Okay, give it a shot.
^ Trying to be funny?
I am not quite sure about what you are trying to accomplish here? This is a forum where plenty of people have found support and positive information. It is NOT helpful to comment on the lack of progress and point to studies that did not … demonstrate much of anything. For the record, rest assured that I am familiar with the findings of researchers such as Briggs or Hansen. But what good does it do to quote them when a kid comes here to find support and hopes to get … better? Does telling him most people fail for not really trying really help?
I am also about to be a junior, and I’m taking the SAT tomorrow.
I think with practice you can improve your score. If you are taking challenging classes and working hard in school, you already know pretty much everything tested on the SAT. In this case though, to get a good score, sometimes it’s about learning how to take the test. If you buy some prep books (I used the official College Board one) and work a few problems every day, you will definitely be prepared come test day.
However, I would actually recommend that you take the old (current) SAT multiple times. January is your last chance before it changes in March, and it would suck to be stuck with a bad score and have to study for the redesigned SAT, which may be easier - or not - but it’s still an unknown quantity. The current SAT has been around for 10 years, so there is a ton of practice material out there and plenty of known information.
The current test is offered for the last four times in October, November, December, and January. Maybe you should consider taking it as early as October and then have multiple chances to improve your score. Note, however, that generally, if you’ve taken the SAT over three times, your score will probably not improve much more. Since this is your first time taking the actual test (which you’ll be preparing for), if you’re not satisfied with your score, you’ll have another opportunity or two before March.
If you take it in October, you still have several months to prepare. You don’t have to prepare that intensively because, like I said above, you likely already know everything you’ll need to score well. Just review the material and practice taking the test and becoming familiar with the types of questions asked.
So, to conclude:
- Consider taking the current test sooner rather than later. You’ll have other chances.
- Practice the types of problems on the test, learn how the SAT works, learn different test-taking strategies, etc.
- Don’t stress! You already know the material!
Good luck! Hope I helped!
@xiggi Yeah, I didn’t understand what you were trying to say. It seemed as if it was that all the studies had no bearing. As a research scientist, I know that’s just not true. It’s reasonable for people to know what what the facts are as opposed to buying into the pumped up hype you might hear from those who seem to have some sort of interest in promoting it.
It’s one thing to take the SAT and feel like you had a bad day or realize that you just couldn’t answer a lot of the questions because your vocabulary was inadequate and you didn’t recognize the words enough.
However, it’s another to take it again and again in hopes of getting a 1 or 2 standard deviation increase because your “target is 2350”. Unfortunately, I don’t think most HS students have enough education and experience at this stage to understand the power of statistics and how it works against those efforts. Publicizing dramatic claims only leads to a lot of burned up time and sales for test prep purveyors.
“Does telling him most people fail for not really trying really help?” The College Board statistics I quoted simply demonstrate the results of students who have taken a retest. We don’t know what preparation or additional classes they had in between. I’m sure some studied hard while others didn’t try anything. You’ll note that students were nearly equally as likely to see a decrease in their score as they were to see an increase.
The studies, however, are quite a different thing. As I recall, they were all attempting to measure the effects of some type of preparation. I’m sure that’s why they nearly all report a net increase in scores, albeit smaller than students would like to see.
Seems like it would be easy enough for the larger test prep organizations to accurately document students who have taken a bona fide SAT once, go through their course and then retake it with a concomitant increase. Is it possible that the results aren’t good enough to sell?