Is There Such A Thing As Studying Too Much For The Sat?

sushiny · 10-01-2007, 07:02 PM

Is this possible? Is it possible to study too much at any point? Or is it never enough? There is an ongoing arugment that one kid said he has studied too much and is done and the other who cannot get enough of it, what is true?

mj93 · 10-01-2007, 07:27 PM

LOL ..

well, once you reach 2400, i suppose you'd be sure that more studying would be a little too much.

of course, most people are maxed out before 2400. hard to say.

warblersrule86 · 10-02-2007, 01:42 PM

Whatever floats your boat. Personally, I thought that studying defeated the purpose of the test and took it cold. I'll probably do the same for the GRE.

scuba723 · 10-02-2007, 02:06 PM

When you study yourself into exhaustion, yes, that's studying to much.

Is there an established time limit for the amount of studying that should be done? No, and that will vary for each and every person.

I took the SAT cold at the end of Sophomore year, then again in March of my Junior year, and though I did well (above 1800 each time), I knew I could also do better if I studied a bit more. The June SAT happened to fall right after intensive studying for my AP exams, so I studied off-and-on the week before that test (nothing extreme, I just made sure to look at the material for half an hour or so each day) and pulled my score up 300+ points.

The math section remains my lowest, and if I had done intensive studying, I'm sure I could have pulled that up significantly, but I played to my strengths and tried to max out my writing and critical reading scores, and I feel that worked to my favor.

Now that I'm studying for the Subject Tests, I'm once again testing to my strengths, and only spending enough time on book review to feel comfortable with the material. I think my time will be better spent on college applications and fine-tuning extracurriculars than trying to squeeze an additional 20 or 30 points out of a test.

missypie · 10-02-2007, 02:40 PM

I think that if you reach a point where your practice tests scores have either leveled off, or are going down, you need to stop studying.

Tarhunt · 10-02-2007, 03:14 PM

I'm not entirely convinced that studying does a whole lot of good on anything except the writing section. Yes, you can increase your vocabulary for the CR, and that is a good thing. It will help you read better for comprehension. But it's hard to increase a vocabulary substantially without reading in context. The math sections tend to be about thinking through the problems and basic geometry and algebra I should be about all you need.

I've had kids of mine increase their scores substantially without studying a bit. One kid increased 200+ points (two sections, only) from one month to the next without studying at all.

jessiehl · 10-02-2007, 03:27 PM

There's a balance. It's important to get a good SAT score, but there are also more productive and fulfilling things you could be doing with your time, some of which can also help you get into college. If you're sacrificing your physical health/fitness, if you're straining family relationships, if you can't do the ECs that you've enjoyed anymore, if your grades are falling because you're punting schoolwork to study for SATs, then you are studying too much for them.

RootBeerCaesar · 10-02-2007, 04:57 PM

^its rare when SAT studying affects that.

There should be no limit for studying for the SAT until you think you've achieved the best possible score you can. I started out at a 1800 and moved up to 2300. Its possible. I doubt studying actually cuts into EC's/Health ever, because there always is "the weekend". Just do as much as u want, and then get your top score. No matter what people say about 'lolholisticapproach', SATs are still super important, partially because 1. Your guidance counseler is going to discourage you A LOT (and as such, write so-so recs) if your SAT score is low, while they will support u heavily if u have a high one (thats how most guidance counselers work nowadays - High SAT scorers = loved)

JBVirtuoso · 10-02-2007, 06:37 PM

I'm not studying very much, simply because I don't have the attention span at home. There are too many other things I can find to do at home, and I can't even sit and do homework more than a half hour at a time.

To get the score I want, I'll just need a small miracle. I'm not asking for any more than that! No, really, my only thing left to prepare for is the mindset of the analytical questions, usually in the reading section and the end of the math and writing sections. If I can think like a test maker and not like a deconstructionist, I'll be all set.

sushiny · 10-03-2007, 05:24 AM

I asked because for 2 months i studied about literally 5 hours a day non stop. i am now a bit burnt out, and have done virtually every college board sat test out there. i feel like when i go to pratice that I know all thematerial so when my mom is yelling because I am not studying and cramming like all her friends kids, i tell her becasue i literally feel saturated. does that make sense or am i being naive and should i force myself to go over it anyway?

scuba723 · 10-03-2007, 06:47 AM

Like I said, when you are studying yourself into exhaustion and feeling burned out on the material, that's studying too much.

