Hi everyone. I am preparing for the SAT, and will most probably be taking it in August. I am doing very well (800s) on the math portions of practice tests; however, I am only scoring between a 690-730 on reading and writing sections. Do you guys have any tips on improving this score?
I understand that there is already lots of information out there about preparing, but I would appreciate any responses. Thanks.
I should probably give more information than that. I’m getting 45-47 out of 52 on reading, and 39-41 on writing.
Get the Erica Meltzer books and work through them.
Use online practice tests that explain all the possible answers after you mark a question wrong. Reading and writing tend to be a little more interpretive than math, where there is clearly only one right answer. That might be what’s tripping you up.
@DiotimaDM Thank you for the advice! I think I have the Erica Meltzer books at home since my brother used them when preparing for his SAT, but they are from a few years ago and are based on the old SAT. Is it better to purchase the newer editions of those books or are the older editions still valid?
Alas, I know less than Jon Snow about the old SAT. That said, I’d get the new books because there’s an index in the back that lists every question on every official practice test and this index tells you what skills / concepts the question is testing, complete with page numbers so you can review those specific areas.
If you miss one, you can look it up and find out that it’s a “big picture” and “tone / attitude” question, or a semi-colon question, etc.
For obvious reasons, the old books won’t have this index.
My S plateaued in the 680 - 700 range on ERBW, and Meltzer took him to 760 in about two weeks. He missed one on CR and three on W.
@DiotimaDM Thank you, I’ll definitely purchase the new editions then.
I found finding the trend of my mistakes helped me improve a lot for the reading. For the reading section they always ask pretty much the same style of questions and eventually you’ll see the type of question you tend to miss. For the writing section just practice a bunch. I used practice ACT
Have you registered for the August test?
@billcsho No, isn’t the deadline only on July 28th though?
Yes, but many centers have been full due to the limited availability.
@billcsho Wow, I’ll make sure to get signed up right away. Thanks for the info.
I hope I is not too late for you. One student posted a couple weeks ago that he/she needs to drive 2 hours to a neighboring state.