So how did you pull it off?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Ok, I know there's many threads out there about tips for getting high scores. I just want to compile all the important tips to help me and other people out.</p>

<p>Essay Section Tips:
"Odin, to improve ur Essay, its very very simple. Do the 5 paragraph thing. Have a few standard structures in your head - even opening and closing sentences for paragraphs, and have an idea of a solid few sentence structures for the intro and the conclusion. Follow up the Intro with 1 example from history, 1 from literature, and 1 from personal experience. Write a conclusion with 3 sentences at least, with the middle sentence referring to all three aspects you dealt with. Fill up minimum 1 and 3/4 pages and with all this, you'll get a minimum 10."</p>

<p>Critical Reading
"++Look at the questions first and underline the sections that they point to before you read it. Then, read the entire passage and answer the questions as they come. Then, answer the questions about the passage as a whole, the ones that don't direct you to specific lines."
- read a passage a day
- Read New York Times daily, or other newspaper, magazines that uses vocab you don't know then look it up in dictionary.
-Read award winning books like the Scarlet Letter to help you with essay, and reading section</p>

<p>Math
<a href="http://www.satmathpro.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.satmathpro.com/&lt;/a> Good site with videos to help you learn different types of questions Cost: free</p>

<p>Other sites:
Studyhall.com - Anyone have comments about this site? Cost: $10 a year
Number2.com- This site will help improve your vocab skills and other skills Cost: Free</p>

<p>Books:
-Grammatix.com - comments anyone? Cost: $50
-10 Real Sats - Excellent way to study (go over every question and every answer and see why that answer is correct and why all the others are wrong. Cost: $20</p>

<p>Other Websites:
Sat Online Course- a great thing about this is that there's a automatic essay grader. You can sumbit essay and find out what your score is and you will find out how they grade essays. Cost: $80. Free in Georgia</p>

<p>CC Threads:
Xiggi's SAT Prep- <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=68210%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=68210&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>For all of you who scored 700 or higher on a section, how did you pull it off? </p>

<p>Math- What did you use to study for the Math Section?</p>

<p>Critical Reading- Does Vocabulary play a major role in this section? How did you study for it</p>

<p>Essay- What does you essay include?
Ex: 5 paragraphs?, did you support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations?, did you vary your senteces, etc.</p>

<p>Grammar: There's too many rules when you look at the explanation of why that answer is right. How did you manage to make high score on this section? </p>

<p>Did you take any classes that helped your scores?</p>

<p>I know it seems a little redundant to post the same thing again. But, this thread will hopefully help a lot of people in preping for the SAT.</p>

<p>My embarrasing scores;
M: 610
C: 490
E: 440 (got a 6 on the essay though)</p>

<p>My goal is 2000- with atleast 1300 on Math and Critical. Yeah, I know, it's a long way but I am willling to work very hard to accomplish my goal. </p>

<p>I know these scores are horrible but I go to a school where there are no AP classes and we haven't read any books in Lit that we are suppose to read. </p>

<p>If you do decide to post, thanks for taking the time to do it.</p>

2

<p>Well for my studies, I primarily used various prep books, either my own, or borrowed from friends, PR, Barrons, College Board, and the Barrons Math Workbook. Regarding the essay, as has been said earlier, the ETS people don't grade your writing ability. What they do is form a snap analysis and scoring for an essay. Therefore, as long as you keep your essay moderately long, use some appropriate quotations and a personal experience or two, an 11 or a 12 in the essay is really acheivable.</p>

<p>Regarding CR, I found the CR sections to be very normal and easy for me, however what some of my friends weaker in English are doing is to try to use as many of the "SAT words" in normal conversation and parlance. That definitely one strategy to employ. Other than that for writing and reading, I just go by what feels right.</p>

<p>Regarding courses, I never really saw the point. My view is that you should only go for them if you're hazy about certain concepts. Other than that the Xiggi method is very good. Use up as many books as possible!</p>

