<p>Back in August 2013 at the beginning of Freshman year, I took an SAT practice test without review and got a 520 in math. Even in February, I took another one and got a 560. However, in lieu of the SAT changes and my wish to take it before they change it, I downloaded a few of the old SAT tests from 2005-2007 (3 in total) and just did the Math sections. My scores amazed me, 720, 670, and a 760 most recently. I completed the tests within the time limit and didn't review anything. I'm very thankful for this change and NOT trying to show off or anything, but how such an increase of 200 points come about without any change in habit?</p>
<p>So the low scores were on full practice tests and the high scores were on math tests alone? The only thing I can think of is that you did better when you just took just the math tests because you weren’t fatigued from doing the other sections, but I don’t think that could create a 200-point difference. Or maybe the 2005-2007 tests were easier (or possibly not “accurate,” if you just downloaded them off the Internet somewhere outside the College Board website). Did you learn a lot of math in the past month or something?</p>
<p>(Also, I once had a prep book with incorrect score keys all through it…you had to look in the section with the answer explanations to see what the real answers were, because the list of letters was all wrong. Make sure you actually missed all the questions the score key indicated you missed.)</p>
<p>@halcyonheather</p>
<p>Yeah, the high scores were on the math sections (e.g I took 3 sections from one test) only, which were done consecutively. The low scores were on the full tests. I don’t think it was fatigue either. The tests were straight from the College Board (I’ll link them below) and the answer keys were attached to the test. I didn’t learn too much SAT math other than logs, rational expressions, and polynomial functions from Algebra 2. Pretty weird, eh?</p>
<p><a href=“SAT Practice and Preparation – SAT Suite | College Board”>SAT Practice and Preparation – SAT Suite | College Board;
<p><a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools;
<p><a href=“SAT Practice and Preparation – SAT Suite | College Board”>SAT Practice and Preparation – SAT Suite | College Board;
<p>They are labeled as 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 but after googling a couple of my incorrect answers I found that they are from earlier.</p>
<p>Sometimes surprises like that just happen. I got a 480 on a Barron’s Math II Practice Test and go on to get a 770 2 days later on the real thing. It was an honest effort on both. Sometimes the practice tests can just be harder in order to prepare you better.</p>
<p>@appplicant Do you think I could actually score like that on an actual SAT? The tests which I took before and after were both CollegeBoard released SAT tests in which the first time I took the entire thing and this time just the 3 math sections. In summary, they were both practice tests.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about tests from the same company. The likelihood of making a 150+ point turnaround is not high. However, you could get an easy test or a favorable curve and get a solid 50-100 points if you have an “on” day.</p>
<p>@appplicant - They were both from the test maker, so idk what could have caused turnaround. I took another yesterday and got a 720.</p>
<p>Also, I used the scoring rubric provided by the College Board.</p>