<p>I hate asking these types of questions, especially creating a new thread just to ask this, but I'm taking the SAT in October.
I have never taken the SAT before, however, want to do my best on it. What's is the best way to practice to get a 1300+ (M + R) in my situation?</p>
<p>I took the official practice test once, and got ~720 M and ~470 R (I skipped the writing sections). How should I study (cram) to increase both of these scores?</p>
<p>Note that:
- I am willing to spend an hour on weekdays. And 2-3 hours on weekends.
- I am a senior.
- I have less than a month.
- Took ACT three times. (Reading is the weakest)</p>
<p>Read a book. I don’t suppose you should include it in that hour. Do it in school, between classes, at the end of lunch if you’re bored, on the bus… Write down vocab you don’t know.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, I guess it should be really important since you’re only familiar with the ACT. Memorize vocab in that one hour. DH since you have so little time.</p>
<p>I don’t think memorizing vocab is an efficient way to cram; it may be strategic when studying over long periods of time, but the chances of a extra words learned in a short period of time showing up on the test are slim. That being said, if you study vocab anyway I recommend Direct Hits like Mike said.</p>
<p>The SAT is totally different than the ACT. Just to put that out there. The Critical Reading on the SAT is way less straightforward, and the math is more ‘logic-brainteaser’ at times; it’s got less ‘school math’ than the ACT. Writing–they don’t tell you this, but the essay length matters for the SAT a lot. I don’t know if that’s true for the ACT.
A piece of advice often offered around these topics is to buy the Blue Book (Collegeboard Official SAT study guide)–not for its ‘tips’ and ‘strategies’, but purely for the 10 practice tests in it (which are published by the same company as the SAT, which makes them more accurate and more likely to help you improve your score than practice tests of test prep companies). I agree with that advice, especially if you’re cramming (each practice test takes about 3 hours, and you should spend considerable time going over your mistakes).
For Math, it’s just a matter of learning the concepts, getting used to the kind of curveballs they throw you (some people insist that CB doesn’t try to trick you, but I swear they do) and the format, and then learning your pitfalls.
Critical Reading is regarded to be the trickiest section to get a perfect score on. Common piece of advice: don’t let outside influences bias your choice; the answer is always supported directly in the passage. My personal advice is to take your time reading and really absorb the meaning of the passage before you even read the questions. The ACT English section is not only more straightforward but (in my opinion) presses you for time more–you spend less time on more questions, and after a single block you’re done with English for the rest of the test.</p>
<p>While I scored higher on the SAT than the ACT practice test I took (then again, it was only slightly higher and that was my first exposure to the ACT), I felt as if the ACT was easier somehow. It’s nice to only work on one subject for a huge block and then be done with it…for the SAT, you’ll do about 10-25 minutes of one section (usually 25) and then move on to another of a different subject, then go back to that subject later. For someone used to concentrating in ‘blocks’ this can be innately frustrating.</p>
<p>The SAT is all about patterns.
A good way to start is to lurk around the forums and read various threads on SAT topics. That definitely is helping me raise my score.
Second, it’s imperative you purchase The Official SAT Guide by the College Board and the Direct Hits series for vocabulary. I vouch for the series as I’m currently taking practice tests and my CR score has gone up at least 100 points from June. Also, don’t worry about exhausting tests from the College Board book, there’s a practice test you can take online on the college board website.
Additionally here’s a post that links you to 4 more official practice tests, <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063017149-post1.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063017149-post1.html</a>. This should be far more than you need anyway.
Math on the SAT just involves learning a few concepts and applying them to the same type of problems over and over again.
For the Critical Reading passage questions, I like to label the line reference questions within the passage before reading so I can pay more attention to them as I’m reading the passage.
Lastly, writing involves literally learning 12 rules to achieve success on the section and just reading the practice essays that scored a 6 :)</p>
<p>I would read Silverturtles Guide at the top of this forum for advice on the reading passages and work through the 30 sections of critical reading in the College Board Blue book. Look up any word you don’t know whether it is the right answer or not. They love to repeat words. </p>
<p>I would agree with the other poster that the Direct Hits vocabulary books will be your most efficient way to learn vocabulary that is actually on the test. Make sure you order the 2011 editions, since they have the most words and use them along with the blue book. </p>
<p>If you have 2-3 hours to study on the weekends then spend most of your time on critical reading, but throw in a section of math to keep your skills high. </p>
<p>If you have questions about some of the reading passages many CCers are more than happy to help with an explanation.</p>