The SAT Summer Prep Thread

<p>Well I guess no one has made one yet. Tell us how youre gonna prep over the summer for the evil test. Tips/book recommendations from New SAT defeaters are also greatly appreciated. :D</p>

<p>Heya rexer. I'm taking the new SAT for the first time this October. I've started already with the blue Collegeboard book. I'm actually not skipping anything. I've read from chapter 1 and now I'm on the critical reading part with the passages. I'm going to read all the info and then start with the practice tests. I'll take the 8 practice tests the way xiggi mentioned to do it.
And then I'll go through McGraw-Hill the same way thru the blue book, and I'll look at some of the key words since they actually have a vocab list. And I'll do Hill's practice tests under timed conditions. And if I still need extra help, Gruber's is my next choice. And that's it! Oh and I'll probably end up registering for collegeboard's sat online program since I would like to see solutions to the test and have someone grade my essay and get a couple more practice tests from the actual test makers.</p>

<p>you will definately do good</p>

<p>thats a great plan sarorah. Im definitely going to use the Blue Book, but I don't know what to do from there... Hows the McGraw-Hill book? I might get this but that is only if its uber super. :)</p>

<p>anyways, 2162 posts and youre still a sophomore! At this pace, you should be hitting 10,000 posts at the time of applying to college. Hmmm, perhaps a new record... </p>

<p>Does anyone know how good PR's "Cracking the New SAT" is? Its ~700 pages + has great reviews on Amazon...</p>

<p>I'm a summer SAT prepper too... My score, from the practice test that I've taken, is in the 1800 score range. I hate reading and never do it just for the fun of it. And I live in a really small town in the midwest that has a terrible school system and we're never required to read for anything, even English class.... It's ridiculous.. However, they do teach some grammar and math..... With that, and the fact that until 9th grade I was a 2.0 student and when I entered high school I just decided to get a perfect 4.0 because I knew that it went on my transcript, you can see why my scores aren't in the 2300's.... Anyway... From what I've heard on this board and by what I know, this is what you have to do to increase your scores:</p>

<p>CR: Read a lot of college level/adult books and articles that interest you. Study vocab lists---- I know how you can get all of the sentence completions right.... I'll explain that in another one of my posts. </p>

<p>Math: Review and memorize formulas and info and THEN use the practice tests to learn how to APPLY the knowledge that you have.</p>

<p>Writing: Go to the library and get a short book on grammar and how to write a perfect essay... Practice writting essays and use practice tests to help you apply the grammatical concepts that you've learned.</p>

<p>"you will definately do good" isn't it you will definately do well?</p>

<p>Yes, it should be well.</p>

<p>I really hope so because I don't want to deal with this again unless I have to. I know so many kids who don't even care, they "might" look at a book maybe 2 weeks before the exam and that's their "prep". They just don't seem to care about anything in life cept how their dress looks for the prom or how they're gonna get that Audi etc. And then they complain that their scores are bad and the SAT is unfair. I mean, come on. </p>

<p>Rexer, Hill is really good. Here's a review from Amazon:

