Should I report my ACTs as well as my SATs?

Test Preparation
1

<p>SUMMARY:
SAT I (3 tries): 2390 (M:800, CR: 790, W: 800; ESSAY: 12)
SAT II: Match IIC: 800; Lit: 690 (sigh)</p>

<p>11/2007 SAT Subject Test
Literature 670<br>
10/2007 SAT Reasoning Test
Critical Reading 790<br>
Math 710<br>
Writing 800<br>
06/2007 SAT Subject Test
Literature 690<br>
05/2007
Critical Reading 680<br>
Math 750<br>
Writing 660<br>
01/2007 SAT Subject Test View My Score Report<br>
Mathematics Level 2 800<br>
10/2006
Critical Reading 600<br>
Math 800<br>
Writing 670 </p>

<p>Now, I don't know if I should send in my ACTs, which I tried last minute on September of this year, 2007. I screwed up on my reading, 'cause I ran outta time: </p>

<p>Composite: 31
English: 34
Math: 35
Reading: 24 (SIGH)
Science: 30 (SIGH)
Combined English/Writing: 33 (10 essay)</p>

<p>Should I submit my ACTs? Would it seem like I was hiding something, would they not know, would it hurt me, would it help me?</p>

2

<p>Wow; those are huge fluctuating scores</p>

<p>I say you just ignore the ACT. DO NOT SEND</p>

3

<p>I know, talk 'bout a range 'eh?</p>

4

<p>i would not send the ACT.</p>

5

<p>Wow lol. I totally agree with noobcake. Those scores fluctuate like MAD. Don’t send that ACT.</p>

6

<p>Do not send the ACT, period. On another point, do you have any tips for SAT? I really want to get a 2300 or above. My sophmore score was 2200 (680 CR/740 M/780 WC) and my junior score fell to 2160 :frowning: really depressing. My CR went up by 60 points but WC dropped 100.</p>

<p>How’d you practice to get that score?</p>

7

<p>Practice, practice, practice.</p>

<p>CRITICAL READING:
Critical reading is by far the most difficult thing to improve upon, which is what you seem to be falling off on. But it’s not impossible: if you look at my SAT scores, you’ll see that my first score was a 600 (yeah, I know) then it jumped to a 790 (lost that 10 points to a vocab…). One of the greatest advantages you can gain on the Critical Reading section would be from vocabulary; if you master it, you are guaranteed a 30+ jump in your score, if you miss a few right now. The reading part is a little more difficult:</p>

<p>ANNOTATE, ANNOTATE, AND MARK UP EVERYTHING.
This is by far, the one most important thing I did during the test. When you read the passages, shortly summarize each paragraph in a word or two. Your ability to articulate what to put in that summary is an indication that you understand the content. This is not for your reference, but so that it is a mental check that you UNDERSTAND what is going on as you read, and it makes you an ACTIVE reader so will not go into a zombie-reading mode. Remember that all the CR is simply recall and level-1 inference. DO NOT read the questions first then read the passage - it is a waste of time for everyone with the exception of a small number of individuals.</p>

<p>Mark up the questions AND THE ANSWER CHOICES AS WELL. Each choice will have SOMETHING wrong in the answer if it is the incorrect answer. It is usually a word or a small phrase. Underline that incorrect section of the answer and cross out that possibility. If one small part of the answer is wrong, all of that answer is wrong. Limit your possibilities. Again, much like being able to summarize the paragraphs in a word or two, your ability to pick out what is wrong with enough certainty as to point it out will make it much easier to find the correct answer. Put a mark next to any answer you feel might be right, and circle the ones you choose in your booklet. </p>

<p>THE CORRECT ANSWER WILL ALWAYS HAVE SUPPORT FROM THE TEXT. Think about it from college board’s perspective: if someone were to dispute the validity of a correct answer, the only evidence they could get to support their answer MUST BE FROM THE TEXT. You have all the information you need in the reading passage.</p>

<p>CHECK CHECK CHECK YOUR ANSWERS</p>

<p>For the writing section:
Much like critical reading, the answers for the multiple-versions section of the writing have subtle errors in the answer choices. Underline WHAT is wrong with that answer choice. You will only mark that if you know with CERTAINTY that there is a RULE – a RULE, not a made up one, not one that you THINK is a rule – against that section of the answer choice.</p>

<p>For the find-the-error section. Write down the rule next to the question, come up with abbreviations. I put ‘S/P’ for “singular/plural” errors that come up like “the geese, which were flying across the blue lake, is (!!) headed south.” That will help you. For the last part of the multiple choice, with the corrections answer, grammar is still key to the questions. If it is grammatically incorrect, it’s not “the best alternative for the underlined section.”</p>

