Hey Guys, I am currently a sophomore, and also I am an international student who are a native Chinese speaker. I moved to the US since last December. I was being lazy when I just came. However, I decided to start putting as many efforts as I can and working hard on my academic. I download, printed and took the official SAT practice test on the website of College board.
I got a 1120, which combined reading+writing for 440(I was not able to finish 20 question on reading section, and 15 on the writing section) and math for 670(didn’t have time to check answer and got about 5 careless mistake).
I definitely not satisfied with this score and I want to push my self to a higher place. I just bought 5 books online(Official SAT study guide, Kallis’ SAT pattern 2.0, PWN math, The complete guide to SAT reading and The ultimate guide to SAT writing.
I still have about 1.5 years to prepare (plan to take 1 in summer of sophomore year(7 month), 1 in winter of junior year(1 year) and the last one in summer of junior year(1.5 years).)
I would spend at least 5 hour per weak for SAT preparation, and keep finish different material and Khan Academy.
I know some of my weak points:1)low amount of Vocabulary 2)not familiar with English article 3)TIME pacing
My biggest question is: Am I able to overcome those shortness and eventually improve the score by 400 pints to get 1500+ on SAT?
I will be very glad that anyone can also give me some suggestion.
Thanks to anyone who respond!!!
Normally I’d say no but after reading your entire post I think you could definitely improve quite a bit. It seems your verbal score is related mostly to not being a native speaker. Raising the math should be relatively easy by taking practice tests then studying errors. Use official college board practice tests and Khan Academy. For the verbal portion I’d take untimed practice tests for accuracy first then work on speed later. Review errors. Keep studying the books and read as much as possible in your spare time.
The SAT is a test you can study and prepare for, and if you have a year and are motivated, then absolutely you can raise your score.
Quick story…Years ago I was working for a major test prep company teaching students in a small class. One of the students, a boy who had arrived in the US a few months earlier from the Middle East, had taken a practice test before the class started and scored so badly that he would have had a higher score in Verbal if he had left every answer blank. People in the company were quite amused that I would be getting this student in my class. I asked for his test paper and reviewed every answer. I came back and told the other tutors that I thought this guy was actually pretty smart. They asked me why I thought so, and I told them that almost every wrong answer he gave was the second best answer.
In three months his score went up 750 points. I was not surprised. He was a hard worker and it was clear that his biggest problem was his lack of skill and practice speaking English… What did surprise me was the over 100 point rise in his math score. It made me realize that the math section still has a significant verbal component.
I suggest you work with the materials you have already acquired. In addition, there are several computer programs like Supermemo, Anki and Mnemosyne which are designed for effective learning of vocabulary and language learning in general. I suggest you google “spaced repetition learning” and see what comes up. I recognize that there is plenty of research that shows that intense vocabulary cramming for the SAT has minimal effect on a score. In spite of that, as a former English teacher, I would still encourage students to expand their vocabulary for MANY reasons that have nothing to do with the SAT. (I’m 67 and am still learning new words all the time.) I also think that in the case of students for whom English is a second language, vocabulary development is more beneficial on the test than for native speakers.
Of course, there is much more that could be said on the topic of improving your score. But this is a start.