<p>I took both the ACT and the SAT practices on Princeton Review on separate occasions. I have straight A's and will do AP's the next two years, and in general have great test taking skills. I scored a 27 on the ACT and about a 1270 on the SAT, the writing essay could not be scored so I don't include that, but I expect the essay to be a strong point for me.
Anyways, i was hoping to gain admission to an elite school. My real question would be, should I be worried, or set my sights a little lower? I am white and ,living in a small town in the middle of nowhere with a crappy public school that is in a financial crisis, will have no real hook and probably not the best ECs. Also on a sidenote, how much have you guys raised your scores from the first practice test you took to the real thing?
Thanks from a worried sophomore.</p>
<p>1) When I was a sophomore, my SAT was a 1360 (freshman score was a 1270)- not terribly impressive. I ended up with a 1540. You've still got plenty of time to improve.
2) Living in the middle of nowhere will be a factor in your favor- but I'm not sure how big a factor.
3) Don't "aim low" if you don't want to. Apply where you want to go. However, I cannot stress enough the importance of having safeties you really like.
4) Good scores will not necessarily get you into elite schools, and a mediocre test score will not keep you out.
5) Don't trust Princeton Review. Maybe it's just me, but I only trusted College Board's released tests.
6) A strong essay will serve you in better stead than strong test scores.
7) You still have SAT IIs, which you'll probably do well on.
8) Take as many APs as possible (that you can manage).</p>
<p>thanks I will have at least every AP my school offers (like 6) and I hope to study some but I don't really know how to improve</p>
<p>I think practicing with old tests is the best way to study, especially for math. It worked for me, at least. Reading is the best thing to do for vocabulary.</p>
<p>i need to know warblesrules, i've been prepping all sophmore year, and ended up with a 2040, about a 1360 on the old one. Did you prep before your sophmore year to end up with urs being a 1360? What did you do that helped you jump up 200 points?</p>
<p>I will do whatever it takes to get a 2260+ (about a 1540), i just need to know how to get my damn cr and sentence completions up.</p>
<p>yeah i don't really know what i did wrong but im in the same boat, will do ANYTHING (that doesn't invlove lots of money)</p>
<p>Actually, if makes you feel better, I didn't really do any verbal prepping until this year. I did prep for math, though. I used Real SATs by College Board and just took test after test. It raised my scores A LOT. I read like crazy, which really helped me on the verbal section. I did pay attention in school, though, which I think helped me more than anything...When it comes down to it, taking lots of practice tests is what helped me (including the PSATs). Good luck!</p>
<p>By the way, there are plenty of threads about SAT prepping. Here's a good one about verbal prep:</p>