<p>Well, being the master procrastinater I am, I haven't really started studying for the PSATs yet :P - apart from taking a couple of practice SATs/some work books. However, I haven't really seen a rise in my scores from taking them. </p>
<p>Is there any other way I can prepare for them? I've looked over the Barron's Math workbook and it was mostly common sense, and the McGraw Hill's Verbal book and it was pretty easy... However my verbal was in the dumps (60s) I need to up my total score from a 204ish to a 220. However, I lost about 10 points because of the brutal math curve, and I think I might be able to score a perfect this time, although I'll need to practice alot so I don't make ANY mistakes. My score break down went something like: 70M - 60sV 70sW. Thanks</p>
<p>Yeah, I hope thats enough. But how does one prepare for these standardized tests? I've taken several practice ones, and my score isn't going up :(.</p>
<p>You dont just take tests and think you will magically get better. Thats probably the biggest waste of time ive heard about. If you play basketballs and you shoot a million shots the wrong way are you going to be even an inch closer to doing it right? At your level you to do questions very methodically and analitically. For reading, my best advice is to constinently ask yourself, Why is this answer wrong? and what information supports this? You always want to know the answer to both of those questions in order to guarentee success. For writing, try and notice patterns. Writing has more patterns than any other section. And for math, review concepts in your book (CB Book has great review) and practice hard questions only. There is no sense in doing the easy ones (of course im assumming with a 700 M you get the easy + med. ones always right). Anyway, just work through problems slowly and you will see patterns. Thats the key to an 800</p>
<p>hey, I am a rising junior, and I will have to take the PSAT too. (Luckily, I started prepping a few years ago. . .)</p>
<p>I will need more information on why you are screwing up. . .if it is because of stupid mistakes, then you need to spend more time (I get into the habit of doing practice tests really fast with a third of the time left, so I screwed myself on my practice PSAT last year - i got one math wrong, which brought me down to a 76.)
It sounds like you are a math person, so I guess you need more practice on the CR and W. . .so, if you are messing up on the sentence completions, you probably need to memorize vocab, in which cause spend one hour memorizing and reviewing 100 words a day until the test.
The only way to get better at reading is to learn the strategies that the CB blue book won't tell you (ex. the answers will NEVER degradate human right advocists in any way). Also, to gain more time on CR, read ONLY a sentence or two from each paragraph. . .don't even bother skimming. . .most of the questions are have specific line designators, and once you get to the big picture questions, you have a general idea of the passages already. . .
For writing, you're in a worse situation because writing needs more preparation compared to CR. I guess the best thing you can do right now is to do as many practice questions from CB as possible, and start finding patterns (ex. there will always be 3-4 questions that test you on parallelism, the differencd between imminent and eminent might be on the next year's test, a question that tests you on will vs. would will probably show up. . .etc.)
I hope that helps. . .Oh yeah, NEVER do problems from any other book than CB (the reasoning from other companies sometimes differ from that of CB) Also, do homework in the morning a month or so before the test, and start testing out energy drinks, such as Red Bull, to see if they give your brain a boost.</p>
<p>I'm doing alright on the math for now. I missed some of the hard ones, but after I looked back at them, I realized my mistakes. The psat math was easy enough.
However, I had ALOT of trouble with the math on the real SATs though... for some reason. I need to brush up on my alg. 2/permutations/combinations I guess.</p>
<p>I really have no idea why I'm missing anything on verbal/writing. It's just over my head.</p>
<p>do you miss any sentence completion questions? if you have a good vocabulary, then you shouldn't miss any at all, which means you only miss CR questions. If you are using the CB blue book go online at input your answers and it will give you a free skills report.. .I hate to use these reports from ETS, but it seeems like you are clueless</p>