<p>So I happened to sit for the first time in SAT in this january 2012.
I studied for around a couple of months but i thoroughly went through princeton and barrons and did not touch any other book
So my expectations were quite high but the score turned out to be
Maths-680
critical reading-560
writing-480[I just dont know how this happened.I scored 650+ a couple of times in princeton}
and a essay of 8
Making it a total of 1720:(
I just dont know where I really went wrong.I even managed to memorize 1500 words from the barrons but I at least expected a 1900
Please help me and advise me methods as to how I can improve my SAT since I plan to sit for sat again in october</p>
<p>The issue is that the third-party practice books are rarely accurate in style to the actual Collegeboard written test. </p>
<p>From personal experience, Barron’s writing sections are the most atrocious (I fly through these on the actual test but sometimes I sit and stare in disbelief at Barron’s) out of the big 3 (Barron’s, PR, and Kaplan). Princeton Review and Kaplan are not bad, though they tend to be a little off.</p>
<p>Math seems to be pretty similar for all three companies, though Barron’s is slightly more difficult than others. This difficulty may or may not be to your advantage.</p>
<p>Critical Reading wise, I favor the materials given by Kaplan after attending their class. Yes, I admit, my mother placed me into a class. Princeton’s Review is decent as well.</p>
<p>Overall, I’d strongly recommend simply practicing out of College Board’s own books. I know there is a new version out with a DVD/CD/Something-D. Unfortunately, I have not tried it since I’m finished with SAT I. The original “new” one is very good (the first 4 tests or so were previously administered tests while the other 6 are tests made for the book), and I’m not sure if the new copy has different testing material or not. Hopefully someone else knows and will inform you. Doing tests out of this book gives you the most accurate experience and also makes you familiar with true testing material. It does not require you to adjust to a slightly different format/style as you would having only studied from third party texts. If you need extra practice beyond the tests offered by CB’s book, search online for copies of released tests (CB publishes one each year or so). You can find links to past publications on CC or through google. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your reply, greatly appreciate it.
I have every intention of going through the whole college board book but do u know any book where i can completely focus on each and every section and go to its utmost details.
I also believe that i failed this time around because i went foward to memorize the barrons 3500, overworked myself on it and wasnt really able to remeber the whole thing.So how do u think that how much vocabulary i should memorize in order to get at least a 700+ on CR.
I happened to see through my sat detailed yesterday and i realized that i did perfectly well on the easy questions of the writing and critical reading section with an exception of one or two of them, where i really got beaten was the medium and hard part.So how do u think i can overcome all of this.</p>