I studied and practiced for the SAT for a month and a half, 5 days a week for AT LEAST 4 hours each. I practiced A LOT. I was getting around 710-750 for each category and reaching my goal score of 2200 for most of the practice tests ( I used Collegeboard Blue book for the practice test). But when I took the actual test, I got a score of 1980! I thought maybe they’re might’ve been a chance that they switched up the scores and I called the collegeboard customer service to ask if they’re might’ve been a problem and the guy didnt seem to know how to help at all. And it wasn’t that I was too nervous or anxious to think properly. I remember being relatively calm about taking the test. Is there any explanation? I’m so confused and angry because I know competent in my Sat test taking ability but my test scores seem to contradict that
Any insight would be helpful! Especially those who’ve had the same thing happen to them!
And for those that went through the same thing, I’d like to know how you recovered from it? Like if you were able to get the score that you thought you deserved?
Were your pretests done with a timer?
Nervousness, test fatigue, how much sleep you got the night before – all kinds of things can affect your score. Erin’s Dad raises a good point, if your self-tests weren’t timed then you weren’t getting the full experience. If you have any full practice tests left, take one of those (timed! with an essay!) and see how you do. If you do well, chalk this one up to a fluke. It’s out of your control now; your scores will probably increase with familiarity with the test, anyway.
Without knowing your subscores, I’m forced to speculate. But I suspect it’s pretty simple. You say you usually get around 700 in each section. Well, that means your range could be something like 660-720. Looks like you just performed at the bottom of your range. Keep working.
Ok thanks everyone! Yea i tended to practice without timing because I usually had plenty of time after I finished. I’ll start practicing by timing myself. Thank you everyone for your advice.
My advice is to take the practice tests under testing conditions. That is sitting down at 9 am and taking the test until 12:30 pm or 1 pm or however long it takes. Factor in breaks that you would get during the test but make it as much like the test as possible.