<p>hello.
I am a high school sophomore who now just starting to study for SAT. I know I am late than others but I want to concentrate from now on. I devised the studying plan (1 year) with concentration on the prep books. Since online-course did not work with me that much, I choose to study many various prep books instead. Will you review my plan below and make a suggestion (also which book to choose in / )?</p>
<p>Princeton Review-Kaplan/McGraw Hill (1st term= for learning SAT basics)
Barron's-Gruber's-Rocket Review Revolution-Maximum SAT/REA/Peterson-Blue Book-Sparknote (2nd term= real studying)
Barron's 2400-Kaplan SAT 2400/Gruber SAT 2400-Blue Book-Practice Test Booklets (like Princeton Review's 11 SAT practice Tests book) ---(3rd term= for further studying)</p>
<p>How is my plan, based on 1 year and 3 months before taking SAT test. Also, is Mcgraw Hill SAT is just as same as Kaplan SAT?</p>
<p>1st Term:
Use Princeton Review and McGraw Hill SAT prep books to master SAT basics and basic strategies. Use Kaplan SAT prep book as a reference, but not will be heavily used as PR and MGH.</p>
<p>2nd Term:
Barron’s SAT= SAT overall
Gruber’s SAT= SAT Math
Rocket Review Revolution= SAT Critical Reading & Writing
Sparknotes SAT: SAT overall and reference
Maximum SAT: SAT overall
Blue Book: Practice
Barron’s & Kaplan’s & Gruber’s McGraw Hill’s SAT Workbooks: Further studying</p>
<p>How bout you actually study instead of wasting time making idiotic plans and seeking approval of CC members?
You don’t need a study plan, just set aside 1 hour everyday to do something SAT related.</p>
<p>Wow…sophomore thread…I too am a sophomore. I would not stick too closely to a plan. Sometimes it’s good to just plan by the week or so. That is what I am doing…preping for the Jan Sat. 25 days left, lol I have a countdown timer set on my computer.</p>
<p>Use the Blue Book & burn through three or four practice tests. Find out your weaknesses and study more on those using other prep books if you have to. Once you work around any weaknesses you have, go back to the Blue Book and do the remaining practice tests. Review every question you got wrong and make sure you know exactly why you got it wrong. Generalize the type of questions you get wrong and be wary of similar questions/problems for later practice tests. Also make sure that you got questions right because you worked them out and didn’t just luck out.</p>
<p>In short:
Do a practice test
Go over all your mistakes
Repeat </p>
<p>And you’re definitely not “late”. I got my PSAT back January of my sophomore year (I got a “fail” 177) but didn’t start studying until the summer of my junior year. For two solid months I did the above^, taking 2 practice tests a week and reviewing them. Come October I took the real SAT for the first time and improved over 400 points from my projected SAT score from the PSAT.</p>
<p>Wow, starting sophomore year is considered late? I didn’t really think about the SAT until my school all but forced me into an SAT class (epic waste of time) this year (junior year).</p>
<p>Relax, I got a 158 PSAT when I took it as a sophomore. I took the Oct. sat as a Senior and got a 2300. </p>
<p>The plan is very simple and shouldn’t take a year to master. You can get started when you’re entering your senior year over the summer. </p>
<ol>
<li>Read up on SAT writing rules (Sparknotes 7 Deadly Screw-ups, Silverturtle’s guide)</li>
<li>Adopt a CR approach (Try Noitaria’s guide (Pretty much covered by Silverturtle also))</li>
<li>Read/Memorize all the words in Direct Hits Vol. 1+2. </li>
<li>Take all the practice tests you can, but not too early. I spaced them out throughout the summer (10 practice tests from BB+extra from online course).</li>
<li>Review all the tests, what you missed (and if you’re not lazy, what you didn’t miss too).</li>
</ol>
<p>158 to 2300… good job. =)
i went from a 179 to a 2260 haha. </p>
<p>at the OP: don’t stress too much. it’ll be okay. i didn’t prep until the summer before my junior year and i was fine. i took a prep class though. basically, it was a way to force me to take practice tests. that’s my only advice: take practice tests. like for me, i already knew all the math. critical reading isn’t really something ‘learned.’ the vocab though i had to use premade flash cards from the prep class. those helped. as far as writing goes, i’ve always been pretty good with grammar so it wasn’t hard. however, i had to learn about ambiguity. i mean, i already knew what that is, but like i never considered a sentence wrong because of ambiguity (if it’s obvious what someone meant). the sat does however. and also, redundancy. a sentence will sound right to me only for me to realize later that there were 2 words that were redundant with each other.</p>
<p>I got a 181 on my PSAT (sophomore, too btw) this year.
