Areelperson

The Blue Book and College Confidential is all you really need. Oh, and maybe a lot of motivation and concentration and a goal too.

Ehnree

Junior PSAT (no prep) : 192
First SAT attempt (no prep) : 1890
Second SAT attempt (studied) : 2210

Unless you are the world's smartest person, you neeeeeed to practice. The sat is like a game, the more you practice the better you'll get. I used the blue book and luckily I had an EXCELLENT tutor that helped me. Doing practice worksheets helps a lot but you should do a couple practice tests. Read Xiggi's guides, come up with testing strategies. Do all you can to get yourself to be a good test taker. I'm by no means a genius, but I did put the work into it and although I can't say the work was worth it (SAT's are dumb =( ), I sure as hell am relieved that I got them over with. Good luck!

francesca1996

October PSAT : 187
January SAT: 2170
March SAT: 2200 but 2270 superscored
shooting for a 2300+ in October

Golfer0210

Psat: 202 (73 cr, 61 m, 69 w)

sat: 2320 (800 cr, 720 m, 800 w)

Poplar

I got a 1900 on my 8th grade SAT. Isn't such a low score bad, though, and how did you improve your score in HS?

Shibboleet

Soph PSAT: 179 (64 math, 59 wr, 56 cr)
Jr. Year PSAT: 214 (70M, 75W, 69CR)
Jr. Year March SAT: 2330 (750M, 780W, 800CR)

I used the BB as well as the Xiggi Method primarily. I got through about 7 of the BB tests, as well as the free practice tests silverturtle had on his guide.

For grammar, I read silverturtle's guide and thoroughly read the answer explanations on the CB website for the blue book and by the end I was able to know the types of grammar problems (tense changes, parallelism, etc.) I didn't prepare specifically for the essay. (Though, in all fairness, I'm doing an IB diploma, and my ToK class basically calls for us to write SAT-esque essays for homework weekly).

For CR, I improved through trial and error. My KEY strategy development in the text handling came in asking myself the question: "How is this DIRECTLY supported by the text?", as is commonly recommended. For vocab, I used DH I & II as well as a whole lot of luck.

For Math, I just did the practice sections and learned common techniques for solving problems (graphing, prime factorization, modeling, etc.)

Overall, I spent about $40 and got an improvement of about 500.

Edit: Also, question of the day is a MUST! I signed up for CB's (a necessity, if you ask me) as well as number2's. I went stretches of weeks without studying and this helped to keep me on the right track.

hkim0713

@Cheeseandbacon: yours is similar to mine!

2009 freshman PSAT: 152 (44 reading, 56 math, 52writing ) no prep
2010 soph PSAT: 186 (56 reading, 69 math, 61 writing) took a short prep course
2011 junior PSAT: 202 (64 reading, 70 math, 68 writing) took a prep course
2012 march SAT: 2120 (62 reading, 750 math, 750 writing)

I used Barrons and Princeton Review, but they didn't help. People really need to buy the blue book. And use the question of the day. I also memorized 2000+ words to improve my reading. Now I need to work on comprehension...and math...I need to stop trolling. :P

I'm going to stop studying for the SATs and will focus on other stuff once I hit 2200.

fmljat

I was a ESL student
First SAT attempt (no prep) : 1640(CR:440 W:450 M:750)
Second SAT attempt (no prep): 1860 (CR:510 W:520 M:730)
Third SAT attempt (studied for a summer) : 2080 (CR:680 W:620 M:780)

I literally finished 5 SAT prepbooks over the summer
I guess my hard work has paid off..

SAT100

Sorry but some of these scores aren't exactly inspirational. Scoring a 140 (or 1400 in terms of the SAT) as a freshman is actually pretty good. I am pretty sure it would put you, at least, in the top 20% compared to other freshmen.


First SAT attempt (junior year, no prep): 1680
Now (1 1/2 - 2 months of studying): 2160

Planning on taking it again since I feel that I can still increase my score, and so that I have a better shot at transferring next year.

Areelperson

freshmen year 1680(2nd time I took it, 1st time I took it was in 6th grade and got a 1550)
junior year: 2160( 1 week of hardcore studying)

taking it again

aares1

10th gr PSAT: 131 (no prep...obviously)
11th gr PSAT: 156 (no prep)
11th gr March SAT: 1740 (did like 3 prac tests)
11th gr June SAT: waiting--8 more days

rspence

Spent 30 minutes reviewing common grammar rules on the SAT

Writing score: 540's --> 660.

kimmylouie

10th grade PSAT: 173
Current practice SAT score: 2150s

kwudude

Junior December: 2220
Junior May: 2400

Yay! Lots of prep for December, then I did nothing in between the two tests.

THEbomb

195 as psat 2100(sat) then 2190(sat) then 2390(sat)