<p>All right, so I am having MAJOR troubles with the writing portion of the SAT. This is the second day of taking practice tests in a prep book (Gruber's) and the only time I have had 8 or less wrong answers on both the Critical Reading and Writing is when I take the individual practice test again. Is this normal? I know its my second day, but when am supposed to have constant good scores after taking a practice test for the first time?
Also, what can I do to increase my proficiency in the Writing portion? It's the only part of the Verbal section where I am often lost and end up frustrated. Can the fact that I am not a native English speaker have anything to do with this? What can I do to make sure I have a good score on the Writing section come SAT day????</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Bumping again. Please help, I'm desperate!!!!!</p>
<p>You took two practice tests on two consecutive days? The idea behind taking practice tests isn't just to familiarize yourself with the test, but to analyze your errors. </p>
<p>Inconsistencies in scores are most likely due to your test taking process. I found that well over half of the questions I got wrong on my practice test were due to carelessness, rather than a lack of knowledge. Analyze your times and analyze your mistakes. If you're completing the Writing section 10 minutes before time, then you're going too fast. For me, my problem was focus. I'll daydream while I'm reading a question, only absorbing the first line and the last. </p>
<p>As far as not being a Native English speaker, in my opinion that's anything but a disadvantage. True, Native speakers will have better intuition. But intuition alone cannot get you a good score. No matter how intuitive you are, you're going to need to learn some grammar rules, which in my experience with Spanish, are far easier to comprehend for a language which you don't speak natively. Find out what you're getting wrong and look it up in a prep book, Spark Notes, or just google it. If you missed a "For my friends and I" error, google "pronouns" and learn all of the rules you don't know. (In this case, subject pronouns versus prepositional pronouns.)</p>
<p>Thanks, that was good advice. However, when can I be expecting consistant, and improved, results?</p>
<p>for the writing section... practice practice practice! then spend time to figure out why you missed the questions you got wrong. Memorize those idioms...
for the essay... For me, I came up with a layout for the intro that I just modified to fit the prompt. Then I pre-memorized most of my first example enough so that I only had to manipulate the end to fit the prompt. While i wrote that example (which, by the time the real test came around, I could do without much thought), i thought about my second example and then summed everything up in the conclusion. Pretty time efficient and effective: i got a 12</p>
<p>What idioms should I concentrate on? I really wasn't taught this properly from an early age, so now I'm paying the repercussions, I guess.</p>
<p>My 13 year old daughter got a 770 writing by using nothing but A Beka grammar worksheets since Kindergarten. You might try those.</p>