How much time do you spend preparing for standardized tests?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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<p>I spend a lot more time preparing for standardized tests than most (if not all) of my friends, but I get the impression that I spend less time on test preparation than most College Confidential members.</p>

<p>Here's my preparation:
•A couple of practice tests for the PSAT.
•A couple of practice tests for the ACT.
•Extremely little preparation (less than 3 hours) for the SAT IIs.
•A moderate amount of preparation for the AP exams.</p>

<p>I did reasonably well on the PSAT, the ACT, the SAT IIs, and 6/7 AP exams, but I have a couple of SAT II scores (and one AP score) that would be considered "subpar" by many College Confidential members.</p>

<p>What about you? Do you spend a lot of time preparing for standardized tests, or just a little?</p>

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<p>1 day for each AP
SATs I did 8 tests in total</p>

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<p>I usually spend little time preparing but I’ve found that that does not work for me with standardized testing (School tests tho heck yeah)</p>

<p>Previous years I spent a day or a week max studying for APs and the most I ever did was obtain a 3. This year, I spent a good 2-3 weeks studying for my APs and I got 5s on 2. I got a 3 on the AP I tried studying for the day before. Go figures. But yeah, I need to spend time studying to do well on standardized tests. I’m studying for the ACT now and hoping it will make a difference in September…</p>

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<p>I think we also need to consider the results and not just the preparation lulz
It’s quite irrelevant to tell us you studied only 1 hour for the SAT and scored a 900.</p>

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<p>For APUSH I spent 1 day sitting with 5 Steps to a 5 for 9-10 hours straight, and then on another day and the day of the exam I spent about 1 hour, maybe a bit more. Then for a few other days I spent maybe 30 minutes studying. I got a 5.</p>

<p>SAT Math 2 I studied quite a bit, going through the 2 PR practice tests and the 6 or 7 Barrons practice tests. I might have spent about 5-10 hours going through the actual book. Not really sure about the hours. I got a 730 and plan to retake.</p>

<p>SAT Physics I only really did the practice tests in Kaplan and PR, and I maybe spent around an hour or two reading through the material in the book. 800.</p>

<p>The actual SAT, well, I have spent a but more time on this. I think before I got my first score of 1940, (570 CR 680 M 690 W 10 Essay), I maybe did 2-4 practice tests. I read through Mike Barrett’s SAT Prep Black Book for about 5 hours but didn’t do any of the exercises in it. I was pretty baffled at how low my CR score was. For the second test where I got a 2090 (670 CR 710 M 710 W 10 Essay), I probably did another 2-4 practice tests, but I did a bunch more single sections in Math. I didn’t really do any reading from any book, but I spent maybe 10-20 hours reading a bunch of SAT prep threads on CC, which are really superior to what many prep books can offer. I plan to take it one last time (I won’t settle for anything less than an 800 on Math), and I plan to do maybe another 5-10 tests, while developing more strategies this Summer.</p>

<p>I studied for the PSAT sophomore year for about an hour and got a 186, and for the one my Junior year for about 3 hours, taking one full length PSAT, and got a 179, lol.</p>

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<p>ACT
February 2009, seventh grade, no prep: 22 (27E, 18M, 27R, 15S, no essay)<br>
February 2012, tenth grade, around twenty practice tests: 33 (35E, 30M, 34R, 34S, 8 essay)
April 2013, eleventh grade, no additional prep: 35 (35E, 36M, 34R, 33S, 8 essay)
PSAT
October 2011, tenth grade, went through a prep book: 210 (74 CR, 65 M, 71W)
October 2012, eleventh grade, no additional prep: 227 (77 CR, 73M, 77W)
The math increase was mostly because I took Algebra II in the second semester of sophomore year.
SAT
January 2011, ninth grade, no prep: 1970 (690CR, 580M, 700W, 7 essay)
January 2013, eleventh grade, no prep: 2340 (790CR, 750M, 800W, 10 essay)
I was taking Algebra I at the time of the first test, so my math score is low mostly because of that.
SAT Subject Tests
Chemistry, maybe two practice tests: 740
Literature, no prep: 780
Math II, around three practice tests: 800
These are all from June 2013, when I was a junior.
AP
Biology, took the class: 4
Calculus BC, May 2013, self-study for a few months: 4, AB subscore 4
Chemistry, May 2013, took the class: 4
English Literature, May 2013, took the class: 4
Statistics, May 2013, self-study for two or three weeks: 3
US Government, May 2013, self-study for twelve hours: 3
US History, May 2013, self-study for two or three weeks: 4
These are all from May 2013, when I was a junior. </p>

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<p>@foolish: OK, I didn’t list them immediately because I thought it would be inappropriate to start a thread with, “I didn’t study for the SAT II Math Level 2, and I got an 800.” Anyway, here goes:</p>

