Practice makes perfect?

<p>If I want to improve my SAT score would practice be one of the top things I would need to do? Or review tips and such etc.</p>

<p>Practice and review your answers is the way to go.</p>

<p>Well SAT should be what you may already know so go for review and tips. But use everything at your disposal my grandma always say.</p>

<p>No, practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. That means practicing with the utmost concentration and focus you can gather, as if you were taking the real exam. Afterwards, you should review each and every error very closely, and understand the erroneous line of thought that led to the incorrect answer – then develop methods to avoid it! You should spend more time reviewing your answers (both right and wrong), than actually doing the exam. It is in this period of review that you actually improve. Metaphorically, it is very similar to bodybuilding. When you go to the gym and strain your muscles through heavy weight lifting, your muscles don’t grow during this period! They grow when you’re resting and eating proteins later on. Similarly, you do not improve during practice in itself, but rather when you review your answers and understand the underlying lines of thought and reasoning that lead to both right and wrong answers.</p>

<p>Fat_Nerd THANK YOU!</p>

<p>Are there any sucess stories as a result of just taking practice tests and improving off of them?</p>

<p>Fat_Nerd is very right. Also, I would mark the questions you answered hesitantly (I used to just put a question mark next to those) and always review those carefully regardless of whether you got it right or wrong. A question you get wrong you’ll obviously review carefully anyway.</p>

<p>Practice with careful review does make perfect. I started with a relatively low score (initial self-diagnostics) and after taking 25 practice tests and lots of careful review of those tests, I ended up with a 2400 on my first attempt. The test prep course I took did very little in retrospect - personal reflection (which internalizes the things you learn) is the most effective.</p>