<p>@psmusic18- you don’t need a 2300+ for HYPSM…
Anything 2200+ (even if, god forbid, superscored!) is more of the mark. If you don’t believe me, look at the admissions threads where 2370s/35s were getting rejected and 2210s/32s were getting accepted.</p>
<p>2390
800 math
800 cr
790 w 77/10
Yayayayayay</p>
<p>Also
800 math 2
800 chem</p>
<p>second try …</p>
<p>Composite: 1910
Math: 600
Critical Reading: 670
Writing: 640</p>
<p>CR & W improved, M went down from a 620.</p>
<p>My reach schools are Cornell and MIT.
The next competitive school is the University of Waterloo.
Other than that, my score is fine for the other schools.
So eh? ._.
I’m going in for engineering so I hope by doing the SAT II in Math 2 and getting a good score will outweigh my silly Math score on the regular SAT I.</p>
<p>2270 superscore (June Sunday 2013 SAT)</p>
<p>770 Reading (Essential really saved my neck on this one)
760 Math - one wrong and they drop my score 40 points! 
720 Writing - 2 wrong and a 8 on the essay - but I got 740 Writing on my last SAT</p>
<p>Can I get into John Hopkins with this score? If not, I’ll take it again to improve my writing and math score.</p>
<p>I took the SAT in June just because I needed an SAT score for a program, no other reason. I got out the 24th, so I planned to study the week before June 1st, but to my luck, my parents decided to move that week. I was without internet and I was substantially busy organizing everything. Consequence: no study at all. I had never studied for the SAT, not a single glimpse at grammar rules or anything. So, these are my scores, no preparation or experience with the SAT:</p>
<p>Composite: 1840
Math: 680
Reading: 600
Writing: 560</p>
<p>These are obviously not startling or impressive results (I thought I did better in the math portion). Do you guys have any good advice on what to study or how to prepare for my next try. I’m aiming at a 2150+ (750+ Math, 700+ Reading, 700+ Writing) superscore. If you can, add to this “To-do” list for me:</p>
<ul>
<li>Flat out memorize and practice the grammar rules used in the SAT Writinng</li>
<li>Memorize many latin/roman roots, suffixes, and prefixes</li>
<li>Practice and look at the specifications for the essay (I got an 8, no knowing what they were looking for)</li>
<li>Practice some math questions from the SAT Official Study guide</li>
</ul>
<p>greenwave- </p>
<p>For CR, noiteraperp’s method really helped me (630 -> 760). Remember to PRACTICE his method after you implement it. For the vocab, MEMORIZE!</p>
<p>For writing and math, I had always hovered around 770-780 (I think it took luck for me to get 800 on both this time), so I can’t really give you legitimate advice on those sections. However, I have heard AWESOME success stories with Dr. Chung’s math prep (it’s what I’m using for math 2 subject test). So there lol.</p>
<p>For essay, the thread on here called How to write a 12 essay in 10 days (or something along those lines) has really helped me.</p>
<p>Hope this helped!</p>
<p>@Lumos22</p>
<p>I was consistently getting a CR score that wasn’t much higher than yours (610-620), so I did a few things that helped me bring it up a bit:</p>
<ol>
<li>Did some practice reading tests (3 full ones) online on eprep and watched the videos explaining the answers, which helped quite a bit.</li>
<li>Memorized 200 words, which really isn’t that much at all. I would recommend memorizing around 700 or 800, and you should be good for almost all of the vocabulary questions. You can find lists of the most common SAT tested words online.</li>
<li>I’m not sure this one helped that much, but I learned about 300 Latin/Greek roots in my AP Lang class, which may have subconsciously helped me cross out or choose a certain answer, but I don’t think it really had that much impact. I would say knowing roots will probably only help you on a few questions maximum (unless of course, you go and memorize ALL the roots out there, but I doubt you will want to do that).</li>
</ol>
<p>I would just focus on taking as many practice tests as you can for the reading sections, maybe going on the CollegeBoard website and reading detailed explanations, as well as memorizing commonly tested vocab words.</p>
<p>Hope this helps, and good luck getting your score up. 
