College Discussion - View Single Post - 1750-1850??

Godfatherbob · 04-22-2008, 04:34 PM

~300 points is totally doable in a year. I would advise you NOT to concentrate your efforts exclusively on reading, however, for a few reasons.

One, if you don't study math it's very likely that your math score will DECREASE over time, rather than increase. The process by which you should go about solving reading questions is very different from that by which you should go about solving math questions, and as you focus on the former, it's likely you'll neglect, even forget the latter.

Two, you may find that once you hit 650 in reading and writing, you can't go any higher. They're difficult sections. You could be stuck with a 650-650-700 situation (I say 700 instead of 750, because, in this scenario, you've focused on the English sections, and consequently your math has suffered), which, granted, is a respectable 2000. But, it's no 2100. Now, in order to raise your math to 800, in order to bring your 2000 to a 2100, you'll have to concentrate exclusively on math, because it will have been [x] months since you last did an SAT math problem. Then, just as your math will have suffered from an exclusive concentration on the English sections, so your English sections will suffer from an exclusive concentration on math, and you could be facing something like 600-600-800--the same 2000.

A similar thing happened to me a few months ago--I, too, am in the practice test phase of SAT studying. I studied math for two weeks, and saw an increase of 170 points--590 to 760! I thought, great, just two sections left. The next month or so I focused on Writing and Reading, and when I took another test, lo and behold, each went up about 30 points. Swell, right? Well, not quite--math went down 90--760 to 670.

Moral of the stories: Focus on the English sections, but do not neglect math. Your goal is to have all three sections increase with each practice test--something I've never been able to do.

Two more quick things:
1. One practice test per week is too frequent. Space it out significantly more.
2. If you're going to take full practice tests--which you should--do take the whole thing. You can't just assume that [this] section will be the same as last time.

04-22-2008, 04:34 PM	#4
Godfatherbob Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts Posts: 860	~300 points is totally doable in a year. I would advise you NOT to concentrate your efforts exclusively on reading, however, for a few reasons. One, if you don't study math it's very likely that your math score will DECREASE over time, rather than increase. The process by which you should go about solving reading questions is very different from that by which you should go about solving math questions, and as you focus on the former, it's likely you'll neglect, even forget the latter. Two, you may find that once you hit 650 in reading and writing, you can't go any higher. They're difficult sections. You could be stuck with a 650-650-700 situation (I say 700 instead of 750, because, in this scenario, you've focused on the English sections, and consequently your math has suffered), which, granted, is a respectable 2000. But, it's no 2100. Now, in order to raise your math to 800, in order to bring your 2000 to a 2100, you'll have to concentrate exclusively on math, because it will have been [x] months since you last did an SAT math problem. Then, just as your math will have suffered from an exclusive concentration on the English sections, so your English sections will suffer from an exclusive concentration on math, and you could be facing something like 600-600-800--the same 2000. A similar thing happened to me a few months ago--I, too, am in the practice test phase of SAT studying. I studied math for two weeks, and saw an increase of 170 points--590 to 760! I thought, great, just two sections left. The next month or so I focused on Writing and Reading, and when I took another test, lo and behold, each went up about 30 points. Swell, right? Well, not quite--math went down 90--760 to 670. Moral of the stories: Focus on the English sections, but do not neglect math. Your goal is to have all three sections increase with each practice test--something I've never been able to do. Two more quick things: 1. One practice test per week is too frequent. Space it out significantly more. 2. If you're going to take full practice tests--which you should--do take the whole thing. You can't just assume that [this] section will be the same as last time.