<p>Does it help at all? he said he was writing it in the time he was a high school senior... this scares me.... he might have not had enough experience to be giving advice yet...</p>
<p>He wrote it at a time where taking the SAT was freshest in his mind, and if he got a good score, it makes it all the better.</p>
<p>I’ve heard from thousands of students that they believe it immensely helped in raising their scores. In particular, people have had good success with the Critical Reading strategies and in applying the knowledge from my grammar guide on the Writing section. </p>
<p>I began to write the guide near the end of my junior year and posted it that summer. I had already been a CC member for a couple years and had significant experience helping students with SAT prep; that’s why I was asked to write the guide. I had previously scored 2400 on the SAT and 36 on the ACT. Plus, I consulted with and had the guide edited by a few other CC’ers who also had very high scores and lots of experience helping students with the test. I don’t see a reason why my grade level would limit my capacity to give valuable advice.</p>
<p>I hope you find it helpful if you do give it a read. :)</p>
<p>I’m also willing to offer a money-back guarantee if you end up finding it a waste.</p>
<p>I found it helpful. Though, the grammar guide was too rushed, so I ended up buying Optimal English Grammar, which made more sense to me.</p>
<p>The grammar guide silverturtle, that you wrote, seemed pretty helpful, much better than all the other guides which make the grammar very ambiguous. </p>
<p>& really? at 2400? wow!!! that’s like superb!!! </p>
<p>I’m not trying to offend anyone but i’ve heard that people on this site sometimes do inflate their grades and list tons of extracurriculars and an outstanding application/transcript when they are sometimes just faking it. (i mean no offense to anyone).</p>
<p>&uh… @silverturtle… it seems like you’re one of those people i just mentioned… but i do believe that you did score 2400 on your SAT. (I’m just saying that you sound like one of those phonies XD) </p>
<p>& Thank you for commenting silverturtle!!!</p>
<p>(@silverturtle, the CR part of your guide seemed too short)</p>
<p>oh and silver turtle… i know i’m beginning to sound very irritating and verbose but, how do you keep up the pace you have on this website? </p>
<p>it seems like your check EVERY POST. and you’re really thorough with College Confidential.
Are you still in college? and why do you still often post here? XD you’re a really nice person to be still helping us high school students when you have already graduated from highschool :PPP</p>
<p>Wow, you really have no social skills. I feel embarrassed for you, OP.</p>
<p>what… are you talking about me? i don’t get what you’re trying to say… -.-</p>
<p>Your social skills are so poor that you are completely oblivious of how rude you are being to silverturtle. You probably don’t even mean to be either; that’s just embarrassing…</p>
<p>You even had trouble understanding that I was speaking to you. Consider working on them.</p>
<p>xD it’s okay. i don’t mean to be offensive or rude to anyone. i respect him for doing so much for the community. And I don’t really need someone to point out something they don’t like about me so idc if it’s embarrassing :)</p>
<p>No need to have any ill will here. I haven’t been offended.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>People have been known to lie about things from time to time, yes. 
</p>
<p>I can’t really prove my various EC, grade, and score claims to you. If assurance of that sort of thing is a prerequisite to the perception of the validity of my advice, so be it. </p>
<p><a href=“@silverturtle,%20the%20CR%20part%20of%20your%20guide%20seemed%20too%20short”>quote</a>
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Perhaps. I think the nature of how to improve on that section is so strategy-driven but practice-dependent that I could get the job done relatively concisely. I’ve also co-written a possibly upcoming SAT/ACT prep book similar to my guide already on here that goes into a bit more depth on the section. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I actually took a rather lengthy break from CC until recently, but over the years I have indeed invested quite a lot of time. I usually enjoy interacting with people on here; I guess it’s that simple. I’m currently on leave from Brown University. I might return to college this fall but as a freshman at Columbia.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Could you elaborate on what you mean by “rushed”? Lacking in explanation, examples, or both?</p>
<p>Thank you silverturtle.
You’re so intelligent xD, brown and columbia? way to go bro!!</p>
<p>& how long did you prepare for your SAT’s? were there any other ways (beside the silverturtle guide) that you prepared? </p>
<p>& i began to notice something, when i did the SAT CR section your way (underlining and first looking at questions) I found out that i tend to like to rush to the underline parts unconsciously, which makes me loose my focus.</p>
<p>For instance, there is a line question with a vocab question. I would underline the word, and bracket the lines. Then while i’m reading i would read super fast but unconsciously at the same time, on the sections i didn’t mark up (such as braket and underline).</p>
<p>Silverturtle, English grammar is quite intricate. I didn’t feel that I was confident in my grammar ability from reading SAT study notes, so I bought a 200 page grammar book. It probably has more to do with me than your guide.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I didn’t really use any methods that I’ve kept secret. I prepared relatively briefly for the SAT: Most of my practice tests were taken during winter break before I took it in January of my junior year. I focused on official tests from the Blue Book. I was also helped out from having been answering other students’ questions on CC for a while. It was my second time taking the SAT; the first was at the end of my freshman year, but I hadn’t prepared.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, I’ve heard of this issue before. I guess my most straightforward response would be to stop doing that. Seriously, though, the process of marking line references first and referring to the questions as they come up can be difficult initially. With practice it gets much smoother. It’s alright to read a little more carefully around marked lines, but ensure that you read carefully in the few sentences before and up to a marked line rather than rushing to that line itself. </p>
<p>Also keep in mind that paying attention to all parts of a passage, even if it’s not near a marked line, facilitates the ability to respond to the general purpose and tone questions and offers the context needed to make the marked lines readily understandable. If you still find that the method hitches you up after trying several practice tests, feel free to modify the logistics as you see fit for yourself.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Sounds reasonable. I think I’m the same way. I believe there’s value in explicitly knowing the technical fundamentals of grammar unless one has an excellent ear for grammar that he or she has developed by reading and being around strict formality. The Writing section is simple enough that students will benefit immensely from even a cursory delineation of the most common error types, but I wanted to go beyond that to equip even disadvantaged students with the tools to get almost every question. One could certainly take it even further and enrich himself or herself with broader and deeper grammar, as you did.</p>
<p>Honestly guides can only get you so far especially for CR.</p>
<p>Practice is essential for 650+ scores. A good technique for writing is to write down every mistake you make after every practice, and study those mistakes. After enough tests, you’ll have a collection of examples for each rule you miss. I had about 5 pages of notes of each mistake and every ambiguous situation that I wasn’t sure of. The hard work payed off too; had a 38 on my first psat writing, 60 on my 2nd, and on the actual SAT a 780.</p>
<p>@silverturtle, 
there are many great test takers out there just like you, and many of them use different methods from each other. Therefore, I can safely conclude that any way that best fits you can work? </p>
<p>But here’s the thing… i have a hard time finding the “Best” one for me</p>