<p>I'm a senior that's taking the SAT for the final time in Oct. I didn't practice much during the summer, which is most likely to blame for a decrease in my scores on practice tests. A few people that I know - they scored in the 2250-2380 range - say that taking the SAT again will only boost ones score a maximum of 200 points. I'd greatly like to prove them wrong. School has started for me, and my course load, along with science fair research and my other EC'S, have dropped a plethora of work on my desk with very little time to focus on this standardized test. I plan to raise my score as much as I can in these next two months. My goal is one far greater than 2100 I'm ultimately aiming for a 2400. I don't care what anyone else says. I understand that there will be times when scores will plateau, but I will try to rise above my plateaus. I'll post what I did and how much of what I did daily, as I'm on CC a lot. If you'd like, you can follow me on this journey. If not, then just ignore this thread. This thread has been inspired by a few people that I saw making these threads when I first joined CC. One of those people was FatNerd, who scored far above his goal. I'm using this thread to try to focus and keep me organized. Also, please disregard the grammatical errors, as I am typing this from a mobile device.</p>
<p>I was quite lethargic today, and did not get much done besides watch pointless, random YouTube videos. Today I took a CR test out of the Barron’s book and missed around 5-6 per section, and skipped two in one section. After reviewing my mistakes, I proceeded to Math. I read around 120 pages of a geometry primer by Kaplan. Each chapter has a quiz with 10 questions. After 5 chapters quizzes - I missed around 1-2 per quiz - I thought I was doing alright, but I bombed the chapter 6 Circles quiz. Irritated, I moved on to writing. I reviewed basic errors, but I should have worked on the essay portion, as it is weighted quite heavily. Unfortunately, I did not look at much for Writing. Today was very, very unproductive. Tomorrow I need to:
1.) Get started on College essays
2.) Take a full practice test out of Blue Book.
3.) Review all mistakes.
4.) Work on SAT essay, maybe write a mach.
5.) more CR practice.
6.) Finish geometry primer, and do at least 40 SAT Math problems.</p>
<p>I remember Fat Nerd. What did he end up getting?</p>
<p>@IceQube I have no clue. I’ve read in other threads on CC that he used to have another account. However, I’m not sure what the username was. He hasn’t been active since last Feb. I’m assuming that you are done with the SATs? I haven’t seen you post here in a while.</p>
<p>Haphazard, I’m in a very similar situation (but testing in Nov.). My score from the beginning of summer was basically crap and not a legitimate effort (I was out of school for the year and forgot almost all the math skills and concepts). I’ve spent the summer taking online classes so I can graduate on time so am only now taking on the daunting task of attempting to improve my overall score by 300 points in a little over 2 months (finishing up my other classes in the next two weeks, but then starting regular school). It’s kind of scary but it helps if I think about it as a challenge, as your first post shows you do.
I’d love to follow this thread and collaborate with you on any study tips/resources, though most of my time will be spent relearning the math material, so I’m not sure how pertinent to your goals that is.</p>
<p>Portalicious! Well what can I say? I’m not completely sure about the events that led to you retaking courses in order to graduate, but I’ll tell you my story. I slacked off my Fresh. and 1st sem of my sophomore year, which destroyed my GPA and chances of Val/Sal. I didn’t focus at all, because I never had to in school. Long story short: I messed up, and didn’t really know/care. I didn’t have a solid math foundation freshman and sophomore year, which is why I’m just a bit lost in AP Calc. some days. I go back and try to relearn SAT Math material as well. I stopped my wonderful habit of reading 24/7 after 8th grade, because I didn’t want my jock friends to label me as a nerd, so I guess my critical reading skills vaporized or something. I’m hopeful that I can maybe score well enough on the SATs to balance the rest of my application come admissions time. I’m planning to post everyday, so you can join me if you’d like. Feel free to post whatever you’d like. I’m taking the SAT in Oct.</p>
<p>Also, my resources are as follows:
1.) CB Blue Book (I’ve taken 3 tests.)
2.) Gruber’s SAT Math Guide(I’ve taken the 1st out of the 2 tests.)
3.) Direct Hits 2011 v1(almost finished reading.), v2(haven’t opened.)
4.) Kaplan Geometry primer(my friend mailed it to me last week, and I’ve read 147/298 pgs.)
5.) Dr. Chung’s SAT Math (haven’t started yet.)
6.) Barron’s CR guide. (I’ve taken two tests.)
7.) Princeton review 2012(finished tests last yr.)
8.) Princeton review 2011 (finished tests last year.)</p>
<p>Same boat for the 2100. I’m a Junior who scored an 1830 on my first SAT. CR 610 Math 640 W 580. I plan to purchase Dr. Chung’s for math, How to Write A Killer SAT Essay (great reviews), DH vols. 1 & 2, Barron’s CR, and Barron’s writing. I already have Cracking 2013 and the Official Blue Book. Do they sound like they’ll help a lot? Also @Haphazard ,how are the DH and Barron’s CR?</p>
<p>Thanks, I definitely will join you :). It sounds like we’re both in similar places for different reasons, but dependent on our SAT scores to speak for what other components of our application can not. My story- due to serious illness, I missed all of junior year. One of the hardest parts was the fact that because of the way advanced classes are structured at my school (2 year format and participation centered) I couldn’t be a part of it. I did everything in my power to stay as involved as I could, but it was impossible to take any classes. So there I was at the end of May, trying to assimilate back into normal life and completely overestimating what I would remember, which was reflected in my subpar score.<br>
I’m wrapping up the online courses I’m taking to meet graduation requirements, and as soon as I finish (and subsequently re-enter normal school and increase my workload by ten fold) my focus will be the SAT.
