Increasing scores

<p>How long did it take you all to raise your scores by 100-200 points? I also heard the practice test scores (In the CB SAT sudy guide/book) are lower than the actual tests' can be. Anyone had any experiences with that?</p>

<p>How long it takes to improve scores depends entirely on the person, type of score improvement(i.e 600-700+..etc) and the method of study. The practice tests in the 'Blue Book' are as accurate as any non-official test can get as they are made by the same people.</p>

<p>What method of study might one recommend for 600-700 type improvement?</p>

<p>yes. practice scores are much lower. for the psat i would make 185 on practice tests but i made a 209 on the actual thing.. go figure.
for improvement, the best way is to take a bunch of practice tests and to read grammatix.. at least that is what helped me to raise my score 35 points for the psat.. hopefully it also works for the sat.</p>

<p>Grammatix is an extremely helpful book if CR is your weak area. For math you would need to be thorough with the concepts tested. For writing improving your grammar automatically improves your score.</p>

<p>What can I do to raise 400 to 550? I read through Grammatix and I now know their strategies. The only problem I have now is actually understanding what the question/passage is about. The sentences CB uses are too complex for me to grasp. What can I do? And during practice, I read the same sentence in the passage over and over again for about 10 times, and I still don't get what it's saying. Is there anyway to overcome this in 2 months?</p>

<p>Based on my personal experiences:</p>

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How long did it take you all to raise your scores by 100-200 points?

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<p>2 months. I took a test in October and got a decent score. I couldn't retake it in November because I took subject tests instead. I, however, retook it in December and improved my score by 100 points.</p>

<p>
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I also heard the practice test scores (In the CB SAT sudy guide/book) are lower than the actual tests' can be. Anyone had any experiences with that?

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<p>Sometimes true. For the writing and math sections, the blue book was as accurate as the actual test. However, I scored higher in reading comprehension on practice tests. I think distractions and pressure from time limit in the test center were the reason why I scored lower on the actual test. </p>

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What method of study might one recommend for 600-700+ type improvement?

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</p>

<p>On my first try, I got 600s on both math and writing sections. I took practice tests from the Blue Book and the online course. From this method, I learned the strategy to beat the SAT. This is misconception: people think that they have to know everything to do well on SAT. The truth is: they already have the knowledge. They need to know how to take the SAT, how to take an educated guess, how to recognize the patterns found on the test, and how to use the right technique to solve the problem. That is called the strategy. As I became familiar with the SAT and its questions, my scores in math and writing went up to 700+. It takes practice.</p>

<p>I have about 6 weeks. My range (based on PSATs and the full practice test I took) has a median:</p>

<p>Reading: 660.
Writing: 680
Math: 680.</p>

<p>I'm in the high six-hundreds, and have basically just the practice tests and the strategies in the blue book. I'll review the strategies again and keep practicing to up my score through the 700s for the April 1st test, and possibly take the test again in November.</p>

<p>My advice is to practice a lot. For CR, do a lot of exercises in your english book- I know this sounds stupid, but the major textbook assigned for your english class has a lot of passages, and questions- this will aid your understanding of the passages- also, seek your teacher's help- not only will this get you on his/her good side, but you will be helped tremendously in understanding concepts. </p>

<p>As for math, try to revert back to when you didn't know any higher level math- I had taken calc I and II, and I just couldn't do simple math- had to shut my brain off. Also, math requires practice and looking at the problems carefully rather than shrruging them off as simple path.</p>

<p>As for writing, best thing to do is to get lots of topics, and don't write the actual essay- just do an outline of what each paragraph would include- if you can do this in five minutes, then you're set- hope this helps</p>