<p>This is a recount, but by no means a guide towards the perfect score. I just have some musings on the process of SAT studying. </p>
<p>So during last September-December, I took SAT courses and did many, practice tests. I wrote essays and memorized examples. I studied vast amounts of vocab words. Then, I took the December SAT and was disappointed with my 2200 score, even though it was partially because I forgot to fill in 3 questions on writing. </p>
<p>I decided to take a break and concentrate on school. I signed up for the May test. It should be noted that I didn't attend classes or do any prep at all from after I finished my first test to late April. In the last week, I ended up doing maybe half a practice test and an essay. </p>
<p>On test day, the essay had a ridiculously weird prompt, something about advertising. Essentially making things up, I wrote with the goal of barely minimal coherency, but aiming to fill up every last line, which I achieved. All the sections felt equally as hard as last time, but I made sure I didn't forget to bubble anything. </p>
<p>I left the room thinking I'd get about 2300, plus minus 50 points. Imagine my surprise.when the results came in and I got 2400! Only 10 on my essay though.</p>
<p>What am I trying to say? I don't know at all. I went against every single study convention mentioned here for test #2 and somehow scraped a perfect score.</p>
<p>Is the SAT fair? Does studying even help? Discuss.</p>
<p>I got a 2400 and the only prep I did was cramming vocab and thinking about my essay. I think the SAT really just measures skills that you should have learned during the course of your life by reading and progressing through school. You don’t need to study for it, but doing practice questions obviously doesn’t hurt. You can’t say the prep you did in December didn’t help you in the test you took a couple months later.</p>
<p>I guess you could say there is a lot of variance in each individual score. Like how when you get the score report, it tells you an expected range if you were to retake the test. You could say that you’re likely score will always fall in a certain interval and that studying simply increases the interval; it doesn’t guarantee a higher score. For the record, I scored a 2360 and took over 20 practice tests. Of course, some people are just naturally intelligent and don’t need to study too hard for the SAT. I’m not one of those people.</p>
<p>I’m fairly certain the SAT only measures a range of scores, but from 2200 to 2400 is just far too massive of a jump to be reasonable, especially considering the distribution of scores. </p>
<p>Maybe I just got very unlucky the first time and lucky the second time, though - such is the nature of mutliple choice.</p>
<p>No, it sounds like your scores made sense. At least to me. Writing traditionally has one of the hardest curves. Not answering three questions drops your score like a rock, especially if your essay wasn’t perfect. </p>
<p>I’m guessing your writing score dropped your overall SAT score 100 points or more (when it shouldn’t have, since you would’ve gotten those questions right had you answered them). You probably missed only a couple in the other sections. </p>
<p>But your first score was just an inaccurate measure of what you knew, that’s all. You probably could have made a 2400 the first time if you were more careful.</p>
<p>I kind of agree with what you’re saying, but I really think that practice makes perfect.</p>
<p>I mean, to an extent, the SAT is most definitely a test of your inherent knowledge and abilities. You can practice and learn the format of the test, the types of questions, the techniques they’re looking for - but ultimately, you have to have inherent intelligence to be able to fully comprehend why the author of a passage did a certain thing or why one sentence sounds better than the other.</p>