<p>Well yeah. I got a 143, so basically a 1430 on the official SAT.
I know...it is horrible. I am really surprised I expected at least a 160.
Did any of you guys do this bad your first time? How did you guys improve?</p>
<p>When I do take the official SAT I want to score a 2300+.</p>
<p>I know that is very ambitious especially for my score now, but I am determined.
So tips? All advice whether harsh or nice is welcomed. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Correction its a 146 lol. Not much, I know…</p>
<p>Get the Blue book… the Official SAT Study Guide made by Collegeboard itself. </p>
<p>Take lots of practice tests. But take each section one at a time, check, and review all in separate days. Make sure than when you review, you know exactly why you got the question wrong. Giving yourself an entire day allows you to have enough time to finish the task to the best of your ability. Take the entire math/CR/writing section maybe once a week and take the entire SAT practice test once every 2 weeks or so.</p>
<p>Math: practice a lot. You just need to get used to the questions’ wordings and how to find the solutions easily</p>
<p>CR: Reads lots of classical books because they’re the best. When you read, annotate for vocab you don’t know and try to use those new vocabulary words you learned from your reading at least 7 times a day. Also summarize each chapter. This process allows you to condition your mind to compute the difficult passages that are presented to you so that when you take the CR sections and read the difficult passages, it’ll be much easier to comprehend and faster for you to understand also. Read about 30 minutes a day if you have to. </p>
<p>Writing: Writing workbook or the BB (Blue book) is good for you. You just need to find the 35 common errors made in writing and once you do, writing should be a breeze. I’m thinking of posting the 35 common errors in SAT writing section pretty soon if I have the time haha. </p>
<p>This is a bit abbreviated from what I have planned to say because I have way too much homework and studying to do. If you have anymore questions or want more advice (I jumped from a 1700[actually I started 1940 but I didn’t practice for months so it dropped to 1730] to now almost 2200.</p>
<p>psats cant tell much about how your actually going to do on the sats… the sats have ways more sections to increase your points… and if you want a 2300 you should start taking prep classes at kaplan or princeton</p>
<p>I got a 131 on the PSAT. That test is a joke. Got a 1900 on the real SAT without studying. Don’t let the PSAT bring you down at all.
Study and do the ACT too!</p>
<p>@Josh05: Thanks a lot for taking your time to answer my worries! Will do! Appreciate the advice in all 3 sections!</p>
<p>@iknoors2: Thanks for the information!</p>
<p>@Mango15: Thats a relief! Congrats! Hope the same goes for me. Thanks!</p>
<p>Honest to goodness kaplan and princeton sat prep classes did me good… with an 1800 i was the best student in the classes…
Not to be stereotyping, but I suggest “Asian” test prep centers such as Ivymax and Elite. I had 2280 and was of the bottom half of the class.</p>
<p>For cr: vocab, vocab, vocab. Read everything you get your hands on.
Writing: read and write… lots
math: just lots of practice and make sure read the questions correctly: lots of then have trick wording lol.</p>
<p>And yeah, psats don’t do anything. People who qualified for national merit semifinals at my school barely had 2100, while the girl with 2400 only had an 216.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks YuhikoJay! There is an ELITE near my house, will do!</p>
<p>I went to Elite and the institution was great. Teachers were nice and supportive. They taught well so that you can improve tremendously rather than just learning tips and tricks to solve each question. </p>
<p>Only thing is that Elite mandates a lot of studying. I didn’t like their preferred studying so I didn’t really improve while actually taking the Elite 2100+ course because all I was just trying to finish was the homework. But once you finish the course, you will be armed with adequate knowledge to improve your score by 50-200 points depending on how you apply the knowledge you gained from Elite.</p>
<p>Also, it’s really expensive. Be mindful of that.</p>
<p>Dude dont stress. I was in the same boat as you. Just make sure that you practice A LOT! Take a lot of practice tests, and make sure that you analyze your scores! If you have a gifted teacher at your school, see if he or she can help you out. Otherwise, just ask a competent english, or math teacher. Most of these teachers are just waiting for you to ask them. Take advantage of it!</p>
<p>@Josh05: Thanks! </p>
<p>@soupsong: Will do! Thanks for the advice!</p>
<p>Just wondering - Are Elite and Ivymax only on the West Coast? Do they use the BB. What other materials do they use?</p>
<p>I think ivymax is only on the west coast, but elite is all over the world.
Ivy uses bb (and kinda sucks at it… i hated ivymax), while elite has their own curriculum and practice tests and lecture books (amazing imo)</p>
<p>YuhikoJay trying to understand your message. what’s bb?</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it!
On my first PSAT, I got around a 150 lol. I’ve practiced a lot on practice SATs though, and now I’ve raised my projected SAT score from a 1500 to a 2250. For the math section, all you need to know is how to creatively use your algebra… that and a couple of really basic formulas and permutations. For the writing, reading and journaling really helps. Eventually, even if you haven’t learned the rules (the only thing I would recommend studying is subject/verb agreement and nominative/objective case), you’ll be able to score around the 780’s because you’ll be able to eliminate everything that sounds awkward until there is only one answer choice left.</p>
<p>Get the official SAT book released by collegeboard for the tests, and Barron’s is really helpful for strategies and vocab. Direct Hits is pretty good too. </p>
<p>Just practice, you’ll do fine.</p>
<p>I don’t want to be a kill joy, but the PSAT has been proven to be a good indicator of one’s SAT score, IF NOT STUDYING WAS TO BE INVOLVED. Work on Grammar first as the curve for writing will be the quickest to improve, then move on to math and finally CR. Leave critical reading last because it is the most difficult to increase and you don’t want to be frustrated with putting a lot of effort with very little increases.</p>
<p>Can you say what your breakdown scores were? Best advice for CR is to just read voraciously, and writing, to just write (and of you’re not good at on the spot thinking, then think of some examples to use in your essay- again, reading news, books all helps!). If you’re naturally pretty good at math (I can’t tell if you are), but you still find yourself making silly mistakes, then you just need to SLOW down on reading the problems, write even really silly math down (no way to make mistakes on arithmetic then), and remember to answer the question. As silly as that sounds, when you’re absorbed in doing the math, sometimes you forget what they’re asking for- I found that circling the answer they specified (like 4x+6 when you have 3/x=9x-4) helps a lot w/ this. Get an SAT book, read it thoroughly, and do the above, and you shouldn’t really need to take a course!</p>
<p>If you’re naturally pretty good at math (I can’t tell if you are), but you still find yourself making silly mistakes, then you just need to SLOW down on reading the problems
^ I agree. This is what always kills my math SAT score.</p>
<p>Whatever you do, once you feel confident with math, DON’T get pompous about it LOL. This is partly the reason I got a 59 on my PSAT on the math section during sophomore year. If you have time, go back and double check answers, even if you’re absolutely sure it’s right. Sometimes I just skim the questions, end up missing a crucial part, and get the question wrong. Since math has a very low curve usually (so getting two wrong is around a 760), you can’t afford to make careless mistakes. Don’t spend too much time on each question, but don’t rush to the point where you aren’t paying attention to the question that well.</p>
<p>Honesty SAT prep classes are a waste of time. You are much better of studying on your own.</p>