SimplyOverdone's Daily SAT Study Journal

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>You may be looking at this thread and wondering just how this is going to work. Good.</p>

<p>Starting today, April 1st 2014, I'm going to post a daily study log and I encourage others to do so too. It will keep me accountable even if no one replies. As long as I know people are viewing my logs and gaining tips and/or helpful hints from my reflections; I'll be happy. Inbox me if you wish to join the Journal and maybe we can get something going here on CC. Whether you're studying for the May or June test this should be a great resource for you. Enjoy.</p>

<p>All my Information will be digested and paraphrased from: (NO COPYING) </p>

<p>Symbol "O" = Gruber, Gary R. Gruber's Complete SAT Guide 2014. Naperville, IL: Source, 2013. Print.</p>

<p>Symbol "+" = The Official SAT Study Guide. New York: College Board, 2009. Print.</p>

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<p><strong>Simply Overdone’s Profile</strong></p>

<p>Class of 2018 (College)</p>

<p>SAT (First try) </p>

<p>590 Math</p>

<p>570 Critical Reading</p>

<p>540 Writing</p>

<p>Essay: 8</p>

<h2>Total: 1700 :frowning: </h2>

<p>Goal: (1800-2000) At least a 100 point increase (MINIMUM)</p>

<p>Dream School : Florida State (May change if score increases drasticly) </p>

<p>Study Plan:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Everyday after school for 1-3 hours. Late at night on Fridays (Work), Early Morning on Weekends (Work/Church)</p></li>
<li><p>Try harder in my SAT Prep Class (Currently in Math portion all throughout 2nd Semester)</p></li>
<li><p>Take notes on thread EVERYDAY.</p></li>
<li><p>I’m taking a practice test every Saturday out of (Blue Book 1st edition or Mcgruber’s Complete SAT Guide 2014) until May 3rd and posting test scores.</p></li>
</ol>

<h2>5. Stay Motivated and Accountable.</h2>

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<p>I really think 1-3 hours a day is quite excessive. </p>

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<p>Entry #1 - April 1st, 2014 - Starting Strong - {6:17 p.m. - 7:17 p.m.} </p>

<p>Notes:</p>

<p>Critical Reading </p>

<ul>
<li><p>When you see “according to the author” or “according to passage” always put on the author’s “mask.” In other words, put on the identity and attitude of the author. You don’t make up this persona independently, draw his opinion, purpose, attitude from his text.</p></li>
<li><p>Answers ONLY COME FROM THE PASSAGE. Although the harder answers must be inferred from facts from the passage. </p></li>
<li><p>The answer choice can be both true and WRONG. Don’t get confused with true statements and ones that best answers the question. One should always pick the latter.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>O For sentence completion with two blanks, always look for answer choices first that don’t make sense and eliminated them. Find the answers that have choices that BOTH can be valid insertions. </p>

<p>O Scored 6/6 of the Completing the sentence strategy questions.</p>

<p>O Try to complete sentences in your own words. ( New concept for me)</p>

<p>O The key words “Instead of” before a blank in a sentence constitute an “opposition indicator” It will give clues for you to include an antonym for the blank.</p>

<p>O Starting a sentence with the word “Since” indicates a coming “result”</p>

<h2>Key words in Sentences - Significance in Sentence</h2>

<p>Although
However
in spite of OPPOSITION
rather than
nevertheless
on the other hand</p>

<h2>but </h2>

<p>Moreover
besides
additionally SUPPORT
furthermore</p>

<h2>in fact</h2>

<p>therefore
consequently
accordingly RESULTS
because
when</p>

<h2>so </h2>

<h2>What Reading Comprehension Questions will ask</h2>

<ol>
<li>Main Idea</li>
<li>Information specifically represented in the passage</li>
<li>Implied Information (not directly stated)</li>
<li>Tone or Mood of passage</li>
</ol>

<hr>

<p>O Never read questions before reading passage = Waste of Time</p>

<p>O Just remember the 4 main question types above and you’ll know what to expect</p>

