<p>I'm using the Barron's book (please don't yell at me, I have the BB and will use that after this) and my scores have been like this since 12/20 (Sat.):</p>
<p>DIAGNOSTIC: 1840
TEST 1: 1840
TEST 3: 1840
TEST 4: 2040
TEST 5: 1870</p>
<p>I didn't have answers for Test 2 (bro used book before). But my scores have generally stayed in the 1840s, and I'm reviewing the entire test the day I take it and yet I'm not improving .. I took Test 5 on Sunday, I'm supposed to take Test 6 (last one) tomorrow but I don't know if I should use tomorrow to really "prep" for the test or just take the last test.</p>
<p>Question to you guys: HOW do you review practice tests? For questions you made a mistake on, do you write out or speak out the correct answer? I'm just reading all the answer explanations but clearly it hasn't helped me.</p>
<p>Would really appreciate any help seeing as I'm taking the test in Jan and am in no good shape right now.</p>
<p>I find it bizarre that tests 1 3 and 5 are very comparable yet 4 is about 200 points higher than the rest of your scores. Did you do something differently during that fourth test? Did the problems seem easier? I’m not going to yell at you for using Barrons, but it’s very possible that the tests vary significantly in difficulty, not to mention the fact that using any non CB test is a bad idea unless you’ve exhausted the BB and OC.</p>
<p>How do I review practice tests? I basically go through every question. If I find that I was able to pick out the answer choice easily to a question, I don’t spend much time on it. If it’s more difficult and I got it wrong, I figure out why I got it wrong (CR: did I infer something incorrectly, not know a vocab word, etc. M: stupid mistake, didn’t know the underlying concept, didn’t reread the question, etc. W: the answer I picked has an error in parallelism, idiom, etc.). If I still don’t know why, I post here and the kind citizens of CC are usually willing to help me :)</p>
<p>I think that the day before Test 4, I did more practice than usual (used a CR & W prep book). But yeah, I don’t know how my score dropped after that. D:</p>
<p>Are you taking kaplan courses? They are purposely harder than the actual test otherwise you can ask for your money back if there’s no improvement. I got a 1540 on the diagnostic test and my schore went up 500 points on the real SAT. Yeah. So until you actually take the test, don’t pass judgement on scores really.</p>
<p>Steven, I’ve never taken any courses and I don’t really want to either because they didn’t help my brother at all (when he was prepping for SATs) and he got a 2260 doing a few practice tests and just stopped attending Kaplan courses altogether after a few classes. Waste of money for him, but yeah.</p>
<p>it sounds like you are doing the right thing. just keep taking more tests and going over them. your score might have improved already since you got up 200 points and then 30 points more than you had before. definitely keep going after 6 tests. i don’t know how long it took you to learn to ride a bike or to swim, but a new skill might take 20 tries to get it right. </p>
<p>i don’t see anything wrong with using outside books — they help you see the material differently. when i got bored, i started using the “laugh out loud guide” that just came out, and it really helped me concentrate because i started enjoying the process more. everyone does better at things they enjoy. </p>
<p>just MAKE SURE that the rest of your practice tests are the official college board ones.</p>
<p>thanks yoyo, that’s reassuring i’m going to rest a little today (it’s new years eve yayy) and prep tomorrow before taking the last barron’s test on fri.</p>
i’m going to rest a little today (it’s new years eve yayy) and prep tomorrow before taking the last barron’s test on fri.</p>