The Official SAT Study Guide

<p>I was wondering about the score ranges for these 8 tests. I took Test #3 and i got CR 630-710 (the last secion killed me cuz after 3 and half hours, you don't care anymore :) ), M 690-770, Writing 630-760. Personally I thought the Math was a little rougher this time and the CR and Writing were medium-hard.</p>

<p>What I'm getting to is that my cumulative SAT score is anywhere from 1950-2240, and it seems so broad. So I'm asking everyone who uses The Official SAT Study Guide what they think of the difficulties of each of the 8 tests and make sort've a "chart" so you can figure out a little more precisely of what they can expect to get.</p>

<p>(P.S. I'm taking the March SAT [eek], 28 days away)</p>

<p>sounds like u will do really well
u dont need to worry
i really am shooting for a 2200+ on the SAT in Jan 2006
looks like u have no worries
just finish all the practice tests</p>

<p>Don't worry---in any event, you're a step above ALOT of other test takers. Princeton Review, Kaplan, Sparknotes, and all of the other big name test preparation companies provide an EXTREMELY unrealistic approach to the new math changes. After having taken a Princeton Review course, I was stunned when I opened up The Official SAT Study Guide and saw the levels of difficulty for the math problems.</p>

<p>Wow, that gets me scared, because I am taking a Princeton Review course for Math right now. It really doesn't help? I own the official study guide, too. It is weird because I do much better on the critical reading sections in that book than I do on any of the Princeton Review books.</p>

<p>Flip to some random math problems in the book. For a mathematically weak student like me who happens to score 700+ on his Princeton Review practice tests, they still look like Greek to me...</p>

<p>Yeah, I think they might design their practice tests to reflect what they teac in their lessons...thanks princeton review. I just want to break 700 on the math because I am a weak math student, too. Verbal will definitely be my thing, I'm not really prepping for that</p>

<p>If you are weak in math I doubt you should be getting 700 on it, but just my opinion. I got 730 on #1 and 670 on #2 or something and consider myself good in math (calc AB Junior)</p>

<p>Yea, the math is definitely harsher. However, I don't think it's the material that makes it hard--the new problems are just a different style of problems than the old problems that we, or I am used to</p>

<p>Well, gigante, that's the thing. Some people are good test takers. Some people are good SAT takers. I happen to be both. Calc AB won't do a whole lot for you on the SAT, but being a good test taker sure as hell will..</p>

<p>How do the tests in the offical guide compare to pr tests in diffculty. I'm referring to those who took the pr course and took the pr diagnostic tests.</p>

<p>icyfire,</p>

<p>i can only speak for the verbal sections. </p>

<p>collegeboard's critical reading is usually a bit easier than pr's. it is also obvious that PR tends to ask different types of questions on the passages. More of their questions (very detailed and hidden questions) tend to be about the storyline of the passage while CB asks more questions relating to style,diction,prose,etc... </p>

<p>Both company's sentence completions seem about the same i guess. it's hard to say tho. </p>

<p>As a side note, i'd suggest you trust CB's tests for authenticity. Xiggi would agree =D</p>

<p>Yea I do the PR diagnostic tests and the collegeboard book. I thin tkhey are both realtively the same in the writing section, I don't know about math. The colleboard book is much easier--for me at least--in critical reading. The PR tests usually ahve one passage that is very difficult, and it is accompanied by a lot of inference questions, which you dont see much on the collegeboard tests. I would im agine that the collegebaord oneo is the most accurate.</p>

<p>its good to have harsher prep on writing and reading b/c then those sections will be a piece of cake on test day
math is one that you have to nail on the dot
you need to know shortcuts, be a great critical thinker, and be able to solve the hardest problems, but you need to get the easy and medium ones too
i know a kid who is the best kid in my grade at math and got every single question on the PSAT right except a EASY grid-in problem so you gotta be able to do everything in math to get an 800</p>

<p>Generally there is a "curve" on the SAT. You should get a perfect score even if you missed one or two questions. I have to agree that the new SAT is very intimidating and the prep services like Princeton Review and Kaplan aren't doing their parts to help the students. I've heard of this new prep service called "Prepme" at Harvard which is founded by a group of students at Harvard, Caltech, Stanford and Yale. They've come up with an unique approach on taking the test based on their own experiences and especially designed the material to accomodate for the writing section of the new SAT.<br>
Other than that, my advice on acing the SAT is to get a good rest the night before and be yourself and keep your wits about. Good luck with the SAT.</p>

<p>I predict scores will be going down on the New SAT. Too many people are getting close to 1600 (now 2400) who aren't brilliant at all, so ETS needs to take it down because of the mistake they made in 1994 by recentering. Right now the top Ivies can't tell who is really smart among the thousands of 1550-1600 scores they get. I think it will be better, because it will allow the cream to rise to the top.</p>

<p>Use the scale provided with the exam in the Taking the SAT booklet to estimate scores for exams in the Official Study Guide. In general, the Critical Reading sections in the Study Guide are probably a bit easier than the real thing will be, and the Math sections are a bit tougher than the real thing will be. Subtract about 10-20 points from the CR scaled score to get your "true" score, and add about 20 points to the Math score to get your "true" score there. Subtract about 10 points from the Writing MC subscore.</p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

<p>Oh no! I am doing poorly as it is in CR... :(</p>

<p>.
[quote]
In general, the Critical Reading sections in the Study Guide are probably a bit easier than the real thing will be, and the Math sections are a bit tougher than the real thing will be

[/quote]

Why do you say this?</p>

<p>I know this because I teach an SAT class with 70 students, and I have carefully compared their diagnostic scores with their PSAT scores, which should correlate with scores on the new SAT. My numbers are based on a careful analysis of these scores, but they are still only a rough estimate, as each test in the book is probably slightly more or less difficult than another. If you looked at one form of the 2004 PSAT, however, you will find that they had MOSTLY hard sentence completion questions, for example, while the CR sections in the Official Study Guide contain more of a mix of easy, medium, and hard. Expect a slightly tougher Critical Reading section, since the analogies have been nixed. The math section, however, should not be quite as challenging as the questions in the Study Guide, partly because of the introduction of questions on more advanced topics, which supposedly already make the section "tougher." Expect the Writing section to get a bit tougher (this is based on a comparison of the Writing section with the January 22 Writing Subject Test) on the new SAT as compared with the Official Study Guide.</p>