<p>My scores (composite) : 800 CR & Writing, 730 Math</p>

3

<p>My best score was CR:800
I used both the collegeboard and the PR book, I hammered them, at least 1hr a day during vacations. I never ever picked up a list of vocab. Its awesome if you know a romance language because it can really help you deduce the meanings of vocab words. I would also recommend that you try to answer the question in your own words before looking at the actual options, this way you can eliminate the wrong options faster, in my opinion.</p>

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<p>Thanks megaman123 for the advice. What a relief! I was about to study 800 words and was worried about how I will remember them all. Thanks for the essay tips K_twin. My essay was 2 paragraphs so that why I made a very low score. I didn't also construct my essay as I should have since I'm a slow writer. </p>

<p>I've just ordered the Grammatix book and let me say it has been very helpful. I would also reccomend this book(like Xiggi) to anyone you want to improve especially if you low scores like me. I'll take an online test at collegeboard.com and see how much my score has improved. </p>

<p>I took an online test last week and made CR- 450 , Writing- 440, Math 610. </p>

<p>Currently, I'm about to buy 10 Real Sats so I can use it with Grammatix. A lot of people say that is one of the best way to study.</p>

5

<p>Kumar, you've done your studying and that's good, as in, you looked at the books and sites and made a list, and ya know, you're at least trying. But the only factor that should really inhibit your ability to raise your score is time. Time to practice, practice enough that you can do math questions so easily and fast. </p>

<p>When I first opened Collegeboard's Official SAT Study Book (blue book), I was doing careless errors in math and for some did not know how to even think to arrive at the answer. And after practice, just doing at least 1 math section a day, I'm getting very few errors, and most are careless. I'm also more efficient and finishing the sections with much more time to spare. And that's all there is to the entire SAT--just practicing as much as you can. </p>

<p>I know some people want to find an easy way to get a high score, but either you're just very intelligent and need no prep (rarely is the case for your avg school mates) or practice a lot well in advance.</p>

<p>I can't help you with CR unfortunately because that's my weak point too, since the passages are incredibly dry and boring. But for Writing .. . well, you may think there are a lot of grammar rules to memorize, but there's an easy way to do it. Just practice writing sections and review your answers and know why you got the incorrect answers wrong. After a while, it all becomes so redundant, and on test day, you're like "wow this is easy" because it's just a repeat of what you've been practicing the entire time. If you don't know why you got an answer wrong, and the explanations don't help, try picking up Barron's SAT II Writing. I know it's a little old, but the 30 or so grammar rules that they cover on the new SAT I are exactly the same, along with the exact same type of questions. And it's not a very thick book, so if you cover a section or so everyday, review your wrong answers while looking at the Grammar rules, you'll become decent at the writing in a reasonable amt of time. </p>

<p>And also in the blue book, near the beginning, they give you examples of what essays are good and what are bad. A 2 paragraph essay is their example of bad. At least make your essay a page long. Try not to use all the time thinking about how to plan the essay. . . use a few mins to think of the examples, a few intro sentences, and then tie up what you said with a few concluding words in the end. Two examples can get you a 12 if you write efficiently. But if you have time for 3, go for three examples to be safe. And once you write a few of those essays with the Essay Section Tips you've shown, it will become easier and you'll be able to do it in no time, having more time to proofread and vary your sentences.
And don't think that you have to use lit/historical examples .. I never do, I always use what's happening/happened in my life or what's going on right now in the 21st century since History is my weak point and my school too never covers any literature. And I've never got less than 10 on the Collegeboard's Auto Essay Scoring Service. </p>

<p>But don't expect the auto essay scoring service to be right all the time . .. cuz a kid on here consistently got 12s and ended up with an 8 on the real thing. The important thing about the essay service is that they tell you what an ideal essay is, and actually read those examples, and get used to writing it like that.</p>

<p>Good luck, this is a good thread, I liked the CR and Writing tips you found, but for math, just practice buddy. Those sites might help when you're bored at school and need to practice something, but the best way to work with this SAT is just to do real practice from their actual book.</p>

