<p>OK
I asked question before didn’t tho, so hope this one will be answered</p>
<p>So here’s the deal, I was an ESL, and I’ve tried your method, which is really great.<br>
I immediety start to see some improvements, tho not very stable… (Jumped to 660 on last practice test, and today I got 560 again…)
The problem is I am still very short on time… I set my Timer for 23mins for a 25min section, but most of the time I will have to use extra 2or 3 to finish up the question. And most of the time I can get some of them right.</p>
<p>My question is ,
should I try to finish all the question even after times up? Considering it’s a practice test?</p>
<p>P.S. still… any advice on writing section? any good exercise workbook? Already done barron’s and now I am doing Princeton’s 11 practice test.</p>
<p>P.P.S. Congratulations, you got in Harvard?</p>
<p>^^I think you should continue practicing. It takes a while for results to show. Again, use your own judgment - you don’t have to keep chugging away with my method if it’s really too grating to your style. To Niubility, I’ve heard that it’s quite helpful to take the first few tests untimed, so you can really think through each question at your own pace. After that first few however (2-3 tests), you’ve got to cut off when time’s done (for your practice score at least - nothing’s stopping you from later doing the questions you didn’t get to). Instead of 23 minutes, set yourself to 20 minutes. If the method is taking you that long, I encourage you to make a mental switch and LET GO - don’t take forever reviewing the passage and harping on answer choices. Have a high mental alertness, but not a compulsive obsession. You’ll find that you do better when you make this switch. A lot of those mental switches actually helped me a lot.</p>
<p>Letting go is actually a component of speedreading (which is always helpful) - you can capture a passage much better by speeding up and slowing down when you recognize important and unimportant sections (MARKING UP HELPS THERE), because otherwise you’re giving these important and unimportant sections equal weight - equal storage space in the limited mind. Sorry for the tangent but I hope that answers your question.</p>
<p>I’m thinking about releasing a post about SAT Writing. Stay tuned.</p>
<p>thanks so much for this post! my first SAT CR was a 610, but it dropped to a 560 the next time i took it. i found that staying focused was SO HARD the second time so im hoping to try this method and see just how well it works for me. u say it should take a few tests to see results? i am aiming for 700+. also, i am soooo lost with studying vocab. seeing as its already mid august and my SAT is in october, plus the stress of senior year, i have no idea how to get all that vocab down. there are not enough hours in a day! are there any lists i should specifically focus on?
also, i have been using the BB for math especially and am finding little to no improvement even though i am going over each question. am i doing something wrong? :(</p>
<p>You should get Direct Hits for vocabulary - and this is definitely the best method (for me at least) to use for the passages… I’ve already seen improvement </p>
<p>That being said if you don’t improve (worsen?) after a few (~2-4~) practice tests you might want to try a different method.</p>
<p>Noitaraperp, it would be greatly appreciated if you could also make a similar post on the Writing section. CR and Writing are my weak sections and I normally ace the math. If I can get 700+ on both of these I can get the 2150+ I’m aiming for, which would be a huge improvement compared to my May SAT (1860, 730M 540CR 590W).</p>
<p>My first try without study was 400.
(international in no english surroundings)
before you I could get most at 550.
But you know, Yesterday I reached 600 exactly^^!
This is amazing. Thank you so much for posting.
Now I aim 650, have to test in December, don’t have much time.
i’ll just try my best.
looking forward to your Writing method (:</p>
<p>Thank You VERY MUCH for the reply, noita!
It is so true what you said about mental. Before I started doing practice exams I tried to do single sections and some un-times whole tests, and without that compulsiveness you mentioned, I actually did finish in time. Also I finished every section in time on the real test on June too(thought half the time I didn’t know what I was doing…) </p>
<p>I guess sometimes we do have to let go eh? I’ll keep that in mind next time when practice.
Once more, thank you again for such helpful post and I think lots of people are hoping to see that thread about writing before “October” :)</p>
<p>Noitaraperp, I have an older edition of The Official SAT Study Guide (The Blue Book)…it says the copyright is from 2005. Do you think it would be helpful for me to use this book even though it’s not the most recent edition?</p>
<p>I was just thinking of taking older edition practice tests first so I could take the newer tests after I got used to the SAT test format and questions (so I don’t waste the most recent practice tests)…i’m not sure if using the older Blue Book would help me prepare for the current SAT tho </p>
<p>Also, did you do anything to prepare for the SAT Critical Reading sections. For ex. did you read magazines (Time), newspapers (New York Times), and a lot of books beforehand? I’m not sure if it would be a waste of time to look up words i don’t know while i’m reading the newspapers and magazines.</p>
<p>thanks sooo much and sry for asking so many questions :)</p>
<p>I used the 2005. It’s essentially the same version as the current test and they’re real, so I don’t see why not. I haven’t used the newer version so I’m not sure if those tests are new or if they overlap. </p>
<p>I read the newspaper every morning, but make sure you read something more likely to appear on the test. If we’re talking New York Times, every Tuesday(?) there’s the Science Times, which will have pretty representative science articles, and OpEd articles will be good opinion pieces to read. If you’re talking about vocab, others have said that DirectHits is good and I used WordSmart, which was solid but perhaps not super-efficient.</p>
<p>I’ve heard people say that Princeton Review and Barron’s SAT books aren’t good and that we should only use the Blue Book… Would you recommend that too?</p>
<p>Like I’ve said, I think Princeton Review isn’t that bad (though Barrons…eh) so I feel you can use their 11 Practice Tests - most of them are pretty representative of real tests, though a little bit harder.</p>
<p>First of all great method. It’s helped me to raise my CR score. It would be wonderful if you could something like this for the writing section.</p>
<p>Q: We’re you in an AP English class? Do you think that helped you at all? </p>
<p>I’m going to be a junior and i’m contemplating taking the test after I take AP English Lang rather than before, because we do heavy reading and writing, which I know could boost my score.</p>
<p>I read this once before when I first joined CC, and just read it again while I was browsing the site. After reading it for the second time, I went downstairs and took out my CB SAT prep book that I’ve been using to get ready for the October test. I scored a 550 on CR my first SAT, but after reading this earlier today and really taking it to heart, i scored 36/40 correct in the CB’s blue book. </p>
<p>Granted they were just practice questions and not the actual test, what I came to realize was that the real difference between the 550 and 36/40 wasnt a summers worth of studying, but rather focusing my attention where it mattered in the questions (exactly what was directed in the instructions at the beginning of this post). By zoning on on the important parts of the reading passages and understanding the lines that were referenced to in the questions, was able to answer the questions correctly. I appreciate this SO much, and it really does seem to be a morale booster. My CR score is dragging my whole SAT score down, especially my /1600 score.</p>
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