<p>Just need some advice:
My son got a
560 - Math
440 - CR
480 - Essay</p>
<p>We have another shot in December. I am suggesting that he studies 1-2 hours PER DAY, and I was thinking that this weekend, he might should have studied 4-5 hours today and then tomorrow.</p>
<p>He got advice from his college/career counselor to study every other day, that you could wear yourself out...</p>
<p>...thoughts... opinions? What are you all doing?</p>
<p>He did not study much for the October one.</p>
<p>I was doing 3-4 hours a day. Would do at least 1 practice test a day. I really wanted that 2400 :(</p>
<p>I don’t exactly have a solid time per day, but I’m planning to finish up all the tests in my study guide 2nd edition, do the free online tests on CB & read/look around the guides and posts here for advice. If I strain all these resources then I’ll probably look for further tips, study some common SAT words? And Google. He should try to take a full practice test to prep for the stamina and endurance required to fully focus throughout the test. I know people who end up just losing concentration and giving up halfway.</p>
<p>That’s not a lot of time at all, especially with a month left, he should spend more time studying/practicing a day. I used to do practice tests for 5+ hours a day. But the key is make sure your son learns from studying/practicing.</p>
<p>It depends. I never had too much trouble concentrating on the whole 4-hour SAT. If he is not capable of truly focusing for the complete duration of the SAT, then yes, it would be advisable for him to take a few full practice tests to practice acquiring the stamina needed for the full test. Otherwise, he could just take 1-2 sections per day and really try to understand the correct and wrong answers and why they are correct/wrong. After that, he should read the official explanations on collegeboard.com to further comprehend the answers. </p>
<p>However, I will say that once school started I could only attempt to do a section every day only if I had time. So he should strive to complete one section a day and understand the answers (this should take about 25-50 minutes). This worked the best for me as I was already capable of focusing for a long duration. I really think that studying 4-5 hours on a weekend day isn’t too wise. It could potentially wear him out too much.</p>
<p>With little time, you need to take an analytic approach. Diagnose and prescribe, if you haven’t already. Look at the last test. What kinds of questions did he miss? Identify the math concepts he needs to review, the grammar rules that give him trouble, the types of CR questions that throw him. What can you see in his essay that might be improved? Also, what test-taking tactics work and don’t work for him? </p>
<p>Research suggests that study, some time off, then review, then more time off, then review again is the best routine to form long-term memory. Sleep is important as well, especially very soon after memorization tasks.(Think studying vocabulary words in bed just before lights out.) A candy bar about a half hour before test time and another half way through can keep energy up. (Glucose is what the brain uses as fuel.) (Note…Assuming hyperactivity is not a particular problem.)</p>
<p>I heard that taking Ritalin helps if you have concentration problems :P</p>
<p>1 full length practice test on either Sat or Sun until the test. The other weekend day off or maybe 1 hr. Then 1 hr every other day on the weekdays. e.g. MWF 1 hr, Sat 5 hr, Sun, Tu, Th off.</p>
<p>Thank you for your responses…</p>
<p>I did 2 full tests a day. one in the morning and one in the afternoon during the summer, since i had time.
When school started, I reverted to 2-3 hours a day and did a full test every weekend. I guess it all depends on what score you’re going for.</p>
<p>stowe6:
this is what the best thing to do is:
go on the SAT prep forum and look at the stickies (at the top)
have your son go over the Silverturtle’s guide and the Xiggi’s guide.
silverturtle’s guide is lonngg. so take about 1-2 days understanding, NOT mastering. </p>
<p>have your son understand what silverturtle is saying [only the CR and math section (for now), and Xiggi’s gives you a better look on the math]</p>
<p>now during this 2 days span of your son reading, get him Direct Hits Vocab list. and make him start memorizing words from there. </p>
<p>also during these two days. after your son has read silverturtle’s section (like have him read the sentence completion first, then move to passage, etc.)
so have son read the sentence completion. and give him a test (not timed, with dictionary, everything)
now your son should read the question, choose an answer choice, and WRITE why he chose it, no talking, just writing. Have him also write words he is not familiar with. Now. after he has finished the test (8-10 questions won’t take too long) give him the dictionary (the big one with paper, not the internet one) and have him look up and write the definitions to all the words he does not know.
