my advice

Test Preparation
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<p>hi guys. i'm relatively new to this thread and i just wanted to give you guys my advice for taking the new SATs because many of my questions have been answered here. i got a total score of 2340/2400 -- how did i do this? PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! if people tell you practice only raises your score by a few points, that's completely untrue. with math, your greatest downfall will be running out of time or stupid mistakes and practing minimizes this. with critical reading, some questions may seem subjective but practice (especially with real SATs) will help you figure out what kind of questions the college board expects (for example, the answers are usually not the extreme ones, and other clues like that).</p>

<p>i think writing is the hardest area to improve becuase you basically know grammar or you don't. i had a great english teacher who gave us materials to study from. ask your english teacher if they have packets/handouts they can give you for specific practice. i took practice writing sections and read the explanations for every answer, even if i got it right, so i could understand the reasoning behind it.</p>

<p>spending your money on a tutor or summer courses especially for the SATs is a waste of money if you are an intelligent person. learning on your own gets the best benefits because you can work on what you need to work on. if you have serious trouble with the SATs, then perhaps get a tutor -- but everything they teach you in courses can simply be found in the books the company publishes. so spend the 20-30$ on the book and not the 200-300$ on the course.</p>

<p>the books i recommend are 10 real sats, kaplan, princeton review. personally i hate barrons. i dont really like sparknotes, but its ok for extra practice.</p>

<p>i don't know how much of this you guys heard before, but i hope it helped. feel free to ask further questions.</p>

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<p>yes its true yet, sad, while practicing my CR, i get about 1-2 mistakes per section, when i started parcticing writing im getting about 4-5, i have no sense of grammar, and reading RR about grammar is so boring..</p>

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<p>Thanks superchica and welcome to CC. By the way congratulations on that score.</p>

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<p>That's a really great score! How often/long did you practice?</p>

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<p>to tell you the truth i started practicing SAT's in 7th grade because i needed a qualifying SAT score to get into a summer program i went to in middle school. however, i was really indifferent about it then and only studied it when my mom yelled at me. i started studying seriously the summer before my junior year (im going to be a senior in high school in the fall). i bought about 6-7 books and finished them all. i would basically zoom through a book in about a week and take all the practice tests, sometimes studying as much as 5-6 hours a day. i reached a point where i didn't need to read sat books anymore because it became redundant, i only took practice tests. once the school year started, i obviously didn't have time to study that much anymore so i wouldn't study until 2 weeks prior to a test. then i would try to take a practice test daily until the testing date.</p>

<p>the reason why i could take practice tests so quickly is becuase i only did math sections once in a while. math is my best subject by far and i scored an 800 in math without studying much for it. also, i usually finished the critical reading and writing sections 5 minutes early. i never bothered going back to check my answers when i took practice tests, but ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS go back to check your answers when you take the real thing, ESPECIALLY for the math section. its so easy to make the dumbest mistakes in math so go through the math problems as quickly as you can so you have time in the end to look over your work. oh and thats another thing -- try to jot out some calculations when you do math problems instead of trying to do it in your head. you'll make less mistakes that way and will have an easier time checking your answers.</p>

<p>sorry that was so long winded -- i tend to ramble on a lot (:</p>

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<p>Its okay if it's long winded. I ramble on too. ^^</p>

<p>Congrats on your score though! I totally agree. I wish I had actually studied/practiced more though...the only studying and practice I san say I've done was memorizing about 100 vocab words, most of which I already knew, taking one practice test about 3 times, and taking the real SAT 3 times. My 3rd score was 2260...if I had had your diligence I really think I could've gotten higher but oh well. ^^v</p>

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<p>5-6 hours wow.. i study 2 hours a day at most Oo</p>

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<p>For me, it's hard to study much because I'm in college (looking to transfer) and can't take time away from my courses in order to study for a test that may or may not make much of a difference for me. After doing quite a bit of research about and studying for the CR and W sections, I feel confident I can get over 700 on those, so now I'm just focusing on math. I plan on using the rest of the summer, Thanksgiving break, and then possibly winter intersession (if I don't take a course) to prepare to take the SAT I for the first time in January. I'm going to take a couple SAT IIs in November or December, so I hope I'm sufficiently prepared for them by then so I can do well.</p>

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<p>Superchica, how should I gear my studying? (I'm scoring in the 600~650 on CR and I want to get it up to around 700~750 and I have about 2 months) It's the long passages that I mess up on most of the time.</p>

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<p>yeah, i studied for SATs for hours on end during the summer because i had nothing else better to do (:</p>

<p>beginning -- good luck with your endeavors -- a little practice goes a long way, especially with math. i really believe its not hard to get a good math score. practice will help you recognize problems and work quickly because (i'm sure you've heard this before) they really do use the same math problems over and over. if you take enough practice tests, you'll finish quickly and have enough time at the end to review your answers and will be well on your way to an 800 :)</p>

<p>retribution -- first of all, don't sweat it. two months is plenty of time. critical reading was my worst area. most SAT books have sections with advice on how to improve your score followed by a bunch of practice tests. read the advice and take notes on strategies you didn't know about. you really only need to read one book for this, it gets repetitive after that. i recommend princeton review. then get these two books: the most recent "10 Real SATs" and "The Official SAT Study Guide: For the New SAT". take practice tests as much as possible. force yourself to at least do a section a day. immediately after completing a section, check your answers and read the explanations if there are any. i recommend reading all the explanations (for right and wrong answers) for the first practice test or two and then just reading the explanations for your wrong answers after that. don't wait until after an entire practice test to check your answers because then the passages won't be fresh in your mind.</p>

<p>about the long passages -- some books advise you to make notes in the margins. if that works for you, g reat, but to me thats stupid and a waste of time. read the passge quickly but closely. underline key phrases and sentences to help you absorb the info. i really think its important for you to read the entire passage and pay attention to detail. going straight to the questions and simply referring back to the passage has NEVER worked for me. don't worry about memorizing every little detail though -- your going to go back to the passage many times while answering the questions anyway.</p>

<p>when answering questions, always try to find info that backs up your answer. remember, the answer will almost never be something extreme or offensive, like "all doctors are incompetent". and many answers try to trick to by inferring too much from the passage. for example, the passage may say that john smith did not trust his doctor becuase he smelled like smoke. an answer that says "john smith wanted to find another doctor" is assuming too much.</p>

<p>always keep in mind to move quickly but still pay attention to detail. some questions will seem subjective, but plenty of practice will help you realize what answer the college board is looking for. you may think another answer is just as good, but it will be clear to you what answer will be marked right.</p>

<p>if you finish all the critical reading practice sections in those two books, which should be your goal =] good job!</p>

<p>btw, if you think your math/writing scores are really strong, don't bother taking every single practice section for them. but do some every once in a while so you don't lose your touch.</p>

<p>good luck and hope that helped! it's the best, most honest advice i can give.</p>

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<p>superchica thank you !</p>

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<p>thanks for the advice</p>