680, 670 M SAT, Freaking out

<p>May - 680 M (800CR, 760 W)
Oct - 670 M (770CR, 780 W) </p>

<p>I’m planning on retaking it in November, maybe even again in December. I’m actually pretty good at math, but I have a marked tendency to make random dumb mistakes. I’ll write 0.3 as .03 when I’m copying an equation to solve it, or forget to write a negative, or other such silly errors. Almost all the time, I have the method for solving the problem and the logic completley understood, but the dumb mistakes are keeping my scores down. I’ve heard “check your work” and the spend 25% of your time on the questions, then 75% checking. Checking my work is difficult, since I tend to work carefully in the first place (aside from said ridiculously idiotic mistakes), and I don’t usually have time. I’m wondering if anyone has any useful suggestions for avoiding making these stupid errors? Concentration tips, anything? </p>

<p>I feel really discouraged by the whole SAT thing. Admittedly, I haven’t studied very hard. I know some CC types tend to be nose to the grindstone types when it comes to SAT studying, but I hate the whole idea of it. I can name any number of things I’m more interested in learning than how to take a test. </p>

<p>MIT has been on my list for a long time, but this has me totally freaked. I have a good GPA, 4.1, a ton of APs, all of which I’ve gotten fives on. I’ve got the extracurriculars, the leadership, the community service, and I think I’d be a good fit for MIT. Now I’m freaked because of this stupid SAT score. Even if I retake and do better, won’t MIT wonder if the high score was a fluke? </p>

<p>Also, I got a 780 on Math IIC. Don’t know if that makes a difference or not.</p>

<p>Well honestly, you should just grind through practice tests. When people say they don’t believe in grinding their noses to get better at the SAT, that means they don’t want to pay thousands for some semester long course on the SAT. That doesn’t mean they don’t take out a few weeks and seriously practice many papers before they sit down for the real thing.</p>