<p>I'm a junior who took the PSAT last fall and got a 234. I got two math questions wrong; one of them was a horrid careless mistake (flipped a fraction).</p>
<p>The only prep was a quick look at the official SAT book to make sure I knew how to do all of the math. The reason why the difference between 2300 and 2400 matters is that I have a 3.5 GPA and boring E.C.'s to make up for (upward trend in both of these areas, but it's too late to make much of a difference).</p>
<p>My worries:
1.) There were a handful of CR vocab questions where I only knew the correct answer through elimination, and one where I flat-out guessed between two words, so the 80 is a little bit of luck. Is it reasonable to count on Direct Hits to remedy this?</p>
<p>2.) I'm bad at essays. Churning out dry B.S. with correct grammar and form is no problem (hence the 80 on the writing), but without passion about the subject I have nothing creative or interesting to say. Also, my writing style is concise, and filling up two pages will be hard for me in the limited time.</p>
<p>Anyone have any tips for quickly banging out essays from the SAT prompts? Should I just throw in a ton of clauses with big words?</p>
<p>What is the best book, not for someone who is trying to add a few hundred points to their 1900, but for someone who wants an advantage on the hardest questions?</p>
<p>And looking ahead a few more months, what books are good for the Lit, Math II, and Chem subject tests given the same criteria?</p>
<p>Edit: Forgot to mention the terrible (not quite illegible) handwriting. I know it officially doesn't matter, but do the graders make a real effort to read it, and are they influenced by it?</p>
<p>studying material: anything from collegeboard is good
CR: knowing more words won't hurt, but process of elimination is what we do, its not a bad thing, its just another strategy.
Essay: big words, intro, 3 examples, conclusion.....I hate the essay section, just throw a bunch of big words in there and make it coherent and grammatically correct to get a 10+. </p>
<p>You have a good chance of scoring a 2400, but you are almost at the point where studying won't boost your score any higher. Its down to careless mistakes, testing fatigue, the curve, and yes..even luck.</p>
<p>nice! i got a 234 too but i missed 4 problems in CR. hehehe
elimination works pretty well for most SAT questions, it's a very basic technique that you should always use, so no worries about that. And one question wrong on the CR section is still usually an 800 (for that lucky guess)
as for essays, I prefer writing ALL of mine on personal experience. I find it so much easier to tell a random story (which can be totally made up) than to do boring English-class-response-to-literatures. So I find it much easier to like rave about some event that I've been through, that has to do with the topic, and then I just end it nicely, and my rambling ends up filling all the pages (just 4 paragraphs, usually). :D</p>
<p>so yeah those are just my random comments. worked okay for me, i guess? :P</p>
<p>Essays - sometimes, the dry BS works. If you follow a very strict 5-paragraph format, throw in a few fancy words and complex syntax, chances are you'll score close to a perfect, if not a 12. I followed the same format for all of my essays and scored 12 both times, as did others who tried my method.</p>
<p>1) Intro. Interesting hook is helpful - try to connect it to your life, or a problem you see in everyday society. Make a very profound-sounding transition to connect your thesis sentence to your body paragraphs.
2) Illustrustrate the side you have chosen via a historical example.
3) Repeat with literary example (best to use classics; no teenage fiction or sci-fi)
4) Repeat with modern example OR example from current science/technology
5) Describe how the evidence you have provided can help you and others rectify your life. Make the ending sound profound; it's okay if you sound like the next MLK - that's the goal. Keep everything simple until the very last sentences. Then unload that fancy vocab and end on a glorious note =D</p>
<p>If you can't fill up two pages, it's okay. You'll find the spacing is really large anyways.</p>
<p>Ah the essay, yea last year I wrote it based on all historical examples because I was in a social studies room with the constitution on the wall. Got a nine, so meh. I shouldn't have waited so long before starting it, that was the problem.</p>