I’ve been doing countless SAT practice tests but my score won’t get higher, especially in both the Reading and Writing
section. I’m consistently scoring around 700 for the English section and it doesn’t seem to get higher. I really want to achieve a high 700 in the whole English section or even a perfect 800. How can I fix this?
If you have done lots of practice tests, did you go back and look at what you got wrong and why?
Then focus on that.
@mommdc I sure did and actually put some time and effort into looking at what I got wrong? The problem is that
understanding these wrong answers on one practice test doesn’t seem to help on another practice test.
Note that one would reach a plateau which may or may not be 800. That is the whole idea of the standardized testing. It is not a test for preparation effort, although thorough preparation would bring you to your plateau score. Going through the answers would definitely help, but it is not a sufficient way to learn all the curriculum covered by the test. If you want to raise your plateau, you will need to do more than practice exam.
How many hours do you have invested? Over what length of time?
The difference in questions correct is 3-4 that is just hard to guarantee, but I would interested to see how many hours of study over what time frame you have.
I’m an SAT tutor, and I have a few suggestions.
First, I find that many strong students reach a plateau on the Reading section, and when they do, I find that they are often arguing with the test. They can usually narrow the choices to two choices, but then they defiantly hold on to their favorite answer, arguing that it could also be right … so long as you look at it from a particular perspective. The truth is that there is only ONE correct answer; there is ONE answer that is definitely better than the others. If there’s even a slight problem with a given answer (too broad, too narrow, not quite precise or appropriate), it is wrong. One tactic that often helps my students, especially if they are able to quickly eliminate a couple choices, is to as themselves NOT whether this answer might be the correct answer (which causes the brain to thing about perspectives that might allow this answer to fit), but instead to ask themselves, “why might this answer be wrong.” If you find a flaw in the answer choice, it is wrong.
Second, in order to find the correct answer, it is important that you have time to find support for the answer (and reasons why the other answer choices are not correct) in the text. It’s virtually impossible to do that after the initial read, so your original read needs to be fast enough to allow enough extra time to go back and study the text while answering the questions. If you are stuck at 700 points, I would recommend you try doing the initial read a bit faster (especially on the non-fiction passages) so that you have extra time to go back and review the text.
Third, you didn’t mention how many errors you are typically getting on the grammar / writing section (Section 2). In my experience, this section is easier to improve. There are only so many grammar rules to learn. I strongly recommend Erica Meltzer’s SAT grammar book. It’s very user-friendly.
Fourth, if you are serious about wanting to improve your score, I recommend Erica Meltzer’s Critical Reader (for the new SAT). It’s a bit dense, but it’s the best resource out there.
Finally, are you aware that there are now 8 official practice tests that have been released? You can find them in the newly released Official College SAT Board Study Guide and you can also find them online and download them. If you haven’t already done all 8, I would recommend that you think about the advice above, grab the Meltzer books and study them, and THEN try the remaining tests (under timed conditions), to see how you do using the new approach. Remember, new results will only occur after a new approach. Keep doing everything the same and your results are likely to stay the same.
SoccerMomGenie-Thank you for the great suggestions. Do the 8 practice tests come with the answers, too? We are paying a tutor $150/hr each week for practice tests with the hook being my daughter gets the answers when she returns the next week!
Yes, I believe the answers are available. Search the internet for “collegeboard answer explanations”
@Mimi2018 - if you take the tests on Khan Academy they are automatically graded! And even if you use the CB books to take the tests…there is an app for scanning in your answer sheet and having ti graded.
Mimi2018, your daughter can take the eight practice tests released by college board on her own (under timed conditions and breaks) Doing so will closely imitate the actual SAT. The most authentic practice tests are those released by collegeboard, not even a payed tutor. Here is the link to the practice tests: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/practice/full-length-practice-tests
Seriously? I had no idea we could get the tests and answers on line. Yeesh. Thanks so much. You just saved us $1200.
Wow! Amazed to know some tutor was charging so much and implying the value was the tests!?! That doesn’t make sense.
Perhaps the tutor (presumably tutoring company?) was providing their own created practice tests? If so, they are nowhere near as worthwhile as the actual practice tests.
Another possibility is that the tutor was not really charging for the tests, but instead charging for his/her time in reviewing answers with the students.
Let me say a couple things. First, I don’t really recommend you download all 8 tests from the free online source. All 8 tests are available in one book from the College Board – the 2018 Official Guide. You can buy it from the College Board, but you can also buy it online (and cheap) from Amazon.com. Worth it, because it will save you lots of money on paper and printer ink, plus everything will be kept together in one place and pages won’t get separated and lost, AND because it mimics the actual test better, because you turn the page after every pages, not after every page (if it’s a printout). Also, I strongly recommend that your student does NOT take the practice tests online with Khan Academy. Taking the tests onliine does NOT come close to duplicating the experience of the actual test. You can do the tests in the CB book (or from a written test that you download and print out) and then scan the results using a free (or cheap) app and get all the same benefits from Khan Academy as doing the test online.
Second, the tutor may not have been scamming you at all. The way I work, and the way the best tutors work (I think), is to have the student do a practice test on their own, under timed conditions, after the tutor talks to the student about general test-taking strategies (how to bubble, how to tackle the questions in general, how and when to mark up their book, etc). Then, the most important part of the test prep is to review the questions where the student was unsure or wrong. Many students who correct their own work will then say, glibly, “Oh, I get it now,” and then move on. This is NOT an effective way to learn. A good tutor will help the student to notice trends in errors and types of errors and give them tools to ensure they don’t repeat them. A good tutor will spot areas of weakness and give the student extra help in those areas. A good tutor will give students methods to review and retain their learnings. It is extremely difficult for even the best of students to be able to do this on their own. And by the way, I find the College Board official explanations to be virtually useless. They’ll rarely if ever identify any shortcuts. They’ll never suggest plugging in or backsolving as options, even when these methods are quickest. And on the most difficult questions, where explanations are most wanted, they often fall very short. The explanations on reading questions are particularly bad. They often say things like, “Choices A and B are incorrect because they are not applicable” (or something similarly useless). It’s fine to use the official CB explanations as a resource, but recognize that that resource is extremely limited.
I suggest you have a more informed discussion with the proposed tutor, and perhaps ask for a couple references. But I wouldn’t just assume it was a $1200 scam.