<p>So I will be applying to NCSSM this upcoming year, and the only "hole" in my application is my SAT. I have good grades while taking hard classes, and my EC are good. But my SAT is definitely subpar.</p>
<p>The breakdown is as follows:</p>
<p>720 on math
I get easy questions wrong with silly mistakes and do the hard ones right. I think this can be attributed to the fact that until recently, I never went back through the section once I was done.</p>
<p>680 on reading
I think that my vocabulary is poor, but that shouldn't account for all of my mistakes. My scores range from 640-680, but I can never seem to break 680.</p>
<p>540-570 on writing with a 5/12 on the essay
The Barron's book is really confusing with scoring, as It doesn't include writing in your score at all, instead saying that it is a separate sub score. The 5/12 was graded by people at the Princeton review. </p>
<p>I have between 3-5 months to prepare for this. Do you all have any advice on this, especially for the non-math sections. My total is between 1900-1970, but I really want to get atleast a 2100 for my application. I am currently using the Barron's SAT prep book. How much do you think that I can improve?</p>
<p>Have you gotten the blue Collegeboard book yet? You should really be using that instead.
From my own experience, using anything but Collegeboard for the reading/writing sections makes you worse by making you look for “tricks” that don’t even show up on the real SAT. Barron’s also tends to be more difficult than the actual exam, so if you’ve only been using that, your scores may appear lower than they actually are.</p>
<p>For math, since you’re only making stupid mistakes, you just need to practice a lot more, and that’s all there really is to it. Do a math section from any book daily, or maybe two if you’re concerned about your score, and over time you’ll start to lessen your mistakes. I did this over the course of 3 months and raised a 660 to a 760. Again from experience and hearsay from friends, going back to check your answers doesn’t really always help since it’s difficult to catch your mistakes. It’s better to get used to getting them right the first time around.</p>
<p>I was told to write everywhere on the reading sections. In other words, circle important words in the passage, underline key phrases, etc. while you are reading through. Physically cross out the answers you KNOW are wrong so you can concentrate on narrowing down the right answer. It helps keep you focused. I know it sounds stupid but it really helps. If you encounter those bits that require you to compare two passages, scribble a little summary of the first passage you read, answer the q’s that only require that one passage, and THEN read the second one, scribble a summary, and answer the rest. Sentence completion can also be made easier by just crossing out the words that definitely don’t fit, and it’s actually all just process of elimination - if one word doesn’t fit, the whole answer doesn’t work, so sometimes you can use this to get away with not knowing vocab (but if I were you I’d study some anyway.) The yellow Gruber’s book has a good list of solid vocab that does show up frequently on the tests so you can study those.</p>
<p>The grammar rules that appear on the SAT are relatively simple and there’s a section in the Collegeboard book that has them, I think. Just study those and practice using them. There’s not much else to it. And again, physically cross out your answers.</p>
<p>5/12 on an essay is pretty harsh, though. Would you be able to get a tutor or just anyone that can help?</p>
<p>How much you improve will depend on what steps you take to do so.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. Do you know of any particular resources that will help me with grammar rules for the Writing Sections? Also, do you have any recommendations for a good idea for a practice schedule? How must should I do per day (section wise), and what percentage of each? (CR/W/M).</p>
<p>On page 101 of the blue Collegeboard book there’s a chart of the rules that are used on the exam. You don’t really need to know anything more other than how to use who/whom, whether everyone, either, neither, and other similar words are singular or plural, and that it’s “between you and me” and not “between you and I.” Don’t answer W questions based on if an answer sound right, because the SAT is specially made to trip you up and weed out people who don’t really know their rules.</p>
<p>As for a schedule… dunno, it really depends on how much work you need to do. I’d say two-three times a week of CR/W (one or two sections of both each time) and one full math section daily to decrease those silly mistakes and stay in shape for the more difficult problems. Just make sure you get the whole book done.</p>
<p>How much do you think that I can improve in these next few months by following this schedule? Will breaking 2100 be realistic?</p>
<p>I’m assuming you’re a senior and are doing a sort of last-minute SAT, so I’ll suppose you have 3 months. If you do two math sections daily all the way up until test day (or you can relax the last day, some people do better that way), you should be able to get an 800 in math. That means you need a remaining 1300 points.</p>
<p>If you can push for a 700 in CR by getting vocab down and at least improving a bit in general reading questions, then you’ll only need a 600 in writing, which is like 2 wrong on the multiple choice and a 4/12 on the essay. Aim for maybe a 730 in CR and 630 in W just to be safe.</p>
<p>Also take into account that Barron’s is generally more difficult than the actual SAT, and we can afford to inflate the numbers in your original post a little bit, and you should be over 2100 with the above estimates.</p>
<p>Imo breaking 2100 in 3 months is realistic if you put the effort into it (and get someone to help you with your essays because you should at least get a 6/12.) If you do all the above properly and adjust your pace as you go along to make sure you’re improving fast enough, I think you can do it.</p>
<p>If you need any more help, feel free to PM me about any questions about studying, specific q’s on tests, etc. until you take your SAT; I’d be happy to answer any inquiries the best I can.</p>
<p>Is the place you’re applying to okay with high math SAT scores + relatively low CR and W scores? If I’m not mistaken, NCSSM is focused on math and science, but some schools also emphasize the humanities a great deal.</p>
<p>From what I understand, they look at the total score, but are most interested in the M/CR sections out of 1600. And the SAT is behind transcript, ECs and essays/recommendations in terms of importance, but is still important. Also, I am a sophomore, not a senior. Thanks a lot for the help. I am ordering the Blue Book and plan to work in it, but there is something that I am wondering about. If I were to take all of these practice test sections, I will quickly go through all of the free CB tests and the ones in the Blue Book. Should I still use the Barron’s practice tests, so that I don’t run out of the real ones?</p>
<p>Urk, sorry about guessing your grade wrong lol, I actually could have just looked around the NCSSM website. I thought it was a college/university at first. </p>
<p>Doing math sections from any book should be fine. As for CR/W… even though my impression is that anything but the Collegeboard book is bad for practice, I’ve never even touched a SAT I book that wasn’t the Blue Book so I really have not been able to see for myself. You could try doing research around CC or other websites for people’s feedback about how they felt about different books. </p>
<p>What I am certain of is that when it comes to reading, some practice books are truly BS. I’m studying for the SAT II Literature test and the Barron’s and Princeton Review books were terrible with ambiguous answers. I’m not saying that may hold true for those books for the regular SAT, but you should at least look around and get a feel for the Collegeboard stuff first before you grab other things because some of the practice exams by other brands are downright awful.</p>