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<p>Quoted for truth. :D</p>
<p>Silverturtle, if I start wrapping up whatever questions are left in barrons and princeton review and take 7 or 8 more practice exams in collegeboard blue book second edition, would you predict that I can do alot better in May of Senior Year or November during College year?
I’m also a poor standardized test taker who’s a nerd on the other half when it comes to teaching students how to do the SAT.
When I took the actual exam third time this month, I continued to make potential errors that I should not have made.</p>
<p>Bump…</p>
<p>Highschool grades aren’t everything. SAT puts you in national, if not international, context. It tests your reasoning skill. Studying is only useful in the sense that it gets you more familiar and used to the test format and question types. For the same reason, getting a tutor will not get you a score that you cannot achieve without one. </p>
<p>No offence, but anyone can score high on a Biology exam with an amazing memory, as long as he works hard. Not true for the SAT.</p>
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<p>Specifically, what kinds of mistakes do you make that you feel that you shouldn’t?</p>
<p>@silverturtle: I share exact agreement regarding your ideas in posts #19 and #20.</p>
<p>“the problem is that the colleges i want to attend look down on the ACTs”</p>
<p>Then perhaps these schools aren’t your best match. Does their Common Data Set actually say “SAT preferred?”</p>
<p>" Specifically, what kinds of mistakes do you make that you feel that you shouldn’t? "</p>
<p>On the verbal, I choose wrong answers choices in the reading passage questions that are usually like level 4 or 5 and then I end up getting the wrong answer that I had a feeling to pick that it’s right. On the vocabulary, I’m still getting wrong answers when I reach the sentences that are at the end (# 8 or # 9), and I’ve studied really hard on the vocabulary part and I’m still missing blanks on the exam + words I have not seen before or forgotten.</p>
<p>On the math, I’m getting tricked by easy/medium questions that causes me to make potential errors or I speed-read and end up picking the wrong answer, or stupid mistakes like “I forgot to put in the 0 to make 3250 as the answer.” I usually omit questions that have these weird shaded geometrical figures such as circle or when finding the area of two triangles inscribed together (like the one with grid in from the 23rd exam). I omit up to 12 questions and get 2-3 more wrong. </p>
<p>On the writing, few times I have trouble going with my gut answer or change it.</p>
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<p>You’re right. AP Bio is “content based,” as in, it requires memorization, not analysis or critical thinking. It’s okay that the latter two aren’t necessarily your strong points, but that doesn’t mean a test that’s designed to measure them should be dismissed as simply full of tricks or a scam. Intelligence is a lot more than the amount of “content” you know. Simply working hard and memorizing tons of info won’t get you very far in life. Now do I think the SAT is a perfect measure of intelligence? Of course not, but neither are grades or memorization based AP tests; that’s why colleges ask for all of these factors to look at.</p>
<p>As an extreme example, what about those who score 800 on these tests? Do they do a better job at analyzing the questions and thinking through to the right answers? If we assume that not everyone has the same level of intelligence, is it reasonable to conclude that an 800 scorer is likely more intelligent than a 400 scorer?</p>
<p>Some tests are naturally designed to test aptitude or achievement based capabilities, but there certainly is not a clear distinction between the two. Just as some material must be learned for success on the SAT, critical thinking and problem solving skills are needed on traditionally-seen rote memorization subjects including, history, biology, and foreign language.</p>