paceing myself on the last 3 questions of the 20 Q section (I would run out of time) so I now do questions 1-10, then 18-20, and finally I go back to 11-17. For some reason this helps me manage my time a lot more efficiently but everyone is different.
For the past several weeks I have taken full length SAT practice tests every Saturday at the same time the real SAT starts, with each test acting as a kind of progress report on how effective my weekday practice (vocab and learning from past mistakes) has been. I got a 2100 on the June SAT, A 2080 about a week later, then 2140, 2220, 2240, and my latest one (yesterday) was 2280.
I am sure that, assuming you are willing, adopting a similar practice/ study regimen you will see similar improvements and hopefully success on the October SAT (which I am also taking btw).</p>