<ol>
<li>I did not study really hard on the SAT, because I never found any of the topics useful or interesting. Or at least put in a practical sense.
Here’s what I’m good at on the SAT: Vocabulary, math.
Here’s what I’m not good at: Passages / Grammar / Essay sections</li>
</ol>
<p>Yeah, I’m going to need some English in 2 classes and my senior project as an engineer that abused his APs like crazy. As for timed write situations, the Sophomore year English class and the writing placement test for Juniors are the only times I’ll deal with that. (I’m just bad with coming up with examples on the spot and trying to put something down in 25 minutes whereas a lot of people can score 10 just writing as fast as they can without planning and I never even tried that).
I do have a unique enough style to my writing, and as long as I can communicate effectively the important things, I feel I’m good.
Edit: As well, the prompts are generally random topics such as is it better for society to make big goals or small goals… This falls apart when you think about big goals should consist of a bunch of smaller parts or however you think about it is not something I’d be explaining on a daily basis. Either that or it feels the argument is very lopsided.</p>
<p>As for picking out grammar mistakes from a passage, that’s the worst part of the test. I often do not finish those—they purposely insert them and we have to find them (and what if there is no error?!?). This kind of goes against the natural process of writing and to me feels like nit-picky nonsense as I won’t be doing MC questions / sorting through all the wrong ways to write a sentence trying to proofread my essay. In fact, I’m taking advantage of free writing tutors.</p>
<p>As for the reading, it’s a combination of a lack of this type of test-taking skill and probably falling for the traps. I don’t know if it’s absolutely necessary to have this skill if my major is focusing on problem solving, processes, etc rather than getting complicated texts.</p>