<p>I took the SAT Practice Test online at College Board about a week or two ago, and found out that I got a 1780 on all three sections combined - 500 reading, 610 writing, and 670 Math. My concern is that although the SAT is only one factor, such a low score could keep me from colleges such as NYU, BU, Yale, and Northeastern. I got a 184 on the PSAT so does anyone know how to raise my score into 2000+ by the fall of my senior year (I'm a junior right now).</p>
<p>Keep taking practice tests and actively see where you’re messing up on. Use youtube and google to help with your critical reading. I started out in the 1600’s and now I’m getting 2200-2300 solid on every practice test (I’ve taken about 20 full ones up to this point). You can do it and it’s not that hard if you spread out the practice over several months. If I was you, I would take my first SAT in May because May has the BEST curve. Seriously, with the curve alone your score may be up 100 points automatically. Good luck!</p>
<p>Can’t say anything Peezus didn’t already say. Practice efficiently, notice your mistakes. Do a practice test every weekend or every other weekend. Look at different books:Princeton Review, Barrons… And make flashcards of vocabulary words, that could help.
It’s definitely possible if you work at it, it’s a good thing you have months to get ready.
Be careful not to get lazy BECAUSE you have a lot of time, use your time to your advantage.
Good Luck</p>
<p>Far and away your weakest score was reading. Along with the vocabulary, work on reading, especially nonfiction. Read the New York Times. Look at the arts and sciences sections. Read The Week in Review. Look at book reviews. All of those will give you a wide frame of reference, and it’s much easier to score well on passages whose subject matter is familiar to you. Try writing your own SAT questions. Look at the way the answer choices are constructed, especially the trap answers.</p>
<p>These are all great answers - definitely practice, practice, practice and make use of the books and resources available to you. Like charlucas said, definitely read everything you can get your hands on. I’m a huge reader and I didn’t even study for the CR and ended up with a 790 - I knew every vocab word on the test except for one. If you can afford it and it works with your schedule, I would highly recommend getting a private tutor, even for just a couple of sessions. They know a lot of the tips and tricks and can be really beneficial even just to boost your confidence. 3 sessions with a tutor (and a little bit of at-home studying) helped me to raise my math score by 50 points. Also, if the essay is bringing your writing score down, write TONS of practice ones and find someone qualified who can grade them for you (again, the aforementioned tutor, or an English teacher, etc.). </p>
<p>@Peezus: Interesting, I have never heard of May SATs having more lenient curves by that much. Can you verify/back that statement with some stats or information?
I’d be really interested and grateful if that was the case…think of those extra 100 points!</p>
<p>@BipolarBuddhist <a href=“http://www.erikthered.com/tutor/SAT-Released-Test-Curves.pdf”>http://www.erikthered.com/tutor/SAT-Released-Test-Curves.pdf</a>
Every may curve is almost guaranteed to be higher. May is the most popular SAT month for juniors. With all the students that will potentially score a very good score bogged down with APs and subject tests, the curves are WAY nicer. Do some independent research, you will find the same. Good luck man!</p>
<p>i think the questions in Online Course are tougher and weirder than the actual test(i’ve been tested in Jan) especially the grammar questions.
OG is a better choice,</p>
<p>Practice, practice BUT practice efficiently. Track your progress. I, for example, made matrices recounting the time I made it to, what I missed, WHY I missed them, and my goals for next time. I also made a matrix for sat examples detailing the summary and the themes analyzed, If it helps, I did this intently and raised my measly 680 on the writing to a 770 (I only missed one question) and I got an 11 using examples I analyzed beforehand. Make an essay template; you’re sure to find plenty on college confidential</p>
<p>This was my plan (though if I practiced it consistently, I would have broken 2300)
- In the first 45 days, you will memorize 23 words each day.
There should not be too many words with a same beginning letter among the 23 words to avoid mixing up them.
(2)Do your best to use a synonym to memorize a word instead of a sentence. This way, you can use the minimum information to memorize a new word.
(3)If a word has many meanings, do not try to memorize all its meanings.You only need to memorize its major meaning/meanings.
Do a test section/25 questions a day
End the week with a practice SAT test (13 tests in total) Make sure to replicate the test settings
Review a weak spot with lessons/self explanations
Read…ALOT and get those essay examples out(watch documentaries rather than rote research; popular areas: business, history, literature)</p>
<p>I have ALOT of SAT prep books on my computer, feel free to ask me for them.</p>
<p>Well when I took the SAT the first time back in Jan. 2013, I scored 580 CR 770 M 620 W</p>
<p>I ended up, in Oct. with a 760 CR 770 M 800 W.</p>
<p>I can’t really help you much with math because I didn’t prep. much for it, but for the other sections, I think I can:</p>
<p>Critical Reading:</p>
<p>-Do a ton of practice. Do as many practice tests as you possibly can. I probably did around 16 total. And after you do them, review them. Review EVERY question, not just the ones you got wrong. This really helps you to see the patterns in the question and will increase your score. You should review it so much that if you were to retake that test, you would get a perfect score.</p>
<p>-Study vocab. The best books to use are the Direct Hits books, the Hot Words books, and Krieger’s Essentials. If you learn all the words in those, then you should be able to score perfectly on the vocab section (or maybe one wrong).</p>
<p>Writing:</p>
<p>-Practice. That’s it. Writing is all repetition, so if you just practice and review your mistakes, then you can score really high. I even ended up getting a perfect score on the multiple choice just from practicing.</p>
<p>-For the essay, it’s good to have a format as well as a couple examples prepared beforehand. I actually found that it’s best to “make up” examples, and even wrote a thread on it, if you want to check it out.
<a href=“Defeating the SAT essay in 2 days - SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums”>Defeating the SAT essay in 2 days - SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums;
<p>That’s really it. Good luck!</p>
<p>Agreed, the may curve is the best (followed only slightly by the june, the prepared juniors are done with SAT taking at this point and taking the subject tests, and many schools require the june test of all their seniors)</p>
<p>I wrote this article aimed at getting above a 2000, hopefully it can be of some use:
<a href=“SAT Tips and Tricks - #5 by Almondjoy7 - SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums”>SAT Tips and Tricks - #5 by Almondjoy7 - SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums;