Lifeofsolitude

I've taken the SAT for the first time in May and I got a REALLY low score. I got a 1500 and was extremely depressed. I've been taking over 6 months of intense SAT prep classes (C2) and I KNEW this material....I guess I've been psyching myself out. I'm always choosing the 2nd best answer vs the BEST answer.

Any thoughts? How did you feel going into the test? How did you stay confident during the test?

Malapropism

The way I stayed confident? I knew I'd taken the practice tests, and was in the mindset where I'd get really excited when I recognized a question. I tried to keep in mind the techniques I'd learned, and went into the test with approximately 12 sharpened pencils, since I knew I get irked by having to use less-than-pristine pencils. It's all about trusting yourself and not getting too stressed out. I actually enjoyed the test to some degree, as strange as that sounds.

IceQube

^It sounds as if you experienced "flow."

Flow is achieved when the difficulty of the task is high, but your skill level is similarly high.

takeabow

Just relax when you are taking the test. If you are stressed out then you can't do your best thinking and therefore your score will suffer. You may not do well as a test taker, but as long as your GPA shines you should be fine. Take it again in October and remember to eat before the test and during the breaks. This helps me concentrate and take my mind off of freaking out before the next section.

Malapropism

^ Along that note, I'm a fan of Hershey's Kisses during tests.

Tyler309

Mints or gum for me. It's all about that fresh breath.

IceQube

It's about 10% mental, 10% physical, 5% luck, and 75% skill.

10% mental - you have to be focused.
10% physical - Too cold? Too hot? Have to use the bathroom? Hungry? That's going to adversely affect your score.
5% luck - guessing
75% skill - enough said

xiggi

That indicates that your intense preparation was also entirely lacking, and probably based on leaving you with playing the guessing game some seem to love to ... teach.

Take another test, do NOT guess, and analyze why you could NOT find the answer. In earnest!

Lifeofsolitude

Thank you, everyone! I'm taking the SAT 2 more times and the ACT two more times. So I have 4 chances to improve my score T___T

I've taken different kinds of practice tests, but I just don't have the confidence to carry me through. I know the mistakes I make are silly and careless, but I've taken at least 10 full length practice tests.....

Btw--- when you guys take a practice test, do you set it up in intervals? Such as spend 45 min on a certain section (or whatever time is permitted) then come back later for another section?

IceQube

I only blitzkrieg through an PSAT/SAT whenever I want to get a measure of my true score.

Usually though, I just do a certain section a day. If it's Monday I'll just attack all the writing sections and make sure I thoroughly understand what I got wrong. And what I got right by guessing .

I make sure to mark up my answers too - a check for questions I think I got right, a question mark for questions I guessed on, and an "X" for questions I just don't know.

Taking a full-length SAT is a major time drain. By the end, you'll be too tired to really go through your mistakes one by one and carefully. Break up some of your SATs and work on them section by section.

Be sure to leave some left over though! You'll probably want to know your "true" score before you take a real SAT .