<p>I'm currently in the 10th grade and I was wondering when it'd be BEST to start studying for the SAT. I'm probably going to take tutoring next year for the SAT but for now, what shall I do?</p>
<p>Hello icurryx3, </p>
<p>As a 12th grader, here is the best advice I can give you…</p>
<p>1) Start studying now! I began studying in the summer of my 10th grade year. My SAT score went up almost 500 points from my PSAT from hard work. The more preparation you will have, the better your score will be :)</p>
<p>2) Do not take the SAT during the fall of your Senior year. I know many of my classmates did and they regret it. You will be stressed out with your college applications and more SAT preparation will be an extra burden on your schedule.</p>
<p>3) I would recommend taking the SAT two to three times in your Junior Year (11th Grade). Perhaps take the February SAT, the May SAT, and the June SAT. </p>
<p>4) It is great you are going to do tutoring. It is difficult to study alone. I hope your SAT tutor talks about skip counts. Knowing your skip count is a great way to ‘game’ the SAT. The point system works like this for the SAT
Skipped Answers- 0 Points
Incorrect Answers- -1/4 of a point
Correct Answers- 1 Point</p>
<p>Also, for most of all sections, except for the reading section, the questions per section go from easy to hard. Therefore, by knowing your skip count, you can skip the hard ones at the end and gain points. Please let me know if this does not make sense to you. </p>
<p>Best of luck on your SATs and please let me know if you would like more thoughts on anything in particular.</p>
<p>-TenStudent</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! However, I’m somewhat still confused. What SAT prep book should I purchase? I missed my October PSAT because I was out on vacation for three weeks in the middle of school. When can I take PSAT again? Does taking that many SAT tests affect the way colleges look at you?</p>
<p>I recommend the McGraw Hill Sat Book. Here is its link on Amazon <a href=“http://www.amazon.com/McGraw-Hill-Education-2015-Mcgraw-Hills/dp/0071831932”>http://www.amazon.com/McGraw-Hill-Education-2015-Mcgraw-Hills/dp/0071831932</a>, but you can purchase the book at any Barnes & Noble. If you cannot get this book, the Princeton Review an College Board books are great as well. From what I know, you can only take the PSAT at your own school. I could be wrong about this though. If you cannot take it again this year at your school, you are able to take it again in 11th grade. Additionally, many SAT prep classes offer ‘practice tests’ which are like PSATs in the fact that you can estimate your actual score on the test. </p>
<p>In regards to your last question, you can select which tests to send in to your college for an extra price. If you don’t want to pay extra, you can just send in all your scores. I would not recommend taking it five times but I think three times is plenty for you to show your best work. Colleges should not look at you poorly if you submit two scores. They should ‘superscore’ your highest scores per section to better see you as a student.</p>
<p>Uh, this is a review for this book, “- the practice questions and tests, like 95% of those that aren’t published by the College Board, do not represent the SAT well in terms of question style and difficulty. This is especially evident in reading comp. and grammar, where the questions are too easy.” Should I continue to purchase this because I am not that great in reading comp. Would purchasing this require me to purchase yet another book just for the English part?</p>
<p>I went to a very good SAT preparation center and out all of all the books out there, this book was recommended by the center. I think the reason why is that even though they are not published by College Board, they reflect the type of questions they use and it is very well organized and emphasizes beneficial test taking skills for the SAT. I would not recommend purchasing another book solely for reading comprehension. I would just practice all of the sections of reading comprehension in whatever SAT book you purchase. I am also sure that your tutor next year can help you solidify your reading comprehension skills as well. I do not think that the reading comprehension questions were ‘too easy’. No matter what, all of the sections make you practice a skill which is what you need. If you also find the questions ‘too easy’ in the McGraw Hill Book. If you do get them all right, I doubt that you will score poorly on the reading comprehension part of the SAT but if you still doubt yourself, you can always get other reading comprehension questions from online or from another book.</p>
<p>It’s usually a better idea to use official College Board books. There are some other third-party books that are decent, but quite a few test prep materials I’ve seen are full of errors and basically worthless. </p>
<p>I attended a Service Academy convention, where the advice the officers and congressmen gave was to study at least 30 mins at least a day. Honestly, it doesn’t matter what book you use, it’s how you use it. You need to focus on timing yourself when using the practice book. For me I used the College Board SAT prep book which helped me a lot with all the Practice tests in the back. </p>
<p>Start studying now as a sophomore you’d have a great advantage, I wish I would’ve studied earlier. And take the PSAT!!! </p>