@samram I do understand your point and it is definitely apparent to me, however for right now I meant more along the terms of 5 SAT vocab words a week so that I’m not doing learning 1000 vocab words junior year when my coursework is harder and requires more effort, when I could be learning them now when I have (relatively) a lot of free time. Also, the methods I would be using right now to prepare would cost minimal, if any money, mostly requiring time, hard work and effort. Shouldn’t I want to give colleges the impression that I work hard? Also, like I said, though I totally understand your point of view, are you saying that if someone who is naturally more “able” or smarter gets the same score as a person who has spent hours a day studying, the test don’t accurately/reliably assess the students? I am genuinely curious, especially because receiving outside tutoring is prevalent in my school, especially only in order to maintain good grades (B+'s, A-'s, even the occasional A when the parent wants his/her child to “achieve her full potential”). However in my humble opinion, I think this is very different than preparing in advance for a test that I am not already sufficiently prepared for.