<p>I'm a rising 9th grader right now (In 8th, going to 9th) and was thinking about starting some prep right now. Is it too young to be worrying about the SAT, or would it benefit me to start young?</p>
<p>And, one last thing - are there any good, free vocabulary lists? Preferably MP3's, but I can take a paper printout, too.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>too young. work on ECs.</p>
<ul>
<li>read books -> helps u for sat</li>
<li>love what u do</li>
<li>get INVOLVED
i know it sounds generic but if u do these things ull be a hundred times better off for uni admissions</li>
</ul>
<p>I think test prep is useless. Just go to your local library and pick out books to read that will interest you. Learning to be a good reader will be much more beneficial to you than bubbling in answers in a test prep book. </p>
<p>For Math, just take good classes and be sure not to neglect Geometry and Algebra. Really the SAT math is just simple math, but made hard. If you understand the concepts, and practice them throughout high school, you will do fine.</p>
<p>My advice : READ READ READ.
I wish I listened when people told me that. But I didn’t.
Read at least 30 minutes a day. If you see a word you don’t know, write it down and look it up later. Read books that are challenging. You’ll be set for CR.</p>
<p>For math, like MathLord said, make sure you have a good basis in algebra and geometry. The SAT math does not require massive math skills.</p>
<p>IMHO it’s great that you’re motivated and interested in studying, but you are too young. Enjoy being in 8th grade and starting your freshman year. Find extracurriculars that you love. Earn good grades (and pay special attention in math class!) Give yourself some time to transition to high school life (it was very different than 8th grade for me, at least.) </p>
<p>College is 5 years away. The admissions/testing process is very stressful and time-consuming once you start. Don’t worry about the SAT just yet. :)</p>
<p>Yes, I agree that the most important thing is to read (well…“good” literature, that is) to improve your CR skills.</p>
<p>BUT I would also suggest that you slowly start looking over vocab lists. High school English teachers are impressed by a strong vocabulary, and you may actually learn some of these words by studying them over three years (9th-11th) rather than just cramming them in before the SATs.</p>
<p>Sparknotes list is pretty good and free online:
<a href=“http://img.sparknotes.com/content/testprep/pdf/sat.vocab.pdf[/url]”>http://img.sparknotes.com/content/testprep/pdf/sat.vocab.pdf</a></p>
<p>I took the SATs for the first time in 7th grade for CTY, and the prep I did back then helped me a lot now as a junior.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Well, one of the few reasons I wanted to start now is that our district requires taking PSAT each year, starting in 8th. This year I got 61 in M/CR and 65 in W, and I don’t think that was exactly great. So, yeah :P</p>
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<p>That was something I really wanted to do, but couldn’t find a good list. The one you linked to, for some reason, crashed Firefox every time I try to open it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies!</p>
<p>I never thought looking at vocabulary lists would help anyone. I mean, if you just look at a word and then a definition, odds are you are going to forget it. I still seriously think the only way to learn vocabulary is from reading books and seeing words used in a context. </p>
<p>I mean I read Stephen King, Alexandre Dumas, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, Tolkien, Rowling, and Dostoyevsky all before high school, and I’ve never had a problem with the vocabulary. I have seen all the words on March’s SAT many, many times in my life and its simple to pick them out of a sentence (except for one, melliflousness? ***). I really think looking at vocabulary lists and trying to memorize them is useless, but it might not be for you. Well, I know its useless, because the only time you’re ever going to use it is on 20 questions in a SAT.</p>
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<p>I’d just use them as something to look at every few days, since that’ll add up over the next few years. Not memorizing them, however.</p>
<p>I have been upgrading my reading selections, trying to get into other genres and harder challenges (for example, I just finished reading The Da Vinci Code) That’s something I’ll definitely be continuing.</p>
<p>^ Sounds like a good plan! Don’t think I meant never look up words you don’t understand. If you find a word when reading and don’t know its meaning, you should definitely look it up. This just happened to me when I saw someone calling someone else ingenuous. Well, I had no idea what it meant, looked it up, saw it meant sincere, and now I’m not going to forget it. That’s how you should learn vocabulary. What you’re doing sounds great though.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve been having to do that a lot with a few recent books. I’m pretty ashamed of my vocabulary, it’s extremely weak (especially considering I’m in the top 15 of my school and want to pursue an English teaching career!)</p>
<p>McKyle, I wish my sister was this farsighted. By the way, your PSAT scores are very good for someone your age. Just read read read like everyone else said and don’t even consider taking an SAT until your junior year. You won’t do as well in your younger years and some colleges want you to send all your scores.</p>
<p>Really? I knew they were good for my school and state, but I’m also extremely aware that South Carolina schools aren’t highly ranked academically (we’re like, 44th.)</p>
<p>I had no clue that they’d want scores lower than my highest… that’s good to know! (Especially since I’d love to go to Princeton… it’s pretty much just a dream, but hey. Take precautions before I try.)</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>South Carolina representin’! Yeah we the lowest in the country man, props</p>
<p>??
wow why so anti-vocab list?</p>
<p>Maybe it’s because I take Latin, but I learn words very easily from lists. Granted, I have heard some words used in very interesting contexts because kids just memorize lists. But on the other hand, I have never read “innuendo” to mean “veiled reference” in literature - sometimes the SAT likes to use the technical definition, not the usage definition, of words.</p>
<p>Btw, I’m hoping the link works this time:
img.sparknotes.com/content/testprep/pdf/sat.vocab.pdf</p>
<p>Yeah, it’s sort of sad I’m ranked like 3 out of around 400 in my classes, and my pathetic PSAT score (180?) was 2nd highest! Says something about SC education!</p>
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<p>I want so badly to take Latin, but our high schools don’t offer it. Just German, French, and Spanish. But about misused in context… yeah. I did that really badly with a business letter essay at the beginning of the year =P</p>
<p>Thought it was my computer, but C/Ping the link worked! Thanks! (Wow, 70 pages!)</p>
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<p>Yeah, I was in the upper 180s - what grade were/are you in?</p>
<p>I’m in 10th - I’d ask some other questions, but PMs are probably the best way…</p>