Xiggi's SAT prep advice - Page 45

Ren the SAT'er · 05-20-2008, 11:22 PM

08-20-2005, 01:04 PM #279
tanman
Senior Member

Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Student @ JHU (Baltimore, MD) / Houston, TX
Threads: 26
Posts: 2,117 Is there anyone out there who has used the CB Online course, the Testmasters solutions book and the Studyhall.com service or any combination of the three? We've had reviews of all three services, but I've never seen a comparison of any of the solution services

i still wanna know this, can someone answer this?

3365 · 06-19-2008, 04:06 PM

anyone know what's best to improve CR? i got 640 on the march sat in cr and would like to be up in the 700's. anyone?

entomom · 06-21-2008, 04:00 PM

For CR, my D liked Maximum SAT.

Frogmaster13 · 07-06-2008, 12:08 PM

Personally I think most studying for the SAT is a waste of time. People obsess about the SAT way too much; they've developed all these little tricks and strategies (I've heard a lot...from "ignore the quote on the essay; it's designed to mislead you" to "don't read the long passages, just hunt for the answers"). If students would just take the test like they would take any other, the scores would probably stay about the same.

Now I'm not saying don't study at all, but if you take the test once, get a feel for it, and maybe look over some vocabulary the second time, you should be fine.

I've taken it twice; got a 1920 the first time and a 2170 the second. I didn't prepare for more than an hour either time. I'm not trying to sound arrogant but I think a lot of time is wasted preparing for this test that could be spent preparing for other aspects of academics.

dchow08 · 07-06-2008, 12:37 PM

^ It's not a waste of time for people who wouldn't do well without preparation. I agree that people here (I would not say that CollegeConfidential people represent the average high schooler, by the way) go a little too bonkers over a test of basic skils (that's what a lot of people here don't realize--if you can read a newspaper and understand it, if you have a good high school level vocabulary, if you can do a little bit of math, if you know the basic rules of English grammar and can write a rough draft of an essay in 25 minutes, you'll do fine, and you may have a difficult time in college if you can't do these things) and people here generally are very stressful about even the tiniest things (what generic examples should I use, what math formulas do I need, how many hours a day should I spend studying vocabulary and reading classical literature? I mean, I sometimes laugh at these comments--they're comical from the standpoint of someone who's done with the SAT. You wonder, gee, why don't people just take the test, see where their weaknesses are, and then improve?), but that's because people are concerned that they won't get into their dream schools without good SAT scores.

MaryTN · 07-07-2008, 05:32 AM

^^ I am a parent who recently took the GRE and I disagree that studying doesn't help much. Each of the major tests (ACT, SAT, GRE, etc) feature problems of a certain type. The more you practice, the faster you become at recognizing the type and knowing how to solve it.

The GRE is taken on a computer one problem at a time -- you can't go back and you can't see what's ahead. My HS sophomore son and I did many math simulations. Look at the problem, decide on a strategy, work it, and move on. There is no doubt in my mind that I got faster and faster the more we did them.

sprintuser · 07-12-2008, 05:02 PM

There are so many posts in this thread. Would it really help if I read through all the posts or would it be good enough to just read the Xiggi method.

MaryTN · 07-13-2008, 08:00 AM

I thought about this thread yesterday. I was talking with the rising-junior daughter of my hair stylist. This girl is clueless about ACT, SAT, etc. When I mentioned preparing for the tests, her eyes glazed over.

We talked about another girl we know who practiced with her high school basketball team 6 hours a day all summer with one week off designated for family vacations. During the school year, practice was 2-3 hours/day plus games and travelling. She did this for 3 years and got a college scholarship. There were no guarantees.

Let's think about this ridiculous-ness: 30 hours/week in the summer of basketball practice is fine. Studying a lot for the ACT or SAT is not. aarrggh

dchow08 · 07-13-2008, 10:40 AM

Yeah, I honestly don't know why people spend so much time studying for a test of basic skills. I mean, as long as you can read and comprehend news articles from the New York Times, can do a bit of math, know the basic rules of English grammar, and can get your thoughts about a certain essay topic on paper and support them, you'll do fine. Does it really take as long as people claim it does? They're skills that every college student should have.

KeepRolling · 07-13-2008, 11:15 AM

okay... then stop expecting everyone to have those skills.... some take time to acquire or rather master them....

entomom · 07-13-2008, 11:49 PM

sprintuser,
Go to pg 39 of this thread and read a summary of the xiggi method that I posted, that should be enough.

dchow08 · 07-14-2008, 01:15 AM

KeepRolling--yes, but it does not take anyone, say, 2 hours a day over 3 months to do that, unless they were very inefficient with their studying.

Rh. · 07-15-2008, 10:28 AM

So i am an incoming freshman and the only real high school math course i've taken is Algebra I, next year I'll be taking geometry. So my question is am I screwed for the PSAT next year since I'll only have 1/2 a semester of geometry and algebra?

dchow08 · 07-15-2008, 11:41 AM

No, because all they really ask is about geometry and algebra. There might be some questions you won't know. Here are some sample problems:

PSAT/NMSQT: Math Multiple Choice

hellojames · 07-15-2008, 01:36 PM

As of now, has any part of the method I read on pg 38 different. Should I ONLY buy the CB book? Any others?