<p>Over that 1/2 year difference, I studied tons and tons of math, in school and out. But I never have done a single practice section for the writing SAT, and yet the writing showed the BIGGEST improvement. </p>
<p>I still do SAT practice problems, but mostly because they can be interesting, and seem to be an appropriate challenge level for me. However I doubt that the practice has raised my score.</p>
<p>I've found that SAT practice is clearly effective over long periods of time. It's hard to tell whether or not improvement during a short time period is due to actual practice or simple variations in question types/difficulty/etc. But the best way to prepare is definitely to practice, exposing and familiarizing yourself with question types and ways to approach them. That way the actual test begins to seem like just another relaxed practice test..sort of</p>
<p>I took the 2006 psat and got
M 76 Cr 64 W 60</p>
<p>I studied my but off and 3 months later i took the sat
M 690 Cr 640 W 660</p>
<p>another 3 months go by with some studing for it and here
M 760 Cr 650 W 680</p>
<p>I studied a myraid of hours a day and other than the math the other scores hardky went up. When I got my sas i realized that the problems I got mostly wrong just shifted from reading comp to the sentence completions and likewise with the writing. It just appears that if i were to take the sat again I could end with a score very different.</p>
<p>Once I took a practice test a week for 3 weeks, with preparation in between. It turned out that, even in such a short time frame, my score fluctuated by up to 80 points in each category..</p>
<p>I think the math is the easiest thing to improve with studying. I would think that there may be an indirect benefit on writing from reviewing CR since the more you read, the better you write. Also, understanding grammar better will help your writing. </p>
<p>Looking at a lot of these threads, CR is hard to improve once you hit a certain plateau. Just my opinion. . .</p>
<p>I would agree that practice is effective over long periods of time, but does the number of tests alter anything? I mean, is it just time or quantity of practice? Also, there are about two months before the October exam, is that long enough?</p>
<p>That's funny, since I think Math would hit a threshold and reading wouldn't (I usually find that reading success is often limited by one's vocabulary, which is an easy thing to improve given sufficient time).</p>
<p>Its not how much you practice, but how is far more important. For CR learn vocab and read read read critically. For math, learn the pertinent rules and formulas and analyze problems and learn trends in the test.</p>