Oh, and by the way, mine went from 620 on PSAT to 690 on SAT with very little effort as I was focusing on school/AP exams.</p>
<p>Thanks prowlings. I’ll definitely look up the resources you gave me. I’m not worried much about the Math, I can definitely hit my goal of 750+ if I just practice the blue book to catch what mistakes I’m making. The reading and writing are what I worry about. Do you have any links to good/not too expensive resources for CR/Writing (That you have not already mentioned)? For example, do you know of any reliable vocab lists. I can’t private message you because of the 15 posts rule, but would you mind if we had contact some other way? I’d like to hear more from you, you seem reliable and intelligent.</p>
<p>Greenwave - Of all the test prep material that I obtained, including several general prep books (Gruber’s, Princeton Review, and the Blue Book) and vocab books (SAT World Slam, Vocab Cartoons, Direct Hits), I would say that the one thing that helped me the most was practice exams (previous CB tests). These could be from the blue book or just scattered links that you may find either here on CC or the web. After you learn the methods that most help you, it is so incredibly important to take full practice tests - over and over again (that was the mistake I made when prepping for my 2nd attempt at the SAT - I did not do whole practice tests enough).</p>
<p>I honestly don’t think any one vocab list is ENOUGH for mastering the CR section because any word is fair game for the SAT. For me, I sort of memorized out of Gruber’s Complete (3500 words - that thing is basically a dictionary), except I never got around to knowing the full list because it IS super long. However, I retained certain words unique to that list. I basically did a bit out of every vocab list I had, and even though I wouldn’t know every single word on every single list, over time, I sort of knew a bit here and there. I did try to memorize every word I did not know in Direct Hits though (both books), because DH generally has a shorter list and is focused more on core vocab (appears most frequently), and I felt like it was a review of all the other uber long lists I had previously attempted to memorize. Bottom line is, do not think any one list will suffice for your 750+ CR score. If you encounter a word you don’t know, regardless of whether it appears in an SAT vocab list, learn it. </p>
<p>I didn’t have a method for writing, but my trouble area was the Error ID section (I tended to miss 1-2, esp the no errors). My advice would just be to do a bunch of sections, and always find out why you miss a certain question. Over time, you’ll catch on to patterns.</p>
<p>And lol, I’m really quite an amateur, but my gmail is ivoryvertigo :p</p>
<p>Is 780 on the literature subject test and a 650 on math 2 good enough to send to Stanford?</p>
<p>Do all of you guys study on your own or mostly get the high scores from attending expensive SAT preps.</p>
<p>No worries CollegeStress, I thought the same thing lol. At the moment I’m compiling a poorly formatted .DOC document where I’m planning out a cheap method, followed by a fallback method that involves buying stuff. My plan is: if the cheap method doesn’t produce results on Practice Tests from the Blue Book (WHICH IS A MUST GET), then I’ll resort to the fallback method and buy only the materials that are specific to the areas I’m not doing well in. Give me your gmail tag or email me (snixny) and I’ll send it to you when I’m done. Though, to get the high scores you see people posting here above 2000s, you have to have a decent amount of intelligence (Not genius level, but smart nonetheless). Books and practice won’t get you to a 2400 alone, some mental horse power and determination is needed.</p>
<p>I didn’t take it, but people I know scored 1670 and 1840, both of which are smart but not brilliant.</p>
<p>College prep courses are definitely NOT needed. Take it from me, someone who is from a super competitive ivy-hungry town with people religiously committed to KD college prep. These prep classes are no different than traditional prep books, except that they force you to attend once or twice a week and cost thousands of dollars.</p>
<p>I would say that if you seriously lack internal motivation, enroll in such a course, because they DO force you to study. Otherwise, save money and resources and study on your own time, in your own way.</p>
<p>My friend got 690 Bio SAT II and 800 Literature SAT II</p>
<p>Bear in mind that the SAT is very difficult to improve on. It’s a test of skill, not knowledge. If you didn’t get a good score and you weren’t really familiar with the test, then yes, you can definitely improve quite a bit. But if you were quite familiar with the test and still struggled to make whatever that cutoff you’re aiming for (2100+, 2200+, etc.), then efforts to improve will be mostly futile.</p>
<p>I also hate to add on the bad news, but when it comes to just the admissions process, the SAT is the highest deciding factor, because it allows an equal measurement for all students, even though it’s not a good one. The way my friend put it “it’s one test that more than compensates any slacking off in high school.” He of course didn’t do so hot in high school GPA-wise but got a 2300+ SAT and got admitted to the best schools.</p>
<p>Now here’s the goods news: We all want to go to “prestigious school,” and most of you won’t realize this until you’re actually in college, but prestige is incredibly shallow. If you’re rejected from a school, it’s because you not a good fit, not because you’re not smart enough. Colleges want to emphasize a certain culture and they ensure all students there fit into that culture. Bottom line is, your credentials, regardless of what your SAT an grades are, will place you in a school where you’ll FIT. It’s better to go to a school where you succeed instead of failing at HYPSMIT.</p>
<p>Also, you’ve all heard this before, but the SAT isn’t a good predicator of anything. My friend mentioned before actually struggled and barely held is own freshmen year. My other friend didn’t do too hot on the SAT but aced the most difficult classes freshmen year without a sweat.</p>
<p>Hey guys, I just found this thread lol. Does anyone feel like the essay scores were kinda low this time?
I got a 9 in October and I thought my essay was average, but this time I thought it was golden and I got an 8. -___- And I only improved my overall score by 10 points hahahahaha sad life</p>
<p>@vivendium… For the essays, I took the SAT and ACT in February and got 11 on both tests (my ACT should have been 12, while my SAT should have been like 8.) I took the ACT again and got a 9 on the June ACT (should have gotten 10-11.)</p>
<p>powerfulprep, you should probably make a new thread for this. anyways, a lot of people consider the Blue Book the best practice test(s) book, not actually the best preparation because the advice it gives is general and simply informative about the test. The multiple practice tests are merely for good use to test ourselves.
Anyways, I never took a practice test and I’ve only taken the SAT once with zero preperation. If you post a link to the new thread you create then I’d be happy to give me 2 cents for the October test which I will use the Blue Book for (along with other resources).</p>
<p>As for people looking for some resources to try out before buying prep books or taking classes:
<a href=“MEGA”>MEGA;
<p>@vivendium : yes, I had the exact same score as you did last time and this time for the essay, 9 last time and 8 this time. And I also thought I did very well on the most recent essay. And my superscore only went up 10 points too. I felt like I did so much better! I was sad 
</p>
<p>Did you use a test prep book? I used Kaplan between the first and second tests. I’m thinking it maybe isnt the right book for me, even though it helped my SAT2’s a lot. Did you take a course or anything?</p>