<p>Was there a pattern in your practice tests before you took the actual thing? For example, were you always hovering around that score level or did your practice test score start much lower and take huge jumps?</p>
<p>I ask because, since I starting taking practice tests in mid June, my scores keep jumping and then stabilizing. These are my scores in chronological order: 2040, 2060, 2140, 2220, 2170, 2240, 2190, 2240, 2380.</p>
<p>As you can see my scores seem to jump then stabilize then jump again. Just wondering if this was normal or good or bad or what. Thanks.</p>
<p>The only meaningful jumps are 2140->2220, and, much more impressively, 2240->2380.</p>
<p>A 80 point jump isn’t much: it’s roughly 3 or 4 more questions answered correctly, whether it’s spread across the sections or all in one section. </p>
<p>A 140 point jump is about 6 more questions answered correct.</p>
<p>See if you can stay in the 2380 neighborhood. It’s not a bad thing, but consistency is key.</p>
<p>And ahem.</p>
<p>I never took entire practice tests. I don’t have the discipline to make myself take a 4 hour test unless required. However, I did take practice sections for about a week prior to the test, with the goal of getting every question right on each one. This rarely ever happened, but I got familiar with the test and gained confidence, which really helped me when I finally took the SAT. Test-day adrenaline and familiarity with the test are what earned me my 2300+.</p>
<p>If you are scoring that well on your practice tests, then don’t panic when you take the actual test. I could easily see you scoring 2300+ as long as you don’t lose focus, or benchmark your performance against what you scored on the practice tests.</p>
<p>My practice test scores were always in the general area of my final score, 2320. I never wrote practice essays and just assumed that I would get the same score as I got freshman year (7). I got an 8, so that seems to have been fairly accurate in my case.</p>
<p>Okay thanks guys, I am going to see if my next few practice tests correspond to my latest one (which actually should have been a 2400 but I misread the first question on one of the math sections). I prefer not to do the tests in sections because if I do that I have an unrealistic level of focus due to the shorter amount of time and consequently I almost never miss any questions. I do the full length tests because the mistakes I make are usually predictive of what I will do on the real thing. Both of my SATs so far have corresponded almost exactly to the most recent practice test I took before each respective test. I don’t do the essays either; I just assume a score of 10 which I got on my last two tests. Even if I score 2400 on my next 10 practice tests I would still be satisfied with a 2300 in October though.</p>