<p>I've taken 10 SAT Tests, only the Math and Writing. </p>
<p>Let's say I'm getting a 540, the next I get a 620, then a 630, then a 560, then a 550. How does practice help?</p>
<p>I review every question also, but don't understand how to get a 700+</p>
<p>Please help me</p>
<p>Focus on one section at a time for a while. How do you review the questions? You should learn the material so that if you retook the math section you’re reviewing, you’d get all the questions right. Do the questions without time limit. Just go over those practice tests for now–save new practice tests for later. It sounds like you haven’t learned much from your practice tests. And try taking the ACT and see how you do.</p>
<p>The key is not to take practice exams over and over and more practice exams. You must analyze the questions you got wrong/right at the end of the exam. In a notebook, make 2 columns. One for the question number + section you missed. The other column for the reason you missed it. For each question you either missed or were unsure about, write down why you missed it. Analyze what you missed, why you missed it.</p>
<p>Quality over quantity I guess. Don’t just take practice tests to say that you’ve taken them. Actually set out to learn from your mistakes; LEARN.</p>
<p>You want to go to a school that is appropriate for you; not too easy, not too hard. Your GPA will also guide admission committees. Try the ACT; some do better on it than on the SAT.</p>
<p>maybe you should have chosen a more accurate screen name.</p>
<p>^ haha the above post.</p>
<p>Anyway, achievement on the SAT isn’t always something you can improve. Although some people will argue against this, the SAT is an indication of your ability to handle the topics tested and standardized tests. Yes with diligent practice, you can slightly improve your score, but going from 540 to 700+ would require massive amounts of studying as well as a little luck. In your position, follow the advice of other posts and analyze what you are doing wrong. This will help you improve slightly, although you may not make 700+.</p>
<p>OK. I remember when I first came on CC and I was intimidated by everyone getting 2200’s and 2300’s and stuff. I had scored a 2040 at the time and felt like a complete and utter moron. But then again, at that point I’d never really studied in school, so I wasn’t too used to flexing that lump of gray matter in my skull, and basically got by because most school tests are dull and insulting (i.e. require no creativity). </p>
<p>I was never a mathcounts champ. I have never finished a complete novel in my life. And I certainly never learned grammar formally. All I had was some raw brain that had not been shaped early on like most high scorers you see. </p>
<p>But then I decided I was going to get a 2300+. I started making up for years of intellectual depravation using the SAT as an inspiring symbol to help work on the three core aspects of mental ability: mathematical, verbal, and communication skills. I took practice tests religiously and worked on my own. I never asked anybody for help and forced myself to extract the correct reasoning from seeing the correct answers. I also always worked under time limits, scored myself on that basis, then went back and took my time as necessary once time had run out to try to analyze EVERY QUESTION. </p>
<p>In addition to old SAT practice questions, I would start doing the “challenge” problems in my textbooks, editing my essays for school with an SAT-grammar mindset, and reading lots of articles on things I just happened to be interested in. Basically, I started taking an active role in my intellectual development.</p>
<p>The idea, though, is to learn to reason through every question, even if you can’t do it in the time limit. After a while, your brain starts seeing things faster because it develops a set of heuristics that it can use in trying to solve questions quickly.</p>
<p>After my intense practice and mental reshaping, I went ahead and nailed the PSAT (80M, 80CR, 68W) and then the SAT (760 CR, 780M, 800W). I also became a much sharper and creative student. </p>
<p>So, yeah. Make sure you understand proper reasoning for ALL questions – your “right” answers as well as your wrong ones. Just taking practice exams alone isn’t enough. You’ll end up just wasting valuable materials if you’re not using them in the diligent fashion that I’ve mentioned. </p>
<p>~Arachnotron</p>
<p>Congrats Arachnotron, not may people have the talent or the will to do what you did. Although your case is probably not unique, it is a difficult, yet rewarding path. A Genius, his advice is the best I’ve heard in a long time when it comes to preparing for the SAT. It’s not all taking practice tests (yet this is a large part); just reading - your local paper or whatever interests you, from short novels to online news, the more you read, the more your vocabulary and understanding of topics tested on the SAT becomes.</p>
<p>And the same with the math, too. Actually DO your math homework and maybe a little more. However, the SAT is more puzzle like, so it might be useful to just get a book of straight up SAT math questions and just do a set every day, just as some people do crossword puzzles (Kaplan Math Workbook was very useful for this). Pretty soon, your math reasoning skills will go up, your SAT Math score will go up, and you’ll be top of your math class (I went from 710 -> 790 on the math SAT, and from an average math student to someone who aced AP Calculus BC with little difficulty using the strategies that I’m telling you – I’m not just making them up)</p>
<p>dude!!how did you not get into HYP arachnotron??? I also have a question. Do prep classes really help? I mean I have the books and they seem to be helping just fine, but I still just want to make sure that I can do anything possible.</p>