<h2>Tips on Answering Reading Comprehension Questions</h2>

<p>O Always move from A-D in in an orthodox fashion. The test makers know you’ll likely do this. Just keep in mind that might also mean a “close” answer might be in the beginning while the best (chief) answer is D or E. </p>

<p>O If you don’t feel like A is a definite hit for the right answer, quickly jump to the next one instead of overanalyzing it’s validity. </p>

<p>O If you’ve gone through all 5 and they all are blank… skip. Waste no time on a potentially hard question *Passage based doesn’t move from easy to hard."</p>

<p>O When reading a passage, an author usually “sets the scene” in the first paragraph.</p>

<hr>

<p>Reflection: </p>

<h2>I had no problem staying studious during the first session. It lasted an hour right on the dot. I was being generous with the 1-3 hour time @foolish but with the free time I have… and the great lengths that i’m usually grounded… the time isn’t too excessive. :wink: But I found just what I thought I would when it came to answering the questions. The sentence completion questions came VERY EASY. In fact, I actually got 17/19 correct on my SAT with 2 ommited. I didn’t really touch on Math today simply because I want to focus on a different section a day. The passages are what give me the most trouble; especially the longer ones that you have to read. I missed 2 answers that were in the strategy practice section while missing 0 in the section that had a smaller paragraph. Lastly, I found that the Mcgruber book is alot more helpful when it comes to strategies and the blue book only helped me with “knowing the test.” But that is likely to change as I continue studying everyday. </h2>

<p>Mark my entry helpful if it was helpful. :)>- </p>

<p>I know this site is full of 2300’s. I’m just an average above average kid.</p>

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<p>Just wondering, are you class of 2018 in high school or what?</p>

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<p>@Hawkace I graduate in 2015 of HS. Making me a Junior</p>

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<p>You don’t need a Gruber’s study guide. Just the blue book and some tests online.</p>

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<p>How much time do you spend reviewing the practice tests? I suggest taking as much time as it took to complete the test. After the review, you should know that test well enough to get a perfect score if you took it again.</p>

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<p>@MovingtoTexas I’ve noticed thats a widely held belief on CC but I actually like the Gruber’s study guide. I just like to have more than one source to choose from than just the blue book. Plus, the blue book doesn’t really cover strategies like my Gruber does. </p>

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<p>@CHD2013 Thanks for the advice. I never really put much thought into how I would review the practice tests. I think I’ll go by your method of reviewing… making sure I’ll do it thoroughly enough to score a 2400 if I retook it. Thanks everyone for the responses… I’m going to respond to all of them. If you have any tips or questions just post your comment. I’ll be studying later on afterschool!</p>

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<h2>Math Hints from my SAT Prep Class</h2>

<p>Math Hints
When solving problems involving unknown quantities, it’s helpful to choose some “friendly numbers” to practice the problem with.
Here’s an example:
If you have twice as many students in your band class than your Calculus class and you also know 75% of the students in band are male and 50% of the students in Calculus are female, then what percentage of the both classes combined is female?
Solution: Let’s assume there are 100 band students (100 is a nice round number). That means there are 50 Calculus students. If 75% of band is male, then that’s 75 males and 25 females.
Then, if 50% of Calculus students are female, then that’s 25 females and 25 males. That means in both classes, there are 100 males and 50 females. So, the percentage is 50 out of 150 (150 is the total number of students) which is 33.3333%.
How do I grid that in? Great question!
You WOULD NOT enter the percent sign and you would not round. Since you’re only allowed 4 spaces, then that means you would grid it as: 33.3 (yes, that’s four spaces since the decimal counts as one)
But, I thought I couldn’t round numbers?You’re right, you can’t round numbers, but in the case of a repeating decimal like this, you can cut off the extra repeating numbers that don’t fit. We call that truncating the number.</p>

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<p>Entry #2- April 2nd, 2014 - Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability - {4:44 p.m. - 6:12 p.m.}
Cumulative Study Hrs = 2.46</p>

