<p>copying and pasting from SAT/ACT board. I just want to ask here because I know a lot of you had stellar scores on the news SAT. I got a 1990 (640M, 670CR, 680W) on the March 10th SAT but to have a decent shot at all the schools I'm applying to, I feel that I need between 2100 and 2200. I'm taking the June 2nd but I've gotta say I'm stuck. It's really important to me, but I have no idea how to go about improving my score by that much. Any ideas from those who have done so?</p>
<p>Your greatest margin for improvement is in math and writing. For math, do more practice problems, there's no other way. As for writing, do practice problems and learn the grammar rules for the ones you get wrong. Also, practice your essay.</p>
<p>A tip for the essay is to write as much as you can. Longer essays usually get higher scores. Another tip is to fit as many big pretentious words in your intro as you can.</p>
<p>I'm one of those people who naturally writes a lot and uses a lot of fancy vocabulary. It actually makes sense in a weird way because my English teacher this year is one of those people who hates pretentious words and has gradually coaxed me into brevity.</p>
<p>ahhh, i like being verbose and constructing extremely complex sentences too, lol</p>
<p>In my experience, although i took an SAT prep course before taking the SATs, i didnt really feel like it helped much, mostly because they didnt provide "study" tips or resources that i didnt already know or have (or maybe it was just that SAT class). But anyway, your best bet is to practice, practice, practice. Buy or borrow those new SAT books with lots of practice tests. What i did was take practice tests on days i stayed in for winter break, and later on the weekends (get up early in the morning, just like the real SATs), yea it sounds nerdy but i still had plenty of time to do stuff and have a life cuz it was just a few hrs in the morn i would have been sleeping anyway.</p>
<p>Time management is crucial (at least it was for me). Although you might have the "smarts" or whatever to do the SAT questions (or even if you dont), if you dont have time to finish or misread questions due to time pressure, you'll still do badly. After you finish off a certain number of practice tests you realize the questions are pretty similar and you kinda understand what they're looking for, and i remember i always had about 5 minutes for each section to leisurely check my work after i'd practiced, even though i always sorta barely finished my sections before that. Practicing also really helped with the critical reading section, which was my weakest point. I felt like i had a clearer mind to read and understand the passages, and didnt deliberate as long on the questions. Having enough time also helped since i wasnt as stressed. </p>
<p>The essay, i'd say dont worry TOO much unless its realy bringing down your score, or you feel that you really have the potential to score a consistently high score. I felt it was more practical to practice the grammar stuff, and since the essay is sorta subjective, you never know if your essay, which you thought was absolutely fantastic, might not get as high a score as you wished it would. (on the other hand, my friend got an 11 on an essay she thought she absolutely bombed). Its better to just practice writing a few essays on those generic topics, and keep in mind a few literary works or events (in your life or in history) you'd like/know how to talk about, so then you can reasonably mold them into an essay at the actual test. (since like i said, the essay prompts are pretty broad)</p>
<p>ok, so ppl always tell you to take practice tests, but its good to take at least one per week, then you'll really get the hang of practicing. Look over the questions you get wrong and read the explanations, then you'll understand (better) how to answer a similar question in the future (mainly for the CR and writing sections) It might not be for everyone, but this is a pretty foolproof method for avoiding careless mistakes (like those easy math questions you cant believe you missed) and really doing the best you can on test day.</p>
<p>Oh yea, and you'll find that some of those SAT practice tests are easier than others, but some are harder than the actual SAT test, and i also thought that some sittings of the real SAT tests were easier than others. (this i know because i took some actual collegeboard SAT tests as practice tests after they were released, and also took the SAT I twice) Generally i'd say scoring consistently 2300 or higher on the practice tests (like the Princeton review 11practice tests book) would guarantee at least 2100-2200 on the actual test, but im no expert, since this was from my own experience, and i dont know how hard the SAT has gotten since i've taken it, which was last fall. (because they refine the SAT questions that are deemed too easy or too hard?)</p>
<p>anyway, yea, this long post is the advice i have to offer, and i've heard lots of people claim you cant study for the SATs, but you can definitely practice for it.</p>
<p>Review the math section and the grammar section of a SAT book. It improved my score by almost 200 points in like 2 weeks hahaha. I studied the CR reading part too, but funny enough, my CR score has stayed the same for.. forever, basically.</p>
<p>Take the ACT, it might be really easy for you.</p>
<p>Get Barron's writing workbook. I improved over 150 points for my writing. You can EASILY bring up your writing score.</p>
<p>Yeah, the essay portion isn't something you could practice that much in two months so accumulating more points on the grammar section would be your best bet. I got a 800 in writing even without a perfect essay score because I got every multiple choice question correct. Good luck!</p>
<p>I raised my score 200 points by just doing practice tests. The scores I got on those were a pretty accurate reflection of how I did on the test. I used the Collegeboard book and Princeton Review. I tried Kaplan but I think it may have been too easy. </p>
<p>I agree with what most people are saying. I think math and writing will be easiest to improve on. In those sections, it's just knowing the different formats of questions they ask because they always repeat the formats in each test.</p>
<p>Yeah, go for the practice tests. I raised my score 350 points that way (1930 to 2280)</p>
<p>Blue Book, College Board Online Prep, and Grammatix. Practice mc writing, math, cr then essay, in that order. I listed them in easiest to improve to hardest. Try to go through as many tests as possible and always make sure you know why you missed a problem and how to not miss it next time. I prepped for about 10 hours using this technique and raised my score from 1920 => 2310.</p>
<p>I minimally used Baron's and improved 220 points.</p>