<p>So I took the SAT in March and I received an 1890 (610CR, 640M, 640W, 9 essay). When I took the test in March, it was practically cold. I had done a little preparation, but nothing substantial or scrupulous. </p>
<p>I plan on taking the SAT again in June and also in October. With preparation from the Blue Book, Direct Hits (volumes 1 and 2), Grubers, and some tutoring sessions (that I've already had), would it be unrealistic to aim for a 2100 or even a 2200? What would be a reasonable score based on my base score, intensive prep, and my review materials?</p>
<p>Also, any stories about raising scores would be much appreciated :).</p>
<p>The SAT is designed to be unstudy-able. It’s not supposed to benefit those who are willing to study more for one particular test or those who are willing to work harder to study, nor is it supposed to benefit those who are wealthy and can afford expensive prep classes or even books. It’s supposed to determine your skills in each of the subject areas, how well you were prepared by your high school curriculum, and how prepared you are for college. The best you can do, in my opinion, is to be familiar with the format of the test and to know how to approach each question/develop strategies for each question type. Considering all this, I don’t feel you can improve an 1890 to 2100+. I’d still take it again to see if you can improve though, and I recommend just taking practice tests to be as familiar and comfortable with the test as possible.</p>
<p>Gbox, the only section where the sat achieves those goals is the CR section. Math and writing are absolutely able to be raised, not by tricks, but by learning the very specific and limited concepts that it tests. Yes, a high math score requires a certain flexibility in one’s approach in addition to solid math skills, but the writing is very straightforward.</p>
<p>When I was in 9th grade, I got a 1800. It was a W:520 CR:530 M:750. When I took it again in September, of this year (my Junior year), I got a 2220. W:790 CR:680 M:750. What was the difference between 9th and 11th grade? I did more practice tests than I would have though possible. I used Princeton Review, Barrons, and pretty much anything I could get my hands on. Now, I’m sure that I could have done something almost as spectacular if I had taken it earlier. I found that I soon hit my learning capacity after some point. You can absolutely learn more, and studying will be very beneficial. For Writing, you want to learn a number of fundamental rules, like parallelism, noun agreement, and the active voice. For Math, just learn the necessary algebra and trigonometric rules. Critical Reading is the hardest to study for, but the best thing you can do is read plenty of passages and answer as many questions as possible. The vocabulary section is the hardest to study for, so the best thing you can do is either read up on vocabulary, or read books by yourself. I was able to increase my score on Critical Reading a little bit because I read a lot.</p>
<p>I would recommend that you study as hard as possible. Put about 1 to 1 and a half hours a day to just study. Try to keep your weekends more or less free to keep studying. I hope you rock your SAT’s.</p>
<p>“I would recommend that you study as hard as possible. Put about 1 to 1 and a half hours a day to just study. Try to keep your weekends more or less free to keep studying”</p>
<p>I would recommend actually having a life aside from studying 24/7. An 1890 is a fine score for many schools except if you’re looking at the ivies or something like that. I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t usually have an extra hour and a half just laying around to study for the SAT every day.</p>
<p>^^ Agreed. The only thing you can really do is study basic concepts and go in there with confidence and knowing what the questions are like which you can get with practice tests or just answering questions. I personally didn’t have time for practice tests because my APs were coming up at the same time but I think I did pretty well still. Still don’t have scores.</p>
<p>As far as CR and W go. I used the Princeton Review and it gave some good tips. For grammar avoid ‘being’ options if you have no idea. Look for the hardest word on the hardest question and it’s most likely it (again use this only if you have no idea). Read specific questions in passages before main idea ones because you’ll read most of the passage doing that or you can read the beginning and end blurbs and get the general idea. Look for key words! If it’s in the question and the line you read that’s probably it. They just rephrase things. Everything you need should be right in the passage.</p>
<p>GO IN THERE AND KICK BUTT! I totally think you can do it!</p>
<p>No, it is not unrealistic to aim for a 2200/2300. When I was a sophomore, I received an 1830 on my first SAT. The second time, I received a 1930. Around 20-30 practice test laters, one summer, and couple arguments, I hit a 2370. But for some reason, one week before the SAT, I received a 2000 and 2030 on two practice exams, and despite this, I received a 2350. I think the biggest obstacle I had to overcome was the belief that I did not have the abilities to succeed, because my parents were vehemently arguing that I would only get a 2100. Nevertheless, it requires a lot of practice and time to drastically improve your score. I hope this helped.</p>
<p>You need less than 100points in each subject. Think about it like that.</p>
<p>I would ignore the June exam and set your sights on October.</p>
<p>The best advice I can give is to focus on knowing why wrong answers are wrong. That is, if the answer to q24 is c, you need to know why the college board included a b d e and what makes those questions wrong (and what a silly student would have to do to actually pick that answer!!)</p>
<p>@ParthivNaresh - Thank you. I really appreciate you sharing your story with me. 1 - 1.5 hrs/ day seems definitely realistic. Thanks for the awesome help.</p>
<p>@Etuck - Thank you and thank you for complimenting my score, but with some schools that I’d like to get into, a 2100 is a really comfortable score (and I’d like to insure that I can get into almost every school that I apply to). Anything beyond a 2100 would just be bonus.</p>
<p>@AllyJay - Thanks a ton for the support. I’ll also take your advice; I really like your CR strategy. Hope you killed your SAT (since you said you’re still waiting to get your scores)!</p>
<p>@Stressedman - 2200 or 2300? Whoa. That’d be a crazy improvement. If it’s not unrealistic to aim for those, I’ll be in great shape :D. You helped immensely though; I really appreciate how little you seem to care about “how much you can possibly raise you SAT score”. The fact that you raised your score by 520 - 540 points is crazy; I’m not expecting nearly that large of an increase, but 200 - 300 points would be perfect.</p>
<p>@Craiggonzales - I was thinking the same thing. October is where I’ll set my sights but I’ll still try to do well in June. That’s a good way to put it… That I need less than 100 points in each subject. That’s quite assuring. That’s great advice though; I try to learn from my mistakes for sure. I really think that is the key. More practice tests expose you to new stuff. If I get any of that stuff wrong, I seem to remember it a lot better (especially if I know WHY I got it wrong).</p>
<p>Thank you all… This is really great advice and now I’m feeling a lot more confident than I have in the past. Thanks.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to strongly disagree with that statement. Yes, that is what the test is designed to do. However, as others have stated, collegeboard has failed quite dramatically if it intended to make a test that couldn’t be studied for. My own story is that the first practice test I took I scored a 2160. Five months later and after taking almost every collegeboard test that I could get my hands on (20+) I was up to a 2360. If you look at the content and the material, it is very easy to study for it, especially writing. I would argue that only CR is a talent based skill. Writing and to a lesser extent math are very much easily studied for, even if they weren’t designed to be.</p>
<p>However, I would like to caution against expecting dramatic improvements simply because “it’s been done before.” Yes, it is possible to boost your score hundreds or even over a thousand points, but this is exceedingly rare and is typcially based on anecdotal evidence. Anything is possible…IF you are willing to work for it.</p>