I’ve been studying SAT for almost 6 mos. now… mostly off, some on time.
My scores on SAT practice tests suck. All are a hair below or above a 600.</p>
<p>I don’t know, but compared to all the CCers here, that fing sucks. Improvement seems impossible, effort is futile lol</p>
<p>Ok bud Im a junior who started studying from Sophmore Year and I am going to tell you whats going to work:</p>
<p>First things first, you have to be committed dont ever say " oh i think im gonna go play some basketball for 3 hours "don’t just skip on your set study time. I was enrolled in a prep class but honestly the only good thing about it is that they force you to take practice tests as Wuchu said. Now I made a 158 on my freshman PSAT but after my <em>Assiduous</em> studying I am safely sitting on a 2100 SAT score( I am taking it again in January to get a 2200). SO first have you taken a test? You have to know where you stand and how much you need to work to get that dream score. Ok so now, honestly writing is REALLY easy to learn look at the rules on this website :
[SAT:</a> Improve SAT Score with SparkNotes: The Seven Deadly Screw-Ups](<a href=“SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides”>SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides)
these are it. Learn this like the back side of your hand and practice writing sections often, like at least 3 sections a week, You don’t need to study every day though it would be helpful. Now the CR section is a b**** for me and still is, every now and then I’ll mess up really bad. Be REALLY careful on this part, as a member stated above look at Noita’s guide its really helpful. The goal is too mark up the passage as much as you can and still have time, practice, practice, practice!!! And for reading maybe a section a day? so just 25 minutes of every day do a section. Now math is really easy if you know all the concepts which you most likely do. Math the only hard part is thats it also part reading comprehension sometimes. You always ALWAYS want to ask yourself after you get to problem 10 or so WHAT your solving for AND what your given. I have observed that the difficulty gets greater in thirds approximately. For example in a 25 minute section with 20 questions, I would say about 6 are easy, 6 are medium and the rest are kind of hard and the last 3 are usually really hard. Just practice math sections 3 times a week, be advised the curve for math can be harsh I missed 3 and skipped 1 and received a 680 on the math section. Now everything is covered. The books are mainly for practice tests, most of the strategy in the books will be what I have told you here. Also Vocab is a really good idea start studying now.</p>
<p>Good luck! I hope you study well and get that dream score…</p>
<p>EDIT: By the way BARRONS is a really good prep book, I only used Barrons, Princeton and the Blue book. Barrons though is harder than the actual test.</p>
<p>Starting sophomore year is early in my opinion. You don’t need 15 months to prepare for a single test. Personally, my brain would be fried at that point, and I would be way too stressed and anxious to do well after studying that much.</p>
<p>When I took the PSAT as a sophomore without studying I got a 201. As a junior, I studied for about 4-5 months, taking a weekly prep class from August 2010 to around December 2010 and got a 2350 on the December test. The class was, without doubt, a large contributing factor to my score, but 15 months is overboard.</p>
<p>In my 1st Term of SAT studying (which I plan to master SAT basics), I am planning to use Princeton Review’s prep book to know basic strategies and either McGraw Hill or Kaplan for SAT contents (more the information and knowledge than strategies). Which one is good for SAT contents and overall information, McGaw Hill or Kaplan??</p>
<p>Kaplan has easier exercises, McGraw Hill has harder exercises and a little more repetitive patter. I recommend you, as a beginner, to try Kaplan first.</p>
<p>IMO, Kaplan first and then Princeton, PC is harder. Of course, you need to do the exercises over and over again and examine the questions.
you can also get the official online course, which your school may have subscribed, ask your counselor. I found this EXTREMELY helpful in practice, especially in the months leading up to the test.
Try to do untimed test first and grasp the concepts. If you have problems with math, try Barrons (its awesome, but hardest out of all books). For reading tips, try noitaprep’s guide in CC (I can’t find link). For essay, just practice and learn how to think fast in response to prompts. I recommend you write about 20-30 essays under timed conditions and try to fill out the 2 pages. Try to use 1-2 examples and expound upon them in detail with decent language. That’ll get u a 12.
Get either Princeton or Kaplan’s essential guide to SAT, after studying for about 6-9 months, u should start doing exercises. Practice makes a difference!!
Use the blue book and official materials only after u got done with the other books. Try to review them as much as possible
I hope this helps.</p>