<p>ACT
Seventh grade, no preparation: 29
Eleventh grade, one practice test: 34
Eleventh grade, retake w/ Writing: 35
PSAT
Tenth grade, no preparation: 206
Eleventh grade, two practice tests: 223
SAT
Seventh grade, no preparation: 1860-2000?
SAT Subject Tests
Math 2, no preparation: 800
Literature, no preparation: 730
Biology E, 2-3 hours reading: 730
These are all from May 2014, when I was a junior.
AP
Latin, lots of studying: 2
Literature, moderate studying: 4
Biology, moderate studying: 4
Calculus BC, little studying: 5
Psychology, moderate studying: 5
Computer Science, lots of studying: 5
Microeconomics, little studying: 5
These are all from May 2014, when I was a junior.</p>

<p>It seems that, in my experience, how you study is much more important than how long you study.</p>

<p>*Shamelessly stole the template from @halcyonheather. :)</p>

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<p>I’m not sure how many different ways there are to take a practice test, unless you are leaving out some things that you personally did.</p>

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<p>You can time them or not. (I would recommend not timing the first ones you take, and just answering all the questions even if you run out of time, because if you don’t have accuracy there’s no point in worrying about speed.) </p>

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<p>PSAT
10th: one practice test, 214
11th: no prep, 233</p>

<p>SAT
8th grade: no prep (didn’t even know the format), 1580
11th (October 2013): tons of prep (~30 practice tests, extra reading, etc.), 2310 (800 cr, 710 m, 800 w)
11th (November 2013): a little prep for cr, but almost none, 2370 (800, 770, 800)</p>

<p>AP
APUSH (10th): tons of prep. No practice tests, but tons of studying over the two weeks before the test; 5
Calc AB (11th): nothing apart from what was required by my class, but some of the things my teacher required us to do would count as studying (eg practice tests); 5
Eng Lang (11th): absolutely no prep, didn’t even take the course; 5
Stat (11th): moderate amount of prep, no practice tests but flash cards and general studying starting the week before; 5
Euro history (11th): very little prep, only started the night before but tried unsuccessfully to cram; 3</p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests
US History (10th): good amount of studying, 2 practice tests; 720
Math II (10th): no prep; 740
Latin (11th): skimmed through review book night before and took one practice test; 780
Literature (11th): absolutely no prep; 740</p>

<p>Overall, I think I studied more than most for the SAT, less than most for SAT II, but about the same amount for APs and PSATs as others.</p>

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<p>The closer the test gets, the more I do? So I’d glance at the book say 10 weeks before the test, but a week before the test I’m literally antisocial.</p>

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<p>@foolish: The most important thing, in my opinion, is to analyze your mistakes and study any and all material related to problems you miss.</p>

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<p>Night before</p>

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<p>Subject tests (June of sophomore year):
Math II 800, chemistry 800, bio M 780 all no studying
Calc AB (freshman year): self studied starting januaryish
Calc BC (sophomore year): took the class, little to no studying outside of the in-class review
AP bio (sophomore year): took the class, a little studying outside of in-class review</p>

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<p>sadly this will turn into the humblebrag thread :p</p>

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<p>@foolish: You really aren’t helping matters. You tell us to provide scores and then say we’re bragging. :/</p>

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<p>SAT I: Blue book. My first practice test was a 2290 so I didn’t fret that much.
PSAT (eleventh grade). I took it 2 weeks after SAT I, and I’m an international student so I wasn’t going to get any scholarships anyway so I took the test half asleep. Was surprised at my scores.</p>

<p>For Math SAT II, the week before because I took it 7 months after finishing PreCalc. .
Calc BC: 2 days before. Did 2 full tests to learn to pace myself.
For AP Chem/SAT Chem: none. My school doesn’t teach to the AP Chem exam (no practice problems whatsoever), but my Chemistry teacher had a way of teaching students to think chemically/analytically, thanks to which I did well.
For APUSH/SAT USH. Every weekend beginning in March. </p>

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<p>@RoseOak3918‌ I took the SAT in 8th grade and got the exact same score as you! I thought my 1580 was good, but now I’m seeing everyone on here with like 2100s in 6th grade… I didn’t know anything about it either LOL. I started caring about school starting in like March so I put down random answers for half of the CR questions. I didn’t think it would actually matter… But at least now I know the format, so when I take it later on in high school I’ll know what to expect :)</p>

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<p>Maybe I’m ignorant when I told a now incoming Stanford student not to waste so much time studying for SATs and spend time doing “things that are more important.”</p>

<p>I didn’t spend much time, didn’t score superbly well (590/550/750 in math) or get into a top college either. Except studying for that test is a very bad approach to learning useful skills. Those numbers turned out to be a rather bad predictor of how I’d do in college too, I’m actually on track for an A in sophomore level English.</p>

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<p>

This doesn’t apply to every situation, but not being a gazillion dollars in debt is important to me, and doing well on the SAT has made college a lot more affordable than it would have been otherwise. </p>