NOW THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT
i want you to read your son’s paper, and circle all the reasoning he wrote that have something like *it seemed most logical, or i just guessed, or i like this word * something along those lines and have him look up the definition AGAIN and ask him to pick again using his new vocab. he should be able to get them all correct using the “i have the dictionary method”
doing this in addition to the direct hits will certainly increase your son’s vocab knowledge and he should be able to do great on the sentence completion portions.
as for CR, have him take it again and again to get more comfy with it.</p>
<p>math: get him a prep book and have him read the math section for further understandings in math, like the formulas, etc.
the best way to raise scores is practice, so yep! another practice section to add.</p>
<p>writing:
now this one we need a lot of focus on.
essay + grammar
for hte essay section:
make your son write essays. on the forum somewhere there is a thread that talk about getting a 12 in 10 days on the essay (search for that, print it out and have your son understand this
essay’s just need practice and you will do fine.</p>
<p>for the grammar. remember how i said that wait on the silverturtle’s grammar section
now for this grammar the key thing to remember is to understand everything. so this will take a lot of time. have your son read it in small increments (this should take 3 days MAX. and he should keep going over this to refresh him knowledge.
so three days to read grammar (but has better understanding)… wait 2 days (on reading silverturtle grammar) and then third day read it again. this time the process hsould be quicker (2 days)… read wait two days. (read again third day) and this time ONE DAY to read the entire thing. your son should be getting used to the grammar by the third time and of re-reading and be able ot skim it over and remember things.</p>
<p>so now a simplified version of what your son should do each day:
read silverturtle section (on sentence completion)
do a 1 section sentence completion per day
read silverturtle passage:
do 1 section of passage per day
Read a couple of math prep book
do 1 section of math
read 12 on essay in 10 days (its in SAT PREP forumjust search for it)
write thesis (one day), (next day do one point, next day another point, etc)
read silverturtle’s grammar section
do one section of grammar each day</p>
<p>now as you can see this is going to take much more than an hour. more like 5-6 perhaps more/less.
this should be the process for one entire week and then new schedule.
at the end of the week, have your son take the full SAT practice test, giving him appropriate breaks, etc.
then revise this above method to suit your son’s needs.
if his score increases dramatically- then have him do less reading, and more practice problems.
if it is the same, make him do more reading and more practice problems
if his score got lower (i hope not) then im really sry for wasting your time.</p>
<p>*dont follow this because it sounds right. follow this if your son has the time and he wants to increase the scores. if he doesn’t have time then look at the below comment (with the 2 sections a day)</p>
<p>another thing to note: this involves a lot of sacrifice on the part of your son. he has to have the will to do great on the SAT, (thats how the brain thinks sort of)
so by thinking positive about the SAT, he will do positively. </p>
<p>what i do know is the more time you spend on the SAT the higher your score gets. so in those terms this might be a great method, but keep in mind school work, EC’s will affect this too. so if it is taking much too much time and there is still a lot of things to be done school wise, EC wise, then this process will have to be cut down a bit. </p>
<p>we want sat scores to rise and keep the current grades high too. neither should be affected. so i leave the decision onto you, implement if you wish or let it be.
but one recommendation:
ask your son how much time he would like to spend on sat, school work, EC’s
let him set the time limit on his own- but if he wants to get hte high score, he will set a good time limit to study.
step in when you see your son slacking off.</p>
<p>once again i repeat: this sat has a lot of sacrifices involved, but hte more you sacrifice the better you might end up doing.</p>
<p>goodluck!</p>
<p>like other posters mentioned its time consuming- so don’t expect your son to do everything i mentioned above. it might not work.
another solution is to spend 6 days (two days for each section and at the end of the week (DAY 7) have him take a practice test to see how he does)
rememebr to alternate.</p>