My Journey from Below 2000 to 2350

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Hi everyone!</p>

<p>I finally had the chance to write about my experiences with the SAT and how I was able to improve my score. I recently scored a 2350 on the SAT. </p>

<p>A little bit about myself; my family isn’t the wealthiest but I live in a pretty affluent place in Connecticut, so students are expected to attend Ivy League schools. The pressure can be crazy at times; I’ve seen a lot of people cry for getting A minuses instead of A’s. The SAT was really important to me because I have a few friends who work at admissions offices and they told me a few things. People can disagree with this, but this is just what I was told:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>First, although teachers tell you that it is better to take an AP class and get a B than it is to take a lower level class and get an A, that isn’t true. My friend who works at the admissions office says that at a lot of places, they recalculate the number of A’s, B’s, and C’s, and they don’t even look at whether a class is an AP. When you think of a school like UC Berkeley or UCLA, they get so many applicants; they probably only have time to look at the GPA and SAT score, not to look at individual classes.</p></li>
<li><p>The SAT is VERY important; probably worth at least 60-70% of your application. The reason is because it’s the only thing that standardized; different high schools give grades differently. Some high schools really inflate grades. Also, universities like to boast about their “high SAT scores.”</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I always believe that the SAT was beatable, because one of my older sister’s friends went to Stanford and I remember him telling me this story (this was when SAT scores were out of 1600.) He said that when he first took the SAT, he got a 1380/1600. That summer all he did was study all day and night and the next year when he took the test he got a 1590/1600. He said the exam was beatable because it was standardized; if you keep practicing there is no limit on how well you can do. (As an aside, the guy’s name is Brendan and he is a very bright guy.)</p>

<p>My story of the SAT was similar; when I first took the SAT I scored below a 2000. I didn’t do particularly well on the PSAT, and I wasn’t one of those people who just did well on the test.</p>

<p>My parents first signed me up for a Princeton Review class that I went to every Sunday. I thought it was helpful, but in general I didn’t feel like my score improved very much (this was in the beginning of my junior year.) The teachers were really nice (these 2 guys thats switched every class) but the class was pretty expensive. </p>

<p>A few months before my SAT test though, I got really serious. I bought the Official Guide to the SAT and it’s funny because I would literally lock myself in my room at night and just study. I would stay up till like 3:30 AM over the weekends. I think everyone has certain times when they study best (I study best when it's very late at night). I am definitely a night owl, not an early bird though.</p>

<p>I was just so intense when I took these SAT tests and I always reviewed the answers just as hard as I took the questions. During the day I signed up for these daily SAT questions, and I would just take them on study breaks when I had time at school. </p>

<p>I live pretty close to a Barnes and Nobles, and a friend of mine and I would go every day and study from 6:00-9:00. It was actually fun because we were able to hang out while we studied. </p>

<p>I don’t want this post to be too long; I’ll make a follow up post with some of the books and tips I used to help my score, but I think the most important thing is just to realize that there isn’t a limit on what you can get. I know a lot of people who ask how to get a 2100, and I always ask, why stop there? </p>

<p>I hope this was of help to some people. Feel free to message me if I can offer any advice. I'll make another post soon.</p>

2

<p>

</p>

<p>That is a bit of an exaggeration. Anyhow, thanks for the thoughts.</p>

3

<p>Hi Silverturtle,</p>

<p>I don’t mean to say that like it is a fact, it is just my opinion. </p>

<p>The reason I believe is because for example, I have family in California, and the grade inflation there is crazy; so many people have above 4.0 GPA’s. A 3.7 GPA is average; which is different than where I am from in Connecticut.</p>

<p>Because there is all of this grade inflation, school’s need a way to fairly compare students.</p>

<p>Also, although letters of recommendation are important, if you look at a big school, they don’t really have the time to read through them (at least in the beginning selections.)</p>

<p>I’m not saying that other things are not important, I just think the SAT is really important due to the above reasons.</p>

4

<p>So if the GPAs are massively inflated, why not just look at class rank?</p>

5

<p>That would work well, but not all schools do class rank.</p>

<p>Also, it still isn’t standardized among all schools (because some schools might have better students.)</p>

<p>Again, I’m not saying grades are important (of course they are important!)</p>

