My highest EBRW so far is 710, I’m aiming for 740 (or maybe even 750) for August SAT.
I tried some practice tests but I can’t really get out of the ~700 boundary. I did good on Writing/language on the 710 test and did bad on the Reading, and I get fewer wrong answers for Reading now but ironically worse on Writing/language.
Should repeated practice do much, or should I take a step back and just read some books? I only have 2 practice tests left (I used the 8 official practice tests from College board). Are there more practice tests that I can get? Most prep books have huge sections for explaining all the test content, I already have one prep book so I’m looking for practice SAT package books if they exist.
Also I repeatedly do worse on prose and history comparison passages on Reading than others, any study tips to bump up this part? And is there an SAT vocab list that I can just memorize?
Thank you
Have you tried one-on-one tutor?
@StevenToCollege Kind of, but I don’t think it was making any effect. My tutor just told me generic stuff (i.e. look for characters’ relationships and actions in the prose passage, etc), and I just did a bunch of practice questions to get to 710 (from previous 690). My tutor said that there isn’t much that my tutor can do to significantly increase my scores at this point, so I thought doing what I did last time (practice questions/tests) would help towards getting a higher score but it’s evidently not working…
You need a new tutor then. I know my tutor helped me knock the SAT out of the park, and he had some really innovative approaches to both the reading and writing, along with math, that helped me approach problems a different way and do better on the test. Look for maybe a teacher at your school or a tutoring place near you (there’s a place near me called Y2 Academy that my friends have gone to and increased their scores by like 150 points) and go there instead. GL!
@DJCURRYBEATS19 Do you know an alternative way of increasing scores? I’m not sure if I can afford another tutor
Just use study books and exercises, I would recommend trying different strategies for each of the sections and see what sticks.
@DJCURRYBEATS19 Which study books/exercises do you recommend? I currently have the official guide from the CB plus 8 official practice tests on their site and Khan academy. I used PR, McGraw Hill, Kaplan and Barron’s for subject tests, are any of them recommendable for SAT as well?
I’ve heard Barron’s is good, also use the CB one and Khan Academy.
We used the Erica Meltzer books. They’re excellent for ERBW, and my son got a 760 on his first try using them.
There’s an index in the back that lists the concepts covered by each question. When you score a practice test, you can go through the index and find out things like you got every question right when it deals with The Big Picture, but you missed three where Tone and Attitude are involved. Very helpful.
@geekgurl - how many times have you taken the real SAT and what have your scores been?
@JBStillFlying Twice; 1470 (690 EBRW + 780 Math) and 1510 (710 EBRW and 800 Math)
@geekgurl, according to the current concordance tables (see link) your EBRW of 710 is equal to a 33 on both Reading and English. Your 1510 is a solid 34 composite ACT and of course you realize how your math will be viewed.
Are you sure you need to retake the SAT, as opposed to resting on your latest score and moving on to other aspects of your application?
https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/ACT-SAT-Concordance-Tables.pdf
@JBStillFlying But I already signed up for the August SAT anyway, and I just want to give it my last try to see if I can get anything higher. I do think that my current score is quite decent, but it’s just that international students typically have very high scores (I’m from South Korea and a lot of Korean students train just for the SATs and get really high scores, which I’m worried I might be compared against even I live a totally different life) so I just want to make sure I’ll be competitive enough.
@geekgurl - OK - it’s probably best to stop at #3. Good luck to you!