<p>I'm planning to retake the SAT again in my junior year.. at the moment I'm at a 2130 composite (R - 730, M - 710, W - 690). My reading jumped up from the last test by about a hundred points and I can improve it further with more revision, but my maths and writing scores stayed around the same. How can I improve my score? (Especially with writing, I'm not sure why but my essay score SUCKED, got a 9, really disappointed)</p>
<p>O gosh, you sound just like me last year.
I actually got the same score you have now the first time I took it, except my CR and W were both 720, and M was 690.
I took them again a couple months later and got a 2260 (800CR 760W 700M)
Obviously the math didn’t really go up, so I can’t help you there, but by then I was done with SATs. ( I took ACTs too, got a 34. You might want to try those too)
So I can’t really help you with the math, but for writing and CR…</p>
<p>For CR, practice is the key. Especially learn latin roots, those will help you with complicated words. Also, try to read a couple of more complicated books (Scarlet Letter, Gatsby, Fahrenheit 451) like the week before. They contain a lot of the more complicated wording that will help you on CR, and give you practice. The more you read, the easier it is to “hear” if a sentence is off.</p>
<p>That leads to writing. Honestly, practice makes perfect here to. Take some old prompts and at least outline them, so hat you have an idea of what sort of things to write. Try to find some old ones where they broke down what they were looking for and why they gave the grade they did (they have some on college board.) Also, keep up with the news. It is best to use current examples in the essay. My downfall the first time was using older, not as common or well known, examples. I know they say you can use personal anecdotes, but try not to if you can help it, unless it is really strong. Short and strong is always better than long but weaker where the essay is concerned.
~About the 9, I had the same thing happen to me the first time, and the stuff written above was the problem. I tried to say too much in such a short span of time.</p>
<p>The only advice I can give you on math, via my friend who got an 800, is practice. He says that you probably know the content, and are being tripped up by the “tricks” in the questions. Try to find a list of common tricks and study them. SAT math is made to fool. It is a reasoning test after all.</p>
<p>Anyway, let me know if this stuff helps. My friend and I both tutor a lot of lower scoring kids, so it would be nice to get some feedback from someone with an already good score :)</p>