I am currently a junior in high school and took the January 25, 2015 SAT. It was delayed because of snow and I just found out my scores. Please don’t laugh but I got a 480 on Math, 470 on Critical Reading and 460 on Writing. I thought I was going to do much better. I even got tutored for the Math. I really wasn’t expecting to do great but I was aiming for at least an 1800+. I’m really discouraged because I even bought the SAT STUDY Guide Blue Book and read it. I didn’t even tell my parents yet because my score is not good at all… Once I tell them I am planning to retake the SAT and (hopefully) doing much better. Reading is the hardest for me. PLEASE if you have any tips for me please, please, please post a thread back to me!
Practice my friend. Read each question, the ones you got wrong and also the ones that you are not sure how you did it. I will suggest you to get PWNTHESAT math book also follow his website. For Writing and Critical Reading get Erica Meltzer’s book.
Your score is average. Not for College Confidential but average. What are your grades like? If you follow all the above advice and still come up short google test optional schools. In Virginia, my state, GMU and VCU are test optional. I think the general advice around here is to also try the ACT. Good luck!
After you take practice tests, make sure to review them and see which types of questions youre getting wrong. For example, are you getting a lot of subject/verb disagreement questions wrong? If so, work on those and practice practice practice. If you go on Collegeboard and see your scores, on the bottom it should say something like Understand Your Scores (i dont remember exactly) and it gives a breakdown of your score. It shows which sections you got right/wrong. I know for math, it has number/operations, algebra/functions, geometry, and data/statistics. Where do most of your wrong answers come from? Focus on those parts first.
Memorize vocab words. Reading is the hardest and lowest for me too, but I know for a fact that memorizing vocab words will help increase your score.
If you havent already, try using your calculator if it takes too long to solve by hand. For example, if theres a question that asks where two equations intercept, graph them on your calculator to get the answer. It saves time.
Im also a junior and I know how stressful SATs can be. Im not done with my SAT either; I still have to take the March test (and more maybe). Many of us are struggling too, so dont feel like youre the only one! Good luck
Thanks you everybody who posted on this thread! I will be taking your advice and heading to Barnes & Noble and get down on those books and starting some practice tests very soon!
Oh, I recommend you not to buy any of Kaplan, Princeton Review, or McGraw Hill practice books. I personally think they do only harm, not help. Collegeboard’s is the most accurate and the helpful one.
