<p>I am going through the online course from CB for the SAT. I took the practice test and got a 590 on the English and 610 on the math. They couldn't grade my essay for some reason, so I didn't get a writing score. Previously, when taking another test by hand, I got a 660 on the math and a 600 in the english (without a calculator). Maybe I did bad on the CB online one since I took it kind of late at night. But anyway, I'm getting off topic here...</p>
<p>I keep getting around the same general area (in the low/mid 600s) and want to get to at least the 700s. As I am going through all the lessons in the College Board Online review, I'm seeing that I know everything. I know every single thing that they are telling me, because I have either read it or heard it before. I basically can say what they are going to say before even reading it. If I know this stuff already, and am just reading the same thing over and over again, how is this going to help me? I went through every question I got wrong on the practice test. In math, there were maybe 1 or 2 that I genuinely found very difficult, but I would have been able to maybe figure them out with more time. The rest of the things I got wrong in math, its like.. "oh yeah, thats a good way to do it. hmmph." or something like that. For English, the grammar part (where it has the underlined phrase and you rephrase it) I got nearly all of those correct. The killers for me there are critical reading and vocabulary. For critical reading, I read through the college board lessons, and still, I don't seem to be improving. The lessons did NOT tell me anything i didn't already know! What can I do, and what am I doing wrong?</p>
<p>I feel your frustration. I do not have much time to respond to your message now, but I did want to point you to my web site for some free advice that may help. (I just started the site last week, so there is not much on it yet. Sorry. The address is <a href="http://www.eprep.com%5B/url%5D">www.eprep.com</a>)</p>
<p>Check out my videos on "autopilot" and "easiest to hardest". They may help. (If you cannot view the videos, let me know and I will find a way to help you out.)</p>
<p>Also, I haven't posted on the topic yet, but I have a suggestion for your critical reading woes. When you get to the longer reading passages, skip the passage and go right to the questions. Refer back to the text as needed. Some of the kids who I tutor privately, do very, very well using this technique. It is worth experimenting with anyway.</p>
<p>The SAT is not a test that do well on because you know the material. It relies heavily on your ability of logical application. You have to truly understand the reasoning behind each section of the test to excell.</p>
<p>I believe so, but do it by sections. Don't just take a whole test at once. For instance, take a test and do one section for how ever long you are supposed to do it for. Then spend a ton of time going over it. Break the entire test up into tiny segments.</p>
<p>keep practcing... it really does help. After a while I felt like I knew everything I possibly could know. Then all of a sudden my score jumped. It doesn't seem like it will happen, but it's almost like one day you wake up and something clicked. I took the SAT 3 times. My first 2 scores were similar and then the thirs time my cr went up like 70 points. My advice is to keep practicing.</p>