<p>What did you do to prepare for the SAT?</p>
<p>I have been doing practice questions and reading over review books (Kaplan's 2400 SAT Book, The Blue Book, and Larry Kreiger's "500 essential words") but I don't feel like I'm improving at all. </p>
<p>I got a 185 (66CR, 64M, 55W) on my sophomore PSAT and an 1880 (640CR, 600W w/ a 12 essay, 640M) on the SAT practice test on the collegeboard website. The collegeboard test was taken in far from ideal conditions, so I don't think that reflects my true abilities, but I thought I would've broken a 1950. I also took that test before I did any review strategies. </p>
<p>Given these scores, is it even possible for me to break a 2250? Should I take another practice test after I finish reviewing?</p>
<p>I took the SAT the first time having taken just a few practice sections (two or three of math and critical reading) each and did horribly. </p>
<p>Then I started taking tutoring. I learned all the patterns of the questions and felt a great deal more confident. Math is always up in the air, but for writing and critical reading knowing the patterns can help a lot. </p>
<p>Tutoring did it for me, and my score went up almost 300 points to a 2300, even on four hours of sleep.</p>
<p>^ “almost 300 points to a 2300…” So you had a >2000 SAT, which you considered horrible? Quintessential CCer.</p>
<p>Are you going to be a senior next year?</p>
<p>Personally, I practiced for the test for basically a year starting during the summer after my sophomore year. I moved from a psat of 186 to my sat score of 2320. BUT, I really attribute my higher score to the two weeks I spent right before the test when I did all the practice tests in the McGraw Hill Book (12 tests), clipped out the ones I got wrong and did them again. When you do this you start to see what type of questions you get wrong and then you can remedy the situation. </p>
<p>The SAT is not about testing how smart you are, I believe it tests how well you can study and categorize each type of question. I believe those two weeks bumped me from a 2170 to a 2320 (Math from 700 to 790) because I really payed attention to what type of question they ask you. If you can figure that out, you will know how to find the answer and you will end up doing pretty well.</p>
<p>I don’t know why 2250 stands out to you, but sure, if you work at it tirelessly you will absolutely get it. I think that you should take the test again anyway because you are obviously not satisfied with your score and you should get one that better reflects who you are. </p>
<p>I also think you should buy new practice books. Try out the McGraw Hill practice book and Barrons.</p>
<p>Lastly, SAT scores aren’t everything, and good luck!</p>
<p>@the84thline. It depends on what school you wanna apply for… Not a horrible score, but it certainly can be unsatisfying. It’s not OP’s fault to have a higher academic expectation than you</p>
<p>Practice tests, practice tests, practice tests. I took the SAT once in November of last year (2170) then again in March '13 (2270, with superscore 2300). In the two months before my March SAT, I did a practice test every week and went over the Barron’s word list again.</p>
<p>I spent the summer before junior year doing practice problems (entire Blue Book). I didn’t even review or ‘learn’ anything, I just jumped into doing problems. Then I did a few other practice tests right before my test in March, and got a 2320. I don’t know what I would have gotten if I didn’t do those practice problems, since that was my first sitting, but I know my math would have been significantly worse.</p>
<p>Basically, I would recommend that you keep doing practice problems. That’s really all you can do. </p>
<p>For me, math was the hard section, so I really practiced a lot of math problems. After a while, you can see a real pattern to the questions–they kind of repeat the same types of problems. If you do enough of them, and learn the ‘types’, you should be okay. </p>
<p>For writing, there are some really good CC posts about how to get a good essay score. The grammar rules are a matter of memorization. Again, there are ‘tricks’. </p>
<p>I don’t know what to tell you about CR, since that always came naturally to me. Some friends of mine memorized vocab words–maybe try that? If you don’t have a good enough vocabulary, it can hurt you.</p>
<p>Oh, as to your question–YES, definitely do more practice tests after reviewing. In fact, doing the practice tests are the real review; you really can get a good grasp as to the types of problems on the SAT. Just do a lot of them.</p>
<p>2250+</p>
<p>1/3 are gifted and did very little study
1/3 are smart but got lucky, probably couldn’t repeat a 2250
1/3 worked their A’s off studying for months and maybe even years</p>
<p>I have a 2230 (close enough i guess!)</p>
<p>i just practiced A LOT. honestly, it’s all about practice. i improved my score from a 2020 (600 math, 640 reading, 780 writing) to a 2230 superscore (710 math, 720 reading, 800 writing) simply by doing the blue book and having an SAT tutor (highly recommended).</p>
<p>good luck!</p>
<p>edit: you can def break 2250. my soph PSAT was a 176 and my junior one was a 219. DON’T WORRY! :D</p>
<p>sosomenza:
"2250+</p>
<p>1/3 are gifted and did very little study
1/3 are smart but got lucky, probably couldn’t repeat a 2250
1/3 worked their A’s off studying for months and maybe even years"</p>
<p>yeah I fall into the first category. I did do some Testive questions and those were good to prepare me for what I’d see for math and writing. I only regret not writing a better essay as I got an 8 but only missed 2 MC on writing.</p>
<p>Just…look for the trick in the writing ones. Read it aloud in your head. The math ones are just quick computation. The critical reading ones are just like every other critical reading test out there. Don’t be thrown off by the essay as I was. Apparently it comes first! hahaha I was very surprised</p>
<p>I too fall in to the first category. I did half a practice the night before, but i think the most important thing for me was getting a good night’s sleep and eating breakfast.
for math, be really, really careful as the math itself is not difficult, but many of the questions can trick you if you’re not careful. Practice critical reading the most (in my opinion) by doing practice tests and reviewing the questions you got wrong. For writing, if you have decent grammar, reading the sentences in your head and just picking the one that sounds right can be enough.
My best advice is to do as many practice tests as you have time for and review the questions you got wrong.</p>