I reallllyy need a plan

<p>not that im a procrastinator ,but iv had a VERY busy summer. I tried doing some SAT work every now and then, but i didn't get far; and now i looked at my calendar and realized that there is less then three weeks till i get plunged into IB senior year dilemmas.
SOOO i need you guys-the experts- to help me out with a plan. How many hours a day should i study , what should I concentrate on and in what order should i do everything??
I don't think i can study the writing portion much. All of the grammar stuff just seems like perfect common sense and reading over the rules of the English language confuse me more then they help out.
I think what i need to concentrate on is the math and cr sections - the lowest and most disgraceful point of the whole college admission ordeal...
i have one Kaplan , an old SAT Arco, and a kaplan vocab flip book type thing. I don't have the opportunity of getting any other prep books as i live in a place where the SATs are pretty unheard of. I went through the exercises in the above books and have like 3 NEW practice tests and a few old ones (can I use the old ones for practice as well??) Should i just do the practice tests or is there some other strategy to approach. Most importantly, how much time should i spend on each part. i need a min. score of 2100 and sometimes i feel that if iv survived IB math and eng , then a standardized test it can't be that hard; yet i know on test day im going to get bombed if im not well prepared
so any ideas - u gota help me help out plllzzzz</p>

<p>Elodie:
No expert here, but I've been helping two daughters through the process. It seems to me that if you've been through IB Math, you already know far more math than you need to know for the SAT. As a result, what is left is to practice. Review the "Xiggi method" thread, and you'll see what a lot of different people recommend for practice. If I were you, I'd get the new "8 Real New SATs" book from the College Board if there were any way to get one to Cairo (I'm assuming as in Egypt, not as in Indiana), even if it doesn't arrive until after IB classes start. There are no answer explanations, but studyhall.com (for $10 or maybe now $25) offers them online and testmasters.com ($15?) offers them in a book. If you can't do that, you can pay $60 or so to the CB and you'll get 3 CB SAT's online that aren't in the book, along with a bunch of practice questions taken from old SAT's and an "essay grading" AI thingy that may or may not be actually helpfu.
Failing all of that, just practice with what you've got. I don't think there really is any way to prepare for SAT CR other than to practice SAT CR questions. If you do a bunch of them, and analyze your incorrect answers, you'll begin to see patterns. As for the essay, I think the main thing is to have a plan--memorize a list of a few "examples" or "stories" (actual or imagined), and a list of a few high-end vocabulary words. That way if you draw a blank on test day, you have something to fall back on to get you started. Vary your sentence structure, and try to fill up the allotted space that they give you (some reports suggest length matters). Good luck!</p>

<p>Another thing.
Despite what the CB says, you'd have to been a fool to believe that neatness does not count. I'd hate to think that any portion of my college admission process depended on my childish scrawl; penmanship was already an anachronism back then in olden times. Nowadays, students are so dependent on keyboarding that handwriting something is unusual. When you practice the essay portion of the SAT, set a side a few times to actually write out the thing as you will when you take the real thing. You'll get a better feel for length and you can practice handwriting a little.</p>

<p>thanks a lot!!
I still don't know how much time a day would be ideal... 2 3 hours. Or should i go over the top and sit there for 5 hours doing endless excs. :S</p>

<p>I'm a member of the 2100+ club and here's what worked for me.</p>

<p>The blue CollegeBoard book is essential.
The Barron's workbooks for the areas you suck in are essential.</p>

<p>STEP 1
Take 1 practice test. Grade it and look for your weak spot(s).</p>

<p>STEP 2
Practice weak spot(s)s in workbook(s).</p>

<p>STEP 3
Take 2nd practice test. Grade it and look for improvement in your weak area(s).</p>

<p>STEP 4
Practice weak spot(s)s in workbook(s).</p>

<p>STEP 5
Rinse, lather, and repeat. Take all 6(?) practice tests before you sit down for the SAT. Time the tests, but not the practice in the workbook(s). Spread it out over several weeks. Also, sign up for the CollegeBoard question of the day e-mail thing and do it as soon as you wake up. I find having to answer sentence completions and math questions in a too-early-to-possibly-be-awake environment helps to prepare for the actual stress of the test. Don't go overboard with it, but make sure you feel confident. And relax about it---don't let what other kids are doing get to you. 90% of the test is having confidence in what you "feel" is right...I know that sounds weird, but it works. Just go with your gut. Hmm...I'm trying to think of anything else that could possibly be useful, but I'm drawing a bit of a blank. I'll post later if I get anything.</p>

<p>thank you soo much. I feel in like im in trouble cuz i don't have that blue book everyone is talking bout. Im going to try to get it mailed over because usually when u order something off of the internet by the time it gets to Almaty you actually forgot that you ordered it in the first place. anyways for now ill make do with Kaplan.
thnx again!!</p>

<p>I'm sorta in the same boat.. I've had all summer to study for SATs... i've done a few problems here and there, but mostly, my study time consists of "college confidential" haha</p>

<p>lol (10 characters)</p>