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<p>I think my essay was only four paragraphs and I only used two historical examples-- and I got a 12. What is most important, IMO, is that you connect everything together. Too many times people will put in examples and junk that are vaguely correct but it really is just a list more than proof. Don't just list, make sure the readers get what you are saying. Make sure it proves your point in the thesis (opening paragraph) by pointing it out.</p>

<p>Make sure to make it long enough. I can't remember if my essay was 1 and 3/4 long or the whole two pages. Take only a couple minutes tops to plan-- I wrote down a concept sentence in the book for every paragraph I would write, read only what it tells you to write about (don't worry about the quote). Try to keep writing, don't stop to ponder too long.</p>

<p>Honestly, don't try and use big words. Especially if they don't work quite well. You can be a powerful writer without using four-syllable words. The idea is to get your point across not to sound entirely erudite. Persuade the reader of your point. I'm not saying to use first-grade vocabulary, but just give great thought to it. Effective words are more important than the lofty, long ones.</p>

<p>I only practiced my SAT essay once and I gave myself a 10 for every essay in my prep just to play it safe (even though I didn't write the essay, lol). Just know how fast you need to go. If you're in AP classes, you should have a good idea of how to write essays under a timed schedule. It's sort of the same.</p>

<p>Examples don't have to be random abstract crap that sounds really intelligent to add in. My examples were easy ideas to understand. Make them solid ideas and don't go into the examples more than you need. Meaning-- stick to the point. Don't stray to something related to the example that doesn't really add to what you are trying to say. In my essay, I used Isaac Newton (everybody knows him) and Luis Alvarez. I had the discoveries essay so I pointed out how they discovered something very important for science and explained how they came about discovering (which proved my point).</p>

<p>Here's a hint: DON'T DRINK TOO MUCH DURING THE SAT. I had to take a leak once we started section two and I had to wait for a couple hours before being able to use the restroom. That racks your brain and really screws up concentration.</p>

7

<p>^ yeah, forreal, that is one of the worst feelings, to have to pee and know you can't get up for several hours. Maybe you technically can, but you'd waste a lot of time, especially if someone had to escort you. </p>

<p>I mean, there are no rules against randomly standing up during the test to stretch, but I'm not sure about bathroom breaks. Just your normal breakfast and 1 cup (max 2) of water before the test . .. juices, soda, power drinks are not good right before the test.</p>

8

<p>Well, I can't give any advice on Math since my math skills rival that of a 5th grader's.</p>

<p>Best CR Score: 800
English is my forte so I don't really know how I did it. I think the biggest thing is DON'T ZONE OUT! I know the passages are boring, but keep yourself focused and make sure you're processing the information. I've taken the SAT I two times and I don't know how many stupid mistakes I made the first time simply because I zoned out and didn't "get" what the passage was talking about. The second time, I just told myself "I'm going to concentrate and do it," stayed focused, carefully read the questions, and did it. </p>

<p>I personally think it's pretty hard to objectify reading interpretations, so all the answers are in the passage. There MUST be a way to prove it's the correct answer, so go into the passage and underline the clues that will give you an answer. All correct answers must be supported by the passage. </p>

<p>Best Writing score: 780
Grammar MC: Practice makes perfect. Just do the questions in prep books and review why you got the Qs wrong. There are only so many rules the SAT uses and if you keep on doing practice questions, you'll get faster at recognizing them. Even before I started prepping for the test, my grammar improved a lot just from doing daily grammar quizzes my sophomore Honors English teacher gave us and recognizing the rules.
Essay: I got a 10, mainly because I'm a slow writer and didn't finish my essay. I agree with Karab about the vocab thing. I didn't use try to stick SAT words in everywhere, in fact, I don't think I used any, and I did fine. Just get your point across. A flowery intro isn't needed either. I went straight to the point.</p>

<p>I did take a SAT I prep course over the summer, which boosted my score from 1950 to 2260, 100 points in each secton, and an additional 10 pts in Math, but I think part of the disparity was due to nervousness of taking it for the first time.</p>