The SAT, while important, is merely a test -- I am a firm advocate in the belief that 10 years down the road, your SAT score simply won't matter that much. Who is to say that after all this time studying, you won't wake up sick on Saturday morning, or you get to the test site and they give you an essay prompt that you just draw a blank on or a reading passage that you simply causes you to stumble? You'll take it, you'll do your best, and you'll move on with life.

I really feel bad for the students who have such a great deal of pressure coming from their parents -- as I described above, I did not intensively study for the SAT, and my parents were actually encouraging me to not even worry that much about it.

If you feel prepared for the test, and you have had competent English and Math teachers in the past few semesters, you'll do fine. Some students with a perfect 2400 will fail to get into the Ivies, while some students who fall below that 50% range will actually make it. You get to experience high school once, and only once; yes, there is petty drama and inept school administrations to deal with, but this is also the only time in your life where you will enjoy some amounts of independence while still largely living free of responsibility (no worries about health insurance, nagging guilt about spending time with the spouse/ children, outsourcing of full time jobs, mortgages to pay... those things that cause such unhappiness in America). Take a break from the worry, the stress, whatever it is dragging you down, and enjoy these brief years before you have to deal with the real world.

Success is how you define it, not what your peers, your counselor, or your parents say it is. Will a 2400 (or 2350, or 2200, or whatever you are aiming for) really be worth all the stress to you immediately after you see the score? In five years, will that score be worth all the worry?

By my calculations, 5 hours a day non stop for the past two months is equal to about 300 hours of study, or 12 and a half full days. That's a lot of life spent studying for a 3-hour test that only makes up a small portion of the college admissions process.

Today, do yourself a favor and instead of studying, go outside and do something you actually like doing. Find a friend and toss a frisbee around. Pull out your old bicycle and ride around the neighborhood. Take a walk down to that overpriced coffee shop on the corner and enjoy a high-calorie frozen drink. Then keep those books closed and go to bed at a reasonable hour, and tomorrow morning, try and decide which afternoon made you happier in the short term and was better for you in the long term: One locked away studying, or one spent indulging yourself in something that you enjoy.

mariacamilaperez · 10-03-2007, 08:27 AM

hello, I am an 10th grade student from an international school outside of the united states, also I would like to know how much does the grades count for each of the highschool year, I would like to astudy in a good college and would like to know the averege grades to enter and hiow much do they matter, also I would like to know if the AP classes are better in the transcript rather than a higher grade in a normal class. thanks

scuba723 · 10-03-2007, 09:19 AM

mariacamilaperez, this does not quite relate to the topic at hand, but I believe that you are certainly feeling a similar amount of anxiety and uncertainty that many board members are facing...

Many colleges now use a "holistic" approach to applications, which means they don't use a formula to guarantee that an SAT score of X and GPA of Y equals admission.

Instead, they take the student as a whole and look at his or her strengths and how they "fit" into the college. While high SATs and a high GPA certainly matter, recommendations, essays, and extracurriculars are all going to play a very large role into that final decision.

You can look at the average GPA and test scores by looking at the "Freshman Profile" section of individual college websites, or otherwise log on to the Collegeboard website and search for schools through that.

With regards to your question about AP classes, rigor of schedule is going to be very important, taking available course offerings into consideration. Urban High School X may offer every AP and IB class in existence to the students beginning at freshmen year, and if that is the case, then reputable colleges will expect applicants to take advantage of that opportunity.... by that same token, however, Rural High School Y may only offer a few AP courses, but as long as the applicant does his or her best to take the available "tough" course load, then they have a strong chance as well.

Keep in mind, however, that a C or a D in an AP class looks much worse than an A or a B in an Honors course -- similarly, not taking an AP exam while still receiving an A or a B in the course suggests that the grades were heavily inflated.