<p>Grammar notes and rules:

  • Two grammatically correct answers come down to which is more concise and to-the-point
  • Subjective/Objective case (who or whom?)
  • Clauses (joining two independent clauses with comma-conjunction, semicolon, etc.)
  • Idioms (capable of NOT capable to)
  • Comparisons (there are more people in California than Texas (!!))
  • Word Usage (The affects (!!) of the fire were devastating)
  • Antecedent problems
  • Pronoun case
  • I’ll have more</p>

<p>For essays: be interesting. Be an expert on a few historical examples and they are flexible for almost ANY prompt. Examples include:

  • Civil War
  • American Revolution
  • Civil Rights Movement
  • World War II
  • Cold War
    Issues:
  • Homosexual Discrimination
  • Global Warming
  • Ineffective UN
    People:
  • MLJK and Rosa Parks are cliche, don’t do that.
  • Don’t talk about Jesus or Hitler, I don’t care what you say about them: don’t.</p>

<p>I’ll finish this later.</p>

8

<p>Wow, this is great stuff, thanks. Lol if you have more definitely continue.</p>

9

<p>Continued:
For essays:
LONGER IS BETTER!LONGER IS BETTER!LONGER IS BETTER!LONGER IS BETTER!
Collegeboard says that it doesn’t matter how long your essay is, and that it depends on the quality of your work, but here’s the cold, hard truth: IT MATTERS. A professor at MIT did a study to see if there was a correlation between essay length and the writing score of those essays and guess what: it was one of the STRONGEST one-to-one correlations he’s ever seen.</p>

<p>One and a half pages in length is good. The full two is better. Write big. I mean it. Write big. Personal examples are not good except for a FEW people. The only reason why is because the prompts on these essays are so vast and seemingly very “big world issues” sorta thing; the typical high school student who is taking this test doesn’t have much to say from his personal experience except for that “one time he got an F on his english test and that is how failure drove him to succeed later than life.” Not to say that your life is mundane – it’s just mundane to read about. UNLESS you have something VERY significant to talk about that WORKS for the prompt (I am gay, I talked about coming out each of the three times and I applied it to the prompts. I got an 11, 12, 12; respective to time) Your best bet is to use historical examples. </p>

<p>Four paragraphs is good. Intro, Example 1, Example 2, Conclusion. Please make a conclusion. Just restate what you said in the intro and what you were talking about in your two bodies and end it with some cool cest la vie statement. Remember that you are part of a tiny percentage of kids who can even PREPARE for this essay. You simply need to stand out and write english “real good.”</p>

<p>MATH:
This one is a matter of – yes – checking. This is very elementary math. You should be finished with this section extremely quickly, and when you are, you should check your answers TWICE. I don’t care if you thought a baboon with a three fingers could do number two on his own – check it. The overconfidence that springs from that mentality keeps you from spending 3 seconds (if not less) checking if x=4 or not. </p>

<p>When checking, re-solve it. Do not simply look over your work and think that it “looks pretty good.” Re-solve it in a different way, if there is a different way. You should know by now that math has multiple methods to reach the same solution. If you can come up with two different ways to do it and reach the same conlusion, chances are, the answer you got is correct. If not, then that means something went wrong.</p>

<p>OTHER GENERAL TIPS:

  • Leave nothing blank. I’m serious. Nothing. Guess. Do it.
  • WATCH YOUR TIME. Bring a watch with you. Do not leave it on your wrist. ASK YOUR PROCTOR IF YOU CAN LEAVE IT ON THE DESK BEFORE YOU DO. Some may actually consider it “cheating.”
  • If you find that you are getting 4 consective answers, there may be something wrong. It is HIGHLY unlikely that such a thing will happen, it usually caps at 3. But do not trick yourself into thinking that automatically, once the answer goes DDDD that ONE of them is incorrect. Check it. If you can’t find anything wrong, leave it. Do NOT change it last minute ONLY because you think there is a pattern. You either know it, or you don’t. You can only hope that a few weeks after when you get your scores that for the entire test, the only bubble you bubbled was C and the collegeboard was playing a cruel joke with your futures.</p>

<p>THE THRESHOLD:

