I need to increase my score to 2150+

Test Preparation
1

<p>How does everyone on CC get around 2200+, 2300, 2350, etc... I mean, you guys must be the smartest students in the U.S. to be getting these scores. Anyway I'm trying to get a decent SAT score ( I know I won't get 2200+) but somewhere around there. 2150 would be even be nice for me. My SAT score which I took in October 2008 was 1930. Here is the breakdown:</p>

<p>Critical Reading: 580
Math : 750
Writing: 600</p>

<p>Obviously, I suck at reading. I guess I wasn't prepared for it. I didn''t know the vocab, but I've been doing the Princeton Review Hit List since, and I run out of time too. It seems to me that I do good on passages that I like to read, but bad on those I don't like to read. How do I improve this?</p>

<p>I missed only one math question due to an simple math error, but I need a perfect 800 next time. I'm always making at least one mistake in this section, but I finished with about 5 min left before the time. Maybe I should slow down.</p>

<p>This writing score was worse than what I normally get. I got an 8 on my essay when normally I get a 10 (graded by Princeton Review). I also missed more questions. I don't know what, but the first 5 min of the essay just flew by me. (I must be the nervousness of taking my first SAT).</p>

<p>My next SAT is in March 2009. I said to myself that I'll do at least one section a day, but never got around to it due to school work and volunteering and other things. The only time I got is on the weekends and that's not enough seeing that March is right around the corner. </p>

<p>What should I do to increase this score, especially the reading, with my circumstances?</p>

<p>Other notes: I've taken the Princeton Review Summer class for SAT (now it's been a while) but it didn't really help my score; a waste of 900 dollars when everything they teach is in their $30 books</p>

<p>I bought the blue book and on test 2 (taken exactly a week ago) i got a 2000 (average of their low and high scales)</p>

<p>Critical Reading: 590
Math: 730 (not just one mistake this time, but a few)
Writing: 680</p>

2

<p>My S's critical reading score shot up 100 points after he immersed himself in brit lit books for AP English Senior Year. I think reading those books improves vocab, if you look up the words you don't know, and "tunes the ear" to more nuances. Try the classics, Jane Austin the Bronte sisters, if you have not already read them. And he particularly liked Jane Eyre.</p>

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<p>Critical reading is a very difficult section. I myself am not very good at it so I can't help you there.</p>

<p>However I can say that for writing you should just learn the rules of grammar very well and ace the MC section. If you do that you can get a 750 or above on that section with even a score of 3/6 on the writing section.</p>

4

<p>Practice, practice, Practice!!! </p>

<p>My D improved a couple of hundred points. She used review books for a few weeks prior to the test, then got up a little earlier and did a light workout to oxygenate her blood/brain before the second administration.</p>

<p>Do not skip breakfast but do not carbo load the night before. The SAT is not a marathon.
Eat nutritious but not heavy foods. Our S and D preferred salad, small steak, baked potato, and sorbet the night before. Breakfast was juice, scrambled eggs, small meat portion and toast with butter. Both were/are athletes so this might be a bit heavy for a non-athlete. My point is to think about and plan your food consumption so as to maximize performance. </p>

<p>A good nights sleep, not just the night before, but several nights previously is so obvious I won't insult your intelligence by mentioning it. OOPS! I did it anyway. LOL.</p>

<p>Good luck! I hope you find all the reading passages to be the most interestng and profound, yet comprehensible, prose you have ever encountered.</p>

5

<p>@Big G: I'm not particularly concerned with the amount of sleep I get. I will most likely go to sleep at 10 the SAT week, giving me at least 8 hours of sleep. I will though, plan my food consumption (it may prove crucial).</p>

<p>@yankeedoodle: I have the Princeton Review "Manual for the SAT". Are all the rules of grammar on the SAT in there? Also, I have gotten a 750 once on grammar in a practice test, but that was near the summer and now I've seen my score decline. I'm unsure why, but maybe it's because I've stopped practicing. The questions I get wrong are either from mistakes that I realize after the test or its an idiom that I got confused on (how do I study idioms?). I also have a tendency to skip questions that I don't find an error in. </p>

<p>@bigmom: That's a good idea but I've got only a month left.</p>

<p>Anyway, I'm going to wake up early tomorrow and take another practice test to see if I improved at all.</p>