[quote]
81 of 85 people found the following review helpful:</p>

<p>An excellent resource, July 1, 2004
Reviewer: A reader
I am a high school English teacher from Portland, Oregon who is putting together a program for my school on the new SAT I. I have looked carefully through all of the books on the new SAT I (REA's, Kaplan's New PSAT, the Fiske Guide) as the well as the old "standards" (Princeton Review, Kaplan, Up Your Score, Barron's). I have also talked to many of my best students and my colleagues with high-school age children, and the consensus is pretty much unanimous: McGraw-Hill's SAT I is the only one that seems to provide just about everything students really need to prepare seriously for the new test. The biggest problem, I've found, with books like Princeton Review, Up Your Score, and REA, is that they repeat the same test-taking "tricks" that have been around for decades, and really don't help most students all that much. (Sure, it's kind of nice to have a simple rule for when to guess on a multiple choice question, but isn't it better to be able actually to solve the problems?) Princeton, Up Your Score and REA just seem to be battling each other to be cute and clever with their delivery, but that's not what kids need. What students need is lots of practice coupled with smart feedback that recognizes their common mistakes. The flashcards-although there aren't enough of them-are very cool in pointing out the common errors that students make on SAT I math problems. (I made a bunch of them myself, sad to say.) The McGraw-Hill guide uses a method that really focuses on the reasoning skills that are the basis of the SAT I, AND ACTUALLY TEACHES YOU THOSE SKILLS!! Unless you have looked at all of these books as I have, you don't know how refeshing that is! The "College Hill Lesson" format is incredibly clear and easy to follow, and helps students to actually become better readers, writers and problems solvers. The vocabulary lessons are ingenious: not real cutesy, like in Up Your Score, or just a dictionary, like in Barron's and Gruber's-just read it and you'll see what I mean. The practice tests are great too-a little bit harder than the real thing, as the description says, but I much prefer that to the alternative. Also, the tests "feel" much more like real test than any tests except for those in "Real SATs." For the first time in ten years, I'm excited to have a text that will actually work for my kids!!

[/quote]
It really does teach, there's another very long review here on CC about one kid's positive experience, if I find it I'll post it. It only works though if you have time to actually go through it, not like a month to prepare. So a summer with this book should be good.</p>

<p>
[quote]
"you will definately do good" isn't it you will definately do well?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>WHO CARES?</p>

<p>Is anyone going to follow the Xiggi method or grammatix??</p>

<p>How is Gruber's and how does it compare to Mcgraw and all of the other competitors?</p>

<p>grammatix and xiggi method all the way</p>

<p>anyone? .</p>

<p>I can't believe that no one has mentioned that it is spelled "definitely" yet, in regards to "definately do good/well"</p>

<p>Perhaps because it DOES NOT MATTER and this is a thread about SAT prep and not pointing out stupid mistakes. Jeez, let it go!</p>

<p>Ya and grammar/writing is a part of the SAT</p>

<p>harvard how do u get all thbe sentance copmpletions right</p>

<p>Oh, iwantfood... atleat how to make smilies isn't on the SAT, yah? Psh, jeez. This is a friggin' message board. Not the SATs. Mistakes are allowed.</p>

<p>Urgh, Harvard. Hehehe, I didn't notice you said that. Why would you opt to explain later? We wanna know now! :(</p>

<p>There will be a thread explaining it later on this evening. :)</p>

<p>ehhh... I'll just post it right here, right now. The college board offers 12 practice tests in all (3 online, 8 in the book, and 1 "pre-test" that's avalible online and free to everyone) and 4 practice quizzes on "sentence completion" as well. What you need to do is buy their online course so you have access to all the explanations for the 12 tests and the 4 quizzes, buy about 2000+ notecards or just use a notebook, whichever you prefer, and write down EVERY single word used in sentence completion practice tests and on the quizzes... There are around 140 "word's" per test that you have the option of using. The single blank completion has 5 possible answer choices, and the double have 10 words.... So when you add all of the vocab words that they give it adds up to about 140 per test, give or take 10 or 20... Anyway, now you need to go to the college board site to get explanations for the CR part and they'll say stuff like A.) stupid is the correct response because the sentence implies that they boy is unintelligent.... Or B, Smart, is incorrect because he is said to "have terrible grades and can't learn a ******* thing." That's an example and the words, obviously, aren't all that easy... Maybe you should just pick out the words that you don't know and record them onto notecards or a notebook... Anyway, I've talked to two people who have done this and both were 100% confident when they answered all the sentence completion questions. The one that took the may test got an 800 on that section. Anyway... Just my advice... I think I read that someone else on the board did this too and it worked for them...</p>

<p>thanks, sounds very good.. btw, how much does that online CB thing cost?</p>