  • Three days before the test, drink until you can pee in the toilet, not flush, and no one will notice anything afterwards. But do not drink too much water (if any at all) right before the test. If you do, you’ll be more concentrated on the capacity of your bladder and how much that compares to the gallon of water you drank that morning rather than remembering what the word “cerpuscular” means on the Critical Reading section (btw, it means “having to do with twilight” ; I know, why?).
  • BRING FOOD TO THE TEST. String cheese is good. Carrots are good. Only liquid that should be brought is water. No caffeine, no tea, no sugar, NONE. Water.
  • TAKE OUT YOUR BATTERIES FROM YOUR PHONE AND PUT THEM IN SEPERATE POCKETS IF YOU BRING YOUR PHONE! Your SAT is more important than your mother’s curiousity as to what you would like to eat after the SAT (which, consequently, you will be dismissed from early that day.)
  • DO NOT DRINK ENERGY DRINKS. DO NOT DRINK CAFFEINE. DO NOT DRINK ANYTHING WITH MILK THAT MAY GIVE YOU AN UPSET STOMACH. DO NOT TRY AND RADICALLY CHANGE YOUR DIET.
  • DO eat breakfast.
  • Sleep. Sleep early. 9:30. Wake up early and take a shower if you can. Do a few sample problems before you leave just to get into the mood. Do not check your answers though (you do not want to get yourself panicked.)
  • Arrive at LEAST half-an-hour early.
  • PREPARE EVERYTHING THE NIGHT BEFOREHAND, admission ticket, pencils, eraser, calculator, fresh batteries, ID. This will take away from the unecessary stress you would feel the day afterwards.</p>
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<p>PREPARING FOR THE SAT:
Only use the book released by the SAT. The only other thing besides that is to find a good grammar book that will teach you the basics. The truth is that all the other third-party test prep books either have inaccuracies or they simply do not cover the correct material.</p>

<p>I cannot believe how difficult it was to find formal grammar instruction as to things like what was objective/subjective case after taking it twice and getting the same score. You will be surprised how easy grammar is after simply learn the rules, and you will find that once you have practiced enough you can master the grammar section with swiftness and precision.</p>

<p>As for math, you should be able to get enough practice out of the SAT book released by collegeboard. Become familiar with your TI-83. It is an invaluable tool that will help you tremendously during th test. Though the test does not prohibit the use of programs during the test, and proctors cannot legally erase them or clear your memory the day of the test, you should have to rely on them.</p>

<p>When studying vocabulary, and you have a list review. I had a list of 1000 and I was going at 100 words a day two weeks before the test for a cram revie. What I did was look at the first 25, covered the definitions, recited the definitions. If I did not know it, I made a mark next to the word. Then I checked it and tried again. The process repeated until that 25 was over. Then I moved to the next 25. I covered the definitions then for the 50 and I started FROM THE BEGINNING. Each time I missed a word, even if I already marked it, I marked it again. The more times I messed up and the more marks I had next to the word, I knew I had to spend extra time on them. I did that ALL THE WAY to 1000. It’s tedious. It’s meticulous. But it’s worth it. I found I had a larger range not just for the SAT, but in any situation, as to how when I could use words effectively. It also gives you a greater vocabulary when you write. Also, when studying the vocabulary. Try and come up with mnemoic devices. They really do help. For example “sanguine” it means “optomistic.” Sanguine sounds like linguine to me, one of my favorite dishes, which makes me happy and “optomistic.” Words like “turbulent” I associated to familiar phenomena like turbulence on a plane and associated the rocky experience to the actual word. It really helps. Another note: eventually you may associate the words and definitions according to the order in which they are in on the list. Eventually I took a blank piece of paper, wrote down in a scrambled order all over the paper the words with more than two marks on them, and used that to test myself on. When you can do that, you know you are memorized.</p>

<p>OTHER THINGS I CHANGED IN MY FIRST POST:
Sentence completion added to the Critical Reading section.</p>

<p>I hope all this helps you, and if I come up with more, I shall write it up. Just be diligent – I know it was difficult for me to do. I went from a 1780 on my first try on a practice real SAT to a 2390 on the real test in less than a year and a half, and I am almost positive you can make the same improvement. Just practice.</p>

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<p>^ haha, I went from 1860 to 2320 in about the same time period, and I (almost) completely disagree with everything you say. My long-ass post is here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/420634-how-i-went-1860-2320-1570-14-months-vocab-list-10-sats-inside.html#post4938971[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/420634-how-i-went-1860-2320-1570-14-months-vocab-list-10-sats-inside.html#post4938971&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>EDIT: Mine’s a single test though, not superscored.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the all the advice you guys! I’ll let you know how it works out.</p>