I’m a current junior, and I’m planning on taking the SAT on Oct 7, PSAT on Oct 14, and ACT on Oct 28.
On my PSAT from sophomore year, I scored a 1410/1520 (yes, that is really low but I didn’t study). On my PreACT from sophomore year, I scored a perfect score (35, not the 36 on the actual ACT), but I didn’t study either. In fact, our school told us we shouldn’t so we could have a baseline for ourselves.
So… do you guys have any test taking tips? I’ve already signed up for all three which my parents feel is horrible choice but I believe I’m capable of doing well. So now I have a month before the first test to prep-- do you think that’s enough? I’ve already done a little prep (just 1-2 practice tests each and some reviewing) over the summer, but not the bulk of it yet.
I also signed up to take the essay for both. I’m not sure how the essay works, and I haven’t practiced any yet, but any tips for that section too?
Thanks so much! I know some of you’ll think I’m downright stupid/overconfident/too ambitious/etc., but I just want them over with ASAP since I predict November to May is when a lot of my clubs will be fully functioning (I’m also in several leadership positions yikes) and when course material in my classes will be much more in depth (also taking 5 APs woohoo!), as opposed to the beginning-ish of the year in October.
There’s nothing wrong with taking all of them at once, but if I were you, I’d just make sure that you’ve done some practice tests and gotten a good grip of the test format/patterns. Test-taking tips…this may be a trite obvious, but if you’ve prepped well enough to the point of confidence on test date, you’ll score high (like if you consistently score high on practice tests, then just be confident that you can do just as well on test date, don’t psyche yourself out).
A month to prepare is either enough or too little time depending on who you are. It all depends on how fast you can grasp how the tests work and how much effort you’re going to put in. Some people get very high scores even though they don’t study–which is infuriating–but they’ve grasped the concept of how the tests work faster, which is why they can get high scores without studying as much. I have a feeling that you’re already pretty solid on the fundamentals, but in order to increase your score in that final stretch, you’ll have to do some practice and get a firm grasp on how these tests work (format and pattern). (Sorry if this part was unclear, I can try to elaborate more if you’d like)
The essay is very similar to an AP Lang prompt (at least for the SAT, not too sure about the ACT). If you’re taking AP Lang this year, you should ask for some tips from your teacher before taking the essay. A formulaic essay isn’t bad, but for a high score, your analysis needs to be spot-on. Also, it doesn’t hurt to throw in some advanced vocabulary words (without sounding like a thesaurus). Generally though, your AP Lang teacher will probably know best in how to develop a well-rounded literary analysis essay.
Also, I think it’s smart that you’re doing these early. It would get pretty hectic to worry about these next year during AP exams and college app. And another plus is that even if you fail, you’ve got another year to make up for it.
It seems you are well prepared and can the tests on any day. I don’t see any problem having all in a month.