One advice here: do not take the ACT if you have dyslexia! It is longer than the SAT and you are accountable for answering more questions than for the SAT. For the SAT, this is the best you can do for getting an acceptable score without paying too much.
Buy the blue book and do all the 4 tests there. I guarantee you that you will make many mistakes. So make sure to go over your mistakes thoroughly.
Then, finish everything available on khanacademy’s website. There also are 2 more official practice tests on khanacademy. So do them,as well.
If you have the appropriate finances to buy any books, I would recommend the following:
-The Critical Reader for SAT reading. ( This will heavily improve your Reading skills)
The College Panda book for Writing. (This will heavily improve your Writing skills)
-Dr. Jang’s 800 for SAT Math. (This book has all the material for math and is not super difficult like the awful Barron’s or the evil McGraw Hill’s books.)
I agree with the advice to get your dyslexia and dysgraphia documented so you may test with the extra time allotment. But beyond that, there are many colleges (including some excellent, highly regarded ones) these days that are test optional and you should definitely look into them as well. These schools agree that standardized tests may not give a true indication of student abilities, and I think that would definitely be true in your case!
I would not trust a self diagnosis of any variety of mental disorder; when you start reading symptoms for disorders from the DSM everyone becomes a hypochondriac. However, as others pointed out if you visit a profession and can get documentation of a disorder I would. Also as one person noted, getting such a low score is statistically improbable, random guessing would yield a better score. This leads me to believe, as others have pointed out, that perhaps you were off a question when filling in your test.
This is all speculation though and this could be easily confirmed or rejected. Have you taken any practice tests online, such as the ones on the collageboard website? If so, how did you score? Did you do poorly on those as well or was the PSAT an anomaly? Either way, you can always do better so practice as much as you can. Do all the practice tests (they are free!) the SAT folks provide, this should help improve your score. If you need more practice there is always Khan Academy and numerous other resources out there for free (e.g., problem walk-throughs https://youtu.be/hiK_xVq55I4).
CORRECTION
Alright, I think I didn’t actually do horrible on the PSAT. Rather, It’s just how I marked the answers. I did the elimination process at the teat booklet, and somehow it made the scoring process confusing. I checked all of my reading answer on my score report, and all of them were omitted (not answer). I did answer all of the reading questions, but the way on how I answered them is confusing. It may seem THAT I did horrible on the PSAT with such a low score, but that is not the case with me.
I don’t know how on this can really happen to me. Maybe the score person had been in disbelief at the way on how I answered my questions, and gave me such a low score as a punishment for my shortcoming. That, or it is ineligible (similar, but without the punishment).
Can you guys figure out on how this really happened to me?
CORRECTION
Alright, I think I didn’t actually do horrible on the PSAT. Rather, It’s just how I marked the answers. I did the elimination process at the teat booklet, and somehow it made the scoring process confusing. I checked all of my reading answer on my score report, and all of them were omitted (not answer). I did answer all of the reading questions, but the way on how I answered them is confusing. It may seem THAT I did horrible on the PSAT with such a low score, but that is not the case with me.
I don’t know how on this can really happen to me. Maybe the score person had been in disbelief at the way on how I answered my questions, and gave me such a low score as a punishment for my shortcoming. That, or it is ineligible (similar, but without the punishment).
Can you guys figure out on how this really happened to me?
By process of elimination “at the test booklet,” do you mean that you marked out all of what you thought were the wrong answers on the bubble sheet? What exactly did you mark on the bubble sheet?
OK, so did you fill in the bubbles in the booklet but not on the test sheet? Or did you fill in the bubbles but they didn’t get counted (maybe you didn’t press hard enough or didn’t fill it in all the way? Or did you fill in more than one bubble for each question you answered?
Do you really think that I had done process of elimination on the bubble sheet? No! I did it on the text booklet. The text booklet had questions with multiple choices. I did process of elimination on the multiple choices.
I fill in the bubble on the answer sheet, yes. I didn’t put process of elimination on the answer sheet (why would I do that?). Now if I have not made myself clear, I didn’t have enough time to fill in all of the answer on the answer sheet.