I probably won’t have much to comment about until September, but I will definitely post as soon as I start my studies. I hope we can keep each other in check and motivate one another!</p>
<p>My Resources:
CB Blue Book (I’ve done all the review work and 1 practice test)
Princeton Review 2012 (new)
Khan Academy math tutorials online
Vocab Flashcards (CR/Wr. (except the essay) is my strong suit so I doubt they’ll come in to play but still good to have)</p>
<p>If it helps I’m working up from around an 1800 (520 math :(), aiming for 2100 with my focus primarily on math and fine tuning my CR skills with some effort put into the wr. essay (got a 6).</p>
<p>!!! I like this thread! Subscribed. Planning on raising my SAT score from a 1960- that day I definitely screwed up, but need more practice as well. Senior year is going to be fun-- a lot better if the second SAT attempt far surpasses the first from last semester : D.</p>
<p>Mschusler, direct hits is great. I’m nearly finished reading volume 1, but so far it’s great. Direct hits is not just a book with words and definitions, rather it is an amalgam of things. I.e. The vocab word has a simplified definition and a real life example or reference. It’s pretty cool. If you’d like to wait, then I’ll tell you how to do on sentence completions after reading both volumes of the book. I usually miss 5-6 sentence competitions, which is pretty bad.</p>
<p>I love the feedback from everyone! The fact that others like this thread will only further motivate me. I’ll plan on staying active on this thread. I’m going to get started on the things I listed for today. “Get STARTED everyone!” I’ll check back later.</p>
<p>This is a great motivational thread. If you just keep working and studying, then you will achieve your goal.</p>
<p>I myself am looking to bring up my SAT score 100-200 points in the October SAT. I have a perfect score on math already, but am practicing a fair amount of CR and WR. The practice tests are very helpful. At this point, I plan on probably only doing practice tests to study (and maybe study direct hits hardest vocab because I usually get a sentence completion wrong).</p>
<p>@ bllbb6, that’s really impressive. I’m confident that you will reach your goal. I wish I could perfect the math section. 
I’m stuck in the very low 600’s. My W ranges from 700-800 and my CR fluctuates as well low 600’s.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, once you review all the math and understand the concepts, the hardest part about getting an 800 is not making silly mistakes. If you go slowly and carefully, then you will lessen the chance of making careless errors. I know many people who are “good” at math but don’t get high 700 because of silly errors.</p>
<p>I believe in you 
. There aren’t too too many math concepts, so once you read and study your math books, you will most likely do much better.</p>
<p>Thanks bllbb6. I wish I could offer you advice for CR or W, but you already seem proficient at everything. If you ever need help with W, then you can ask me, as I score 750-800 on practice tests. Haha, well feel free to post your activities on here if you’d like. I’m taking a momentary break, but I’ll be back to the books in 5 min. I’ll update towards 5 pm and again at 10 pm.</p>
<p>My plan:</p>
<p>I have been doing writing practice sections from the BB for the past week or so.
I do a full practice test (including the essay :P) once a week.
I am studying vocabulary that I have encountered and didn’t know, as well as starting direct hits.
I depleted all the CR in the BB so the CR passages practice I get is only from the practice tests.</p>
<p>Once school starts, though, I will probably not be able to do as much because of college apps and other stuff.</p>
<p>Update: i woke up around 11:15 am, which is definitely later than usual. I’ve been reading and practicing out of the blue book. I took a 19 question CR section test, and missed 5. I reviewed my mistakes. I’m going to take a practice test in an hour. Then I plan on researching examples for essay, and doing two machs. If I have time, I want to look at college essays and stuff for ap Calc and ap bio for tomorrow.</p>
<p>I finished my online coursework for today earlier than I predicted, so I’ve spent about 40 mins looking at math and trying to pinpoint what I really need to relearn. I’m also trying to find the best tutorials (I don’t want to waste too many practice tests just crossing stuff off that I can’t remember/can’t even try to solve as unfortunately I can’t teach myself how how do something just by looking at a problem haha).</p>
<p>I’m going to keep working into the afternoon and if I feel I’ve gotten some basic review of a few skills I may do a practice section so I can make a comprehensive list of specific concepts I need to intensively study.</p>
<p>For the rest of my non-SAT course work this week I plan on taking additional notes on any historical/lit figures and conflicts that come up and might also be of use for the writing section essay. I think this will kill two birds with one stone.</p>
<p>Can anyone help me with critical reading? I seem to be plateauing at 600 and can’t raise it!!</p>