You are still in the early stages of your high school career -- make the right decisions, take courses of appropriate difficulty, and study when you know you should, and you'll do fine.

GardenMaiden · 10-03-2007, 02:45 PM

[quote scuba723] Like I said, when you are studying yourself into exhaustion and feeling burned out on the material, that's studying too much.

The SAT, while important, is merely a test -- I am a firm advocate in the belief that 10 years down the road, your SAT score simply won't matter that much. Who is to say that after all this time studying, you won't wake up sick on Saturday morning, or you get to the test site and they give you an essay prompt that you just draw a blank on or a reading passage that you simply causes you to stumble? You'll take it, you'll do your best, and you'll move on with life.

I really feel bad for the students who have such a great deal of pressure coming from their parents -- as I described above, I did not intensively study for the SAT, and my parents were actually encouraging me to not even worry that much about it.

If you feel prepared for the test, and you have had competent English and Math teachers in the past few semesters, you'll do fine. Some students with a perfect 2400 will fail to get into the Ivies, while some students who fall below that 50% range will actually make it. You get to experience high school once, and only once; yes, there is petty drama and inept school administrations to deal with, but this is also the only time in your life where you will enjoy some amounts of independence while still largely living free of responsibility (no worries about health insurance, nagging guilt about spending time with the spouse/ children, outsourcing of full time jobs, mortgages to pay... those things that cause such unhappiness in America). Take a break from the worry, the stress, whatever it is dragging you down, and enjoy these brief years before you have to deal with the real world.

Success is how you define it, not what your peers, your counselor, or your parents say it is. Will a 2400 (or 2350, or 2200, or whatever you are aiming for) really be worth all the stress to you immediately after you see the score? In five years, will that score be worth all the worry?

By my calculations, 5 hours a day non stop for the past two months is equal to about 300 hours of study, or 12 and a half full days. That's a lot of life spent studying for a 3-hour test that only makes up a small portion of the college admissions process.

Today, do yourself a favor and instead of studying, go outside and do something you actually like doing. Find a friend and toss a frisbee around. Pull out your old bicycle and ride around the neighborhood. Take a walk down to that overpriced coffee shop on the corner and enjoy a high-calorie frozen drink. Then keep those books closed and go to bed at a reasonable hour, and tomorrow morning, try and decide which afternoon made you happier in the short term and was better for you in the long term: One locked away studying, or one spent indulging yourself in something that you enjoy.[/quote]

*claps* Well said. If only my friends, my parents, and my brain were accustomed/agreed to the same advice - my life would be a whole lot easier and enjoyable!

Yeah, like many, I too dread the days where I will have to worry about everyday problems like morgages, bills, insurances, money, work, kids, life, and so on...my parents repeatedly keep telling me that I'm living the best days of my life. D: Sometimes I fail to see this from their perspective.

But they also tell me that your college years are the best years of your life too. Is this true? Or is college just full of endless work and tests?

scuba723 · 10-03-2007, 04:46 PM

I wish I knew the answer to that question, but alas, I'm merely a senior in high school. I also do not wish to give the illusion that I am a total slacker, or that I am resting on my laurels now and am an overconfident prick certain that I'm a shoo-in for some top university. Because I'm not.

I have worked very hard in my years at high school, but because I have worked hard all four years, I'm not feeling the pressure that some students are feeling now -- I'm maintaining a strong GPA, not trying to build one up, and my leadership positions are the result of careful planning and true enthusiasm; I still dedicate a lot of time to my work and to my studies.

However, I realized early on that I am not dead set on being Valedictorian or going to Harvard or Yale. The girl who is top of my class at my school is, by all accounts, a generally miserable person, though I wouldn't know -- she perceives certain people as "threats" to her class rank, and generally avoids them. High school, and college, will be what you make of it, and I believe there is a lot more value in striking a balance than living one extreme or another.

To the moderators: I realize that this thread has gotten a bit off topic, and I apologize for leading it astray, but I also felt that these postings were in the general spirit of College Confidential: anxious students looking to others for the support to make it through a stressful experience, be it test scores, the life of a teenager, or simply trying to prepare for the future.