<p>Notes: </p>

<p>Math</p>

<ul>
<li>The SAT doesn’t include computation of standard deviation. (whatever that means)</li>
<li>The beginning of the lesson basically taught me how to read various graphs (common knowledge) but it’s a nice reviewer I guess. It is important to note that on my Report for my SAT this specific section in math I scored the most wrong. (I’m terrible at probability)</li>
<li>Become familiar with bar graphs, scatter plots, line graphs, pictographs and pie charts.
+The arithmetic mean = sum of values divided by # of values listed</li>
<li>Median = middle value when grouped from least to greatest</li>
<li>Mode = Most frequently occurring value</li>
<li>Weighted Average Example (Semi-new concept)</li>
</ul>

<p>Fifteen members of a class had an average SAT score of 500. The remaining 10 members of the class had an average of 550. What is the average score of the entire class. DONT ADD 500 and 550 and divide by two.
take:
(500 x 15) + ( 550 x 10)
------------------------------------ = 520
25 </p>

<ul>
<li>Thanks to the book I found a hole in my Algebra foundation. I for some reason couldn’t figure out this:</li>
</ul>

<p>The average of a list of 10 numbers is 15. If one of the numbers is removed, the average of the remaining numbers is 14. What is the number that was removed?</p>

<p>The problem was that I didn’t know how to find the missing number when given the mean. The correct steps were</p>

<ol>
<li><p>First find the sum of the first list. You do that by taking 10 (the # of values in a set) and multiply it by 15 ( the average) and that gives you the sum BEFORE the number was taken out (150)</p></li>
<li><p>Then you subtract 150 with the sum of the second set that has the # stripped from it. 9 x 14 = 126. </p></li>
<li><p>150 - 126 = missing number (24) </p></li>
</ol>

<p>**I’m currently doing some practice problems I found on an online worksheet to reinforce the idea to myself.</p>

<p>I used this video <a href=“6.SP.5.c - Missing Number and the Mean - YouTube”>6.SP.5.c - Missing Number and the Mean - YouTube; to help me also btw.</p>

<p>Used this site to practice (tutor.com) *if you’re military it’s free!</p>

<p>Probability w/ Independent and Dependent Events:</p>

<p>Independent Variables</p>

<ul>
<li><p>an independent event is an event that’s outcome isn’t affected by another event happening.</p></li>
<li><p>If you have two independent events and you want to find the probability of something regarding both those events happening you simply multiply their probabilities together.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>ex. Whats the probability of flipping a coin and it landing tails and rolling a die and it landing on six at the same time?</p>

<p>1/2 * 1/6 = 1/12 </p>

<p>The probability of both those happening are 1/12. </p>

<p>Two independent events! Landing on Heads and which face the die lands on have absolutely nothing to do with each other 1/2 * 1/6 = 1/12</p>

<p>Two Dependent variables (Harder)</p>

<p>ex. On Monday, Goldsboro HS basketball team will play the team from White high school. On Wednesday, White high school will play the team from Pamelco High School. On Friday Pamelco will play Goldsboro. In each game each team has a 50% chance of winning.</p>

<p>What is the probability that Goldsboro will win both games and White will lose both it’s games?</p>

<ul>
<li>To attack this problem you simply have to set up the probability of EVERYTHING going as the question asks. The only situation in which Goldsboro will win both its games and White will lose both its games is set up below.</li>
</ul>

<p><em>Letters = First initial of High School</em></p>

<p>A vs B = A wins ( 1/2) )))))</p>

<p>A vs C = A wins (1/2) )))))))--------------> 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 = 1/8 (Answer)</p>

<h2>B vs C = C wins (1/2) )))))</h2>

<p>Reflection :</p>

<p>No wonder I scored so low on the Math section. I’m only a few pages into ONE section (Probability) and I’m already seeing questions I would have skipped on test day. (Specifically the Dependent probability one) However, I’m so glad that I at least have a foot in the door when it comes to filling up the gaping holes in my algebra foundation. It took me a minute to get the last two things I went over with the help of a Math tutor (Online) and the blue book itself. Maybe I casted an unfair judgement on the blue book; a judgement that was entirely premature. I didn’t even crack open the yellow book today. Anyway, I hope you guys arent confused with the way I rewrote things. I knpw copying straight out the book would be Copyright so I do my best to share the things I learn. Plus, rewriting my notes on here help them stay in my head. I’m going to keep doing some practice problems until I’m comfortable. though. Stay Study my friends. </p>

