<p>I took a CollegeBoard practice test where you put your answers in online, and I did quite well.</p>
<p>I was wondering how accurate I should consider this. (Should I get my hopes up or not?) Has it proven accurate for others?</p>
<p>It’s really quite funny but somewhat annoying how many times people ask this question.</p>
<p>The answer is yes, they’re accurate. Are you going to get the exact same score on one practice test as you will on the other? Probably not. But your total score will most likely be within 100 points of what you’ll actually get if you took a real test right now. On the next test you take, you might get a higher score, a lower score, or the same score.</p>
<p>What I’ve found when I’ve been preparing for the SAT was that if I haven’t improved much, that’s reflected in my scores. But if you’ve been getting 800’s on SAT’s like 5 times in a row, that tells you that you clearly know the math and that you’ll probably get very close to 800 on the real thing.</p>
<p>But you shouldn’t approach taking the test with the mindset, “Okay, how many points did I get this time? I did very well on this test, so I don’t really have to worry.” What if you were lucky and just happened to know the material on that one practice test. I’ve taken practice tests where I knew the material because the hard topics that I didn’t understand didn’t show up, but then on the next test I would do much worse because all the topics I wasn’t good at showed up.</p>
<p>Practice tests are very good at showing your strengths and your weaknesses. I know this is going to be a little difficult to do, but focus on what your strengths and weaknesses are. What types of math problems are you always getting right and wrong?</p>
<p>So, to answer your question, the practice test that you took is a good ball-park estimator, but maybe it had questions that you just knew the answers to. </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that the practice test on-line is one of the practice tests from the big blue book (the Official SAT Study Guide). I recommend that you take a look at your strengths and weaknesses, work on those, and then take a second practice test from the blue book (you can probably find this at your local library or at a bookstore; where I live, it’s always on hold though) and see how you do.</p>
<p>My scores actually were higher on the real SAT, then all of my practice test scores. (Had more focus during the actual test.)</p>