My story - (skip if you don’t care about anything other than the SAT scores)
I’m currently a Junior in HS (Houston, TX). I slacked off freshman year, got a few B’s then now I came back last year with all A’s and last semester with all A’s and it looks like i’m going to get all A’s again. I really thought i’d be a high rank, but my school is very competitive. I’m currently 8.3% in my class and it doesn’t look like i’ll be getting into the top 7% for automatic admissions for UT. I would hate myself if I had to go to Texas A&M, just because it’d feel like going to high school all over again with the same people and I don’t think i’d fit in (also I don’t think it fits my needs). I really thought that i’d get high enough SAT scores just to apply to UT and make it in. I was pleased with my PSAT score, just because I didn’t do any practice before it let alone saw another SAT test and got a 1220. I then took the January SAT and was dissappointed because I really thought I’d get somewhere in the 1900s and got a 1800. I know a guy that got an insane score and he gave me a few tips for the next SAT I do like buying a Kaplan book, studying root words, etc. but honestly I don’t have any other direction. Neither of my parents have much experience with the SAT and a lot of my friends either knocked it out of the park with 2100s or completely bombed it so i’m in the middle.
Sorry if I sounded pretentious with the Freshman remark, but it’s true and it seems like I did what everyone said not to do… screw up Freshman year.
Here’s my scores if you cared enough to read to hear -
PSAT (1st time)
610 Math
- My problem was mostly the no calculator section. I got 21/27 (0/4 grid in) w/ calc and 9/13 (1/4 grid in) w/o
610 Reading
- 34/47 right Reading
- 35/44 right Writing
SAT (1st time)
680 Math
49/54 total right
12/12 number
19/20 algebra
13/15 geometry
5/7 data analysis
580 Reading
49/67 total right
36/48 for passages
13/19 for sentence completion
540 Writing
38/49 total right
18/25 improving sentences
15/18 identifying sentence errors
5/6 improving paragraphs
6 Essay.
My essay was just flat out garbage. I’d expect around an 8 next time just because I was caught off guard completely with an SAT essay. Some people have given me some advice and I think I can work better in the 25 min window (or however long the essay is in the new SAT)
Long story short, I need some help for my next SAT test. I hear all about doing Testmasters but I don’t know if it’s worth $750 when all they do is practice tests and just straight textbook work that I could do at home.
Any help is appreciated. This should get more responses than many because it seems like most people post about going from like 780 to 800 on a section lol. Thanks in advance, everyone!
I wish you the best of luck. I got an 1830 my 1st time and I’m currently waiting for the results of the 2nd one I took a week ago…