<p>I just think the SAT is that important for universities.</p>

<p>It’s just my opinion though; it’s not a fact.</p>

6

<p>Congrats on your success!! I began hearing about the SAT this year and I took it in May for the first time and I only got 1510, my critical reading and writing scores were pretty low but my teacher at school said it was alright for the first time since I didn’t even do any practice questions ect.
I then took the SAT again a few days ago and I did better, at least I’d like to think so, but I still think there is room for improvement since I want to get a high score.
I am going to take you advice and I am borrowing the SAT guide from the library; it says that it is ‘new’ for the 2005 may test, is this the right book?</p>

7

<ol>
<li><p>As someone (high school junior-senior) who is studying the SAT this summer, this post was inspiring.</p></li>
<li><p>I advocate Barnes and Noble-camping, not only for studying for the SAT but for pre-viewing review books one may want to purchase, and for reading/taking practice tests from test books one may not want to buy, such as for the subject tests (though it’s definitely worth purchasing AP and SAT review books to highlight and review).</p></li>
<li><p>I also advocate the fact that one should never underestimate how hard one should study for the SAT. It’s surprisingly possible (not easy, but very possible) to “decipher”.</p></li>
<li><p>SATs are (in my eyes) more like 30% of the application. It’s a major factor only if an applicant’s scores are really high or really low.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Also, class rank may or may not be accurate because of competitiveness of school and the unweighted/weighted dilemma.</p>

8

<p>The SAT is important only in the beginning of the admissions process, as you said, big universities look more closely at an applicants extracurriculars recommendations and etc. as long as your SAT score is within a certain range.</p>

9

<p>I love to camp out at B&N. I am so upset now that during the summer I can’t study as much as I would have b/c of a surgery I had. </p>

<p>I can’t wait to hear the rest of your story!</p>

10

<p>So you’re saying you studied over 3 hours a day for the SAT EVERY DAY? I’m sorry but that’s just not worth it! Go volunteer at an animal shelter or cure cancer instead with that amount of time. Honestly, especially at good schools where kids are in general smart, standardized tests aren’t as important as you think they are. If they were, my friend with below a 2000 on her SATs but amazing everything else wouldn’t have been the only one in our school that sends 20-30 kids to Ivies every year to get into Yale SCEA. To put things into perspective, one of the SCEA rejects is going to Princeton.</p>

11

<p>Ill agree with the above poster, they look for way more than a high SAT score</p>

12

<p>SAT occupies more like one-quarter of your college application, but certainly not from 60 to 70 per cent.</p>

13

<p>

It makes sense though - SAT plus ECs and essay should weigh the most part. HS grade shouldn’t mean too much becuase of the grade inflation. so many people in my school has straight As you won’t believe it! I get all As for doing nothing, I mean, I could be a partial moron and still got most As.</p>

14

<p>^ The problem with quantifying the relative importance of an admissions factor is that it will vary person to person. If you have 4.0 unweighted at a typical, grade-inflating public high school, your grades will maybe have 10% importance. If, however, you are first in your class at a top private high school, it could have 50%+ importance. Similarly, if someone has 1500/2400 on the SAT and is applying to a top school, that factor suddently has a massive influence (95%+).</p>

15

<p>thats interesting, so in your guy’s view, how do you delineate that. say two kids have a 2300, one has a 3.95 unweighted gpa, and one has a 3.83 gpa, but the second one is ranked higher-who has the advantage according to just these two factors</p>

16

<p>^ If the schools have similar-quality student bodies, the student with the higher rank (assuming it was based on weighted GPA’s calculated similarly) would be in a better position. Such a perfect comparison rarely occurs in reality, though.</p>

17

<p>so silverturtle, do you think class rank is more important than GPA’s, since it is indicative of how you compare with your peers who are likely to have taken the same classes as you?</p>

18

<p>If class rank is calculated using a reasonable weighting system and the admissions officers are generally familiar with the historical quality of your school’s students, class rank will be more meaningful than GPA.</p>

19

<p>^yeah, but how do you define “reasonable”?</p>

20

<p>^ On a 4-point scale:</p>

<p>5 - AP/Honors
4 - Regular
3 - Base</p>

<p>or</p>

<p>6 - AP
5 - Honors
4 - Regular
3 - Base</p>