Look, I am sorry if I appear irritated and rude to you two, but I feel like that result like mine is not going to take me anywhere where I want in life. Of course: It is a preliminary test, but the PSAT just had shown me of what the REAL SAT will be like. I don’t want to be resulted in a similar score on the real SAT. I need help, and I want it to be the best, so I can be the best. I can respect every contribution if they serve a point and not a naive understanding from someone who might have a weighted G.P.A of 5.0 and a SAT score of a perfect 1600. Why ask me if I did process of elimination on answer sheet when you know that not how you mark the answers? Why ask me if I encircle my answer dark when you know that encircling it with no hint of answer-ability will make the answer incorrect? Like, wow, how can you reach to those conclusions? If you don’t know of my situation, then why can’t you infer from your knowlegde of the PSAT? Sigh Sorry for my rant, but things like these above put shock toward me. I know I shouldn’t expect a perfectly made advice but I don’t expect, “did you encircle the answer correctly?” Like have you ever took a PSAT, SAT, or any test for that matter? If yes, why ask me if I have a brain injury from a car accident?
(If there is a misinterpretation of your intention, please tell me).
Sigh I am very nervous by the state of this thread. If you believe—or think—that I had a bubbling problem with the answer sheet, then it is quite possible that this thread was a mistake to make. I should take the practice SAT in the weekends, and see if there is any significant discrepancy between that and my PSAT score.
Please help us to understand. You said, “Alright, I think I didn’t actually do horrible on the PSAT. Rather, It’s just how I marked the answers. I did the elimination process at the teat booklet, and somehow it made the scoring process confusing. I checked all of my reading answer on my score report, and all of them were omitted (not answer). I did answer all of the reading questions, but the way on how I answered them is confusing. It may seem THAT I did horrible on the PSAT with such a low score, but that is not the case with me.” So, if the problem is with how you marked the answers, but not with bubbling, what do you mean?
OP said - “I didn’t have enough time to fill in all of the answer on the answer sheet.” Scorers don’t look at the test booklet. If you didn’t put the answers on the answer sheet they weren’t scored.
Is there a choice with certain words of similar semantics that I must choose? Or in other words: Do I have to use “bubble sheet” instead of “answer sheet?” I bubbled on the BUBBLE SHEET, and did process of elimination on the multiple choices in the text booklet. What makes that so hard to comprehend? Yes, I had bubbled, but I didn’t bubble all of the questions. Only the questions that I had complete understanding of.
OK, I’ll ask this in a different way. How many questions did you leave unanswered on the answer sheet? Did you get a low score because you left a lot of questions blank or because the questions you answered were incorrect?
Look, I am sorry if I appear irritated and rude to you two, but I feel like that result like mine is not going to take me anywhere where I want in life. Of course: It is a preliminary test, but the PSAT just had shown me of what the REAL SAT will be like. I don’t want to be resulted in a similar score on the real SAT. I need help, and I want it to be the best, so I can be the best. I can respect every contribution if they serve a point and not a naive understanding from someone who might have a weighted G.P.A of 5.0 and a SAT score of a perfect 1600. Why ask me if I did process of elimination on answer sheet when you know that not how you mark the answers? Why ask me if I encircle my answer dark when you know that encircling it with no hint of answer-ability will make the answer incorrect? Like, wow, how can you reach to those conclusions? If you don’t know of my situation, then why can’t you infer from your knowlegde of the PSAT? Sigh Sorry for my rant, but things like these above put shock toward me. I know I shouldn’t expect a perfectly made advice but I don’t expect, “did you encircle the answer correctly?” Like have you ever took a PSAT, SAT, or any test for that matter? If yes, why ask me if I have a brain injury from a car accident?
(If there is a misinterpretation of your intention, please tell me).
and what do you mean by bubbling sheet and answer sheet there’s only one sheet you fill your answers out on the scantron it sounds as if you looked at the test booklet as a place where you could mark your answers.
@BucketsUCSC I had a horrible first experience with the SAT as well (I started in the wrong section, left half of one section blank, etc) and if I had someone on the internet telling me I was stupid bc of it I might’ve seriously believed it. There’s nothing wrong with this guy - he just isn’t used to standardized tests
My daughter is dyslexic, dyscalculic, and dysgraphic, so I’m familiar with the effect time constraints can have on test results. If you think you have any of these disorders, you need to be tested. Have your parents asked your public school to test you to see if you qualify for an IEP? Can they afford outside neuropsychological testing for dyslexia? If not, at least pursue help through your school.
I don’t understand what you’re trying to say here. You crossed off wrong answers in your test booklet, then chose the best answer and transferred it to the answer sheet. Is that right? Scorers don’t look at your test booklet. You’re only scored on the answers you bubbled in on the answer sheet.
It sounds to me like you answered all the questions in your test booklet, but only bubbled in answers on the answer sheet if you were sure you were right. If that’s true, you need to start filling in an answer for all the questions, even if they’re just guesses. You don’t lose points for guessing.
Scorers only put the answer sheet through the computer that reads them. Their aren’t any subjective grades on anything but the essays, so they aren’t lowering your score.