<p>This is my SAT Prep Schedule for the October 2009 SAT Reasoning Test. My prep begins this Saturday, August 8, 2009. I will be preparing in other ways as well, such as studying vocabulary and reading articles as well as novels. However, I have only listed my standardized test practice schedule on the calendar. In total I will be taking 18 official SATs. I will update this post regularly.</p>
<p>I have taken the SAT once before in January 2009 and scored an 1840. Let this be an experiment testing whether or not you can "practice" for the SAT.</p>
<p>For those of you unfamiliar with Google Calendar/Acronyms:</p>
<p>-Use the arrows in the top left-hand corner to navigate from month-to-month.
-The calendar may be viewed by week, month and agenda via the buttons in the top right-hand corner. I prefer month.
-BB: Blue Book (first edition)
-CB OCT: College Board Online Course Test
-QaS: Question-and-Answer Service</p>
<p><em>yawn</em>. You people and your schedules. You can raise your score significantly if you efficiently use about 5 practice tests. Going through 18 tests in the time you’re proposing is just going to be a waste of tests.</p>
<p>It’s nice to see you motivated and eager to raise your score, but…</p>
<p>When you gain more experience, you get to ‘know more’ about the SAT. Sometimes you may realize that you, for example, need some improvement in a specific part in writing. In this case, the more efficient method would be to do practices related to that particular part from a test prep book. Or your vocabularies aren’t very strong and perhaps, you may want to spend a day or two doing some work using DH, RR, PR hit parade and etc. I know you said you are going to study vocabs. But it looks to me like you are taking everything excluding the tests quite lightly. I memorized 300-350 words a day and that took me about 8-9 hours in the beginning. (The time it took me first to score full marks in vocab tests, not just going through) And you have to go through more than once.</p>
<p>Also, why wouldn’t you review the questions on the same day as you did them?? Try reviewing your answers after each section.</p>
<p>For weekdays (Tue.-Fri.) I will be doing two sections each day. After each section, I will conduct a comprehensive review. However, on the weekends (Sat. & Sun.) I will do four sections each day, and conduct a comprehensive review on Monday. That way, I get more “live, real scenario” experience.</p>
<p>Arachnotron, before taking my first SAT in Jan. 09, I used the first three SATs in the BB for practice. The only thing I have to gauge my performance is a baseline given by the PSAT taken a few months before in October 08. My score went from 162 (1620) on the PSAT to 1840 on the real SAT. However, I’m not sure if those tests are comparable in this sense. The three BB tests were completed over winter break, a period of two weeks. Now that I’ve got over two months to prepare, I decided to intensify the regimen. </p>
<p>Mega, I don’t plan on memorizing 300-350 words-a-day. Honestly, I think that is a bit overkill: 350*60 (approx. days till Oct. SAT) = 21,000 words. Learning ~50 words-a-day should suffice. Yet, as I go on, I may need to modify some things here and there, such as adding supplemental exercises in areas in which I’m struggling. </p>
<p>No offense but I want to know why people (not just you) take the January SAT and then don’t bother retaking it in March, May, or June, but rather in October… That confuses me</p>
<p>strosfan, I can’t speak for everybody else, but the reason why I neglected to take the March, May and June SATs was because I was preoccupied with self-studying APs.</p>
<p>For me, its because I didn’t have much time to decide between when I received my Jan. 09 SAT score report and the regular deadline registration for the March SAT. Then, in May, not only was I preoccupied with APs, I had to drive my sister to school and back after practice, plus worry about finals and other projects. Moreover, in May, I took 4 APs and 3 SATIIs. I overloaded so much that my SAT II scores suffered; when the scores were posted, I found that I got pretty mediocre scores. Then in June, I retook only 1 SAT II, and I got the score I wanted.</p>
<p>So before you start wondering why some people would wait so long, you should realize that a little thing called “life” goes on. School, volunteering, clubs, extracurriculars, and family life must continue despite studying for these tests administered by Collegeboard.</p>
<p>First off my question was not intended to offend anybody…
Swagg - Can understand that pretty well.</p>
<p>Arachnotron - Isn’t a March SAT the same cost as an October SAT? The only difference is your taking it 7 months later and have less opportunities to take it again. And what does score choice have to do with taking an SAT in March rather than October?</p>
<p>widly - I can understand the March one, that happened to my friend so he had to wait to take the May one, but the problem with the May one lies in:
You have 2 1/2 months to study for the May SAT (assuming you get it in the middle of Feb, which I think was the case this year), and so if you spread it out well enough, it doesn’t really interfere with AP tests unless your cramming it all in the weekend before the SAT.
Driving your sister to/from practice is NOT a good reason. Even if the drive was an hour or so, you can still manage to study (unless driving your sister around was your entire life, even on weekends)
And now I read that you did manage to take your SAT II’s in May. So my whole point above is invalid haha. But anyways, the SAT II choice in June was not one I would make, if you had 2 scores you wanted, why not go attack the SAT I?
Believe it or not getting a good SAT score does not mean you have to study 24/7. Heck 10 minutes a night isn’t even that much, but it would add up. And the difference between 8 hours of sleep and 7 hours and 50 minutes is pretty minimal in my opinion (unless somebody has facts to back up that 10 minutes is valuable lol)</p>
<p>Instead of just doing Blue Book, start by learning the specific skills if you’re getting under a 650 on any section. For example, Barron’s lays out the foundations for the Math and Writing Sections very well, so doing all the exercises in those should at least get your score into the high 600s. Reading is harder and is the one case where starting on the blue book immediately is the best idea. I’d recommend memorizing vocabulary from Direct Hits or another vocab book and simultaneously using the blue book for reading passages. The problem with just using the blue book with math or writing is that you will get many types of problems, mess them up, learn the write way, and then forget it because you don’t get enough focused practice on it. The blue book is best once you’ve gotten the hang of all the major skills and just need to look for little things that throw you off.</p>
<p>I’m not saying lots of practice tests are bad, I’m just saying to at least supplement them with some books that focus on specific skills with sections and lessons. I hope that helps!</p>
<p>Just completed my first test, BB Test #5. I’ll be going over the questions tomorrow. This was an untimed test as I was trying to apply “strategies” from prep books as I answered the questions. Subsequent tests will be timed and will mimic real testing environments. </p>
<p>i bet you’re going to not follow the schedule after 2 weeks into it. its not practical when you’re juggling school and extra-curriculars and everything. </p>
<p>here’s the thing, you got to work smart.</p>
<p>well tell me how it goes for you, we still support you :D. i mean its just that these plans never work for most of us… i still say just do those practice tests lol. the real practice tests, and not one every day,… so you can process the information.</p>
<p>Well, considering the fact I’m not playing football this year, I’ll have a lot more time. And I’m willing to bet that in two weeks I’ll still be religiously following the schedule. </p>
<p>The passage that I mentioned earlier was about a college professor getting fired.</p>
<p>The passage wasn’t enjoyable, but it was fairly straightforward to determine that the prof was a total snob (a fact which led you to the answers to the more difficult questions).</p>
<p>The correct answer is E: “Suggest that unconscious expressions often betray one’s true opinions.”</p>
<p>I don’t see evidence that proves this answer in the passage! Where does it mention these expressions BETRAYING one’s true opinions??? What I see is that the narrator is able to perceive the reader’s ideas by their unconscious mishaps. Nowhere do I see anything even related to these unconscious expressions betraying one’s true opinions.</p>