<p>Can anyone help me with my SAT frustration? I feel so hopeless. I've been practicing the SAT for 7 weeks already (taking a prep course) and my score has barely even gone up. It's gone from 1690 and only to 1890. But every week, my score keeps on fluctuating. One sitting, it'll go up by a lot and then the next week it'll go down from 30-80 points. </p>
<p>The most frustrating part has got to be Critical Readin.. I don't know why, but the more I practice and study the format of the SAT, the less of an effect it has. Before, I missed around 19-21 questions (disappointing score around the high-500s) and now it's barely gone up (around 17 at the best). I get the feeling that I'm understanding the passages more than before when I started, but I still don't get why I'm doing so badly. I even bought an SAT workbook, and I'm missing the same questions. I've tried playing "devils advocate" when trying to choose between two (and sometimes three) answer choices and it feels like I'm choosing the right questions when in the end, I didn't.</p>
<p>Not only that, but math and writing seem like something impossibe. I know that the two are the most easiest sections to improve in (just memorizing a bunch of rules and etc.) but I can't even break at LEAST a 700 in writing and I only reached a 700 just ONCE. Both of my scores have been hovering around the 650-690 range. Even my SAT prep teachers say that everyone should be getting around 770+. On average, my scores seem to be around an 1800-1900. </p>
<p>Sorry if I sound like I'm ranting, but it seems that at this point, it seems hopeless for me to even break 2000. I REALLY want to achieve a 2300+. I know that I can do it and I have the motivation and dedication to do so, but everytime it seems that I'm tripping up on every practice test sitting!!! I've looked at almost every SAT for advice, referred to the Xiggi method, and everything but to no avail. :(</p>
<p>@rspence Do you recommend any books at all? I’ve heard people say that Dr. Chung’s or PWN the SAT is good for math, but I don’t know which one to pick. And for grammar, is “The Ultimate Guide to SAT grammar” ok?</p>
<p>sounds like a case of not reading answer explanations after you get it wrong, and then if so not actually understanding why you get it wrong</p>
<p>for books, anything that’s been mentioned at least a few times by cc people is fine. heard good things about chungs, and if you don’t care about the essay and only want rules get the writing workbook by blackstone review (i forgot what it’s called). barron’s/kaplan cr workbook both do wonders</p>
<p>I actually don’t know what the best book for math is…(math’s my strong subject, got 800’s w/out any prep). I used a PR book for writing/reading, which definitely helped.</p>
<p>I’m not a huge fan of Kaplan anymore…our teacher gave us a practice AP Calc BC test a couple years ago and we found dozens of errors. Many of them were obviously not typos.</p>
<p>^well, every test book company has fluctuating value in any specific test, as they’re written by different authors. i.e. Barron’s is a given for SAT2math2, kaplan is a given for SAT2ush, Cliffsnotes for the old AP Bio, etc. I just found Kaplan CR workbook extremely good. OH BY THE WAY the kaplan CR book is much thicker than the barron’s CR book. Guess which one actually has more material and less blank space? barrons. but the material kaplan actually has I like.</p>
<p>@kyrix1 Really? My test prep course actually makes us review EVERY single problem we got wrong as homework. If we don’t do it, we get detention. I review all of the problems I got wrong every week. </p>
<p>And yeah as for Kaplan, I actually bought its CR workbook. My biggest Achille’s heel has got to be the passages (not so much sentence completion; I know the general idea of what the sentence is asking for, but not the vocabulary. Should probably get a vocab book or something). I’m going to see how it works out, but so far, its just meh… How much of an increase did you see after finishing it? </p>
<p>Thanks for the advice for the other review books too. Will be sure to check them out. :)</p>
<p>@rspence How was PR for you though? Seems fine at first, but I keep on reading about the book being filled with errors. Is it a reliable enough resource? D:</p>
<p>Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but many of the notions displayed in this thread are severely misguided. </p>
<p>Everyone comes into SAT prep with vastly different backgrounds and life experiences.</p>
<p>The facility some people demonstrate in critical reading “without studying” is typically the result of years of attentive reading in addition to diligent hard work in a well-taught and funded English classes. If you are not improving in critical reading, you should stop wasting testing materials (before you run out of them! yes that will happen!) and start reading as many challenging books and other writing materials as you can. Keep a reading journal for vocabulary, and try to mix in “SAT vocabulary” from sources like Direct Hits in that journal to prioritize what you should be learning. When reading for class, try to pay the same heed to your textbooks. This is the best advice I can give for a top score on that section. Good luck!</p>