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<p>Great thread! I had one when I was a junior last year. I found much success with it and I hope you do too. </p>

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<p>@medicalboy You had an SAT Journal?</p>

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<p>Yep. I actually just bumped it. Its called, “My Progress Thread - We Will Triumph”.</p>

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<p>I’m gonna check it out right now. thanks for the inspiration</p>

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<p>Haha no problem. My thread actually started towards the end of my SAT studying but I actually started off with your current score. So don’t give up!</p>

<p>Good luck with your SAT endeavors! </p>

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<p>WOW you started off with a 1700 too! Okay hopefully more people will join in on me like they did you. In the meantime keep up to date with my entries okay. Thanks for the added motivation @medicalboy</p>

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<p>Entry #3 - April 3rd, 2014 - More Math More Problems - {8:28 p.m. - 9:28 p.m.}</p>

<p>Cumulative Study Hours:
(((4 hours 58 minutes )))</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Be consistent in the way you set up proportions. If you do so, you wont get caught up in a minor mistake</p></li>
<li><p>Make a does it make sense check. At the end of a problem, if time permits, check and see if your answer even makes sense for the (real world) answer for the problem.</p></li>
<li><p>A ratio expresses a mathematical relationship between two quantities. Specifically, a ratio is a quotient of those quantities. The following are all relationships that can be expressed as ratios:</p></li>
</ul>

<p>•My serving of pizza is 1/2 of the whole pie. 1:2
•There are twice as many chocolate cookies as vanilla cookies in the cookie jar. 2:4
•My brother earns $5 for each $6 I earn. 5:6</p>

<p>Reflection:
Not really a lot of notes today but don’t let that mislead you. I worked my butt off today. I did the whole math section in the blue book (timed) and scored a 560. I wish I would’ve scored higher but… I can’t forget I’m only three days into a tough study routine. A big chunk of my points are lost in problems regarding functions. I usually skip them completely. </p>

<p>Here are my scores for my unofficial practice test section 2,5,8</p>

<p>Section 2 = 5wrong 13correct
Section 5 = 4 wrong and 13 correct
Section 8 = 2 wrong and 10 correct</p>

<p>Raw score (Rounded) = 34 </p>

<p>= 530-610 scaled score. (according to conversion table in Blue book)</p>

<p>Unlike the Gruber SAT study guide… the blue book doesn’t show explanations for practice tests which I just think is outrageous. </p>

<p>Good news is my Algebra 2 teacher (one of the best in the school) lets me sit in her class and go over SAT problems that I miss at home. I talked to her yesterday about the idea of staying after in 4rth block (4rth block = SAT Prep <em>online</em>) and she said it was fine. So for now on, I’ll just do my SAT prep online homework at home and work with my teacher at school. I really wish my scaled score wasn’t so broad. My goal is indeed in it (600= minimum goal) but also a nightmare score (530)! I hope all these problems I’m doing are worth it. All my little followers who come back and check on this don’t forget I’m doing my practice test Saturday; you don’t want to miss that! I’m excited… yet nervous. No matter how low or high my scores are in my first practice test this Saturday… I’m posting it.</p>

<p>Note* work tomorrow so expect another late post but perhaps even later than 10 :frowning: work = 4- 9,10, or 11) all depends on how hungry people are. </p>

<p>See you tomorrow or maybe even 12am early Saturday morning</p>

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<p>Entry #3 - April 4th, 2014 - Rest before the Test - {11:52 p.m.}</p>

<p>Okay, I just came home from work and there is no way I’m going to be able to do my homework and squeak in some SAT studying. However I’m waking up at 8 am tomorrow just to take my 1st SAT practice test out the blue book. Wish me luck guys and I’ll see you guys around 12 p.m.</p>