<p>My UW GPA is 4.00 and weighted is 4.46. I’m in the top 1% of my class of 559 students. However, as a sophomore, I took the PSAT with a 166. This is too low. How do you guys study for important tests like this? I see people with 2150+ scores and it honestly depresses me. How do I make sure I will ace these tests?! HELP!!</p>
<p>First off, don’t get worried. High grades do not always correlate with SAT/PSAT/ACT scores; some people are naturally good at them, it’s not something to stress over too much especially since you have a lot of time until it actually counts. </p>
<p>Second, set realistic goals for the short term and long term. For example, try a diagnostic exam and see where your weaknesses are. Then, set a goal for what you want to score on your next exam, but make sure it’s realistic and not like a 400 point jump in 3 weeks. I would recommend buying the Blue Book, Barrons, and the College Board online course. Work through the lessons and practices regularly to achieve your short term goals. Once you’ve established and met a few short term goals, determine what your long term goal will be, like scoring a 2100+ on the October exam for example. </p>
<p>Third, practice, practice, practice. You don’t need to go over board, but try to aim for around 1 hour a night doing practice questions and review vocab. You could increase the rigorousness over the summer when you have more time available. Also, regularly take exams to see how much progress you’ve made. I suggest at least one test every 3 weeks, and I would recommend saving the College Board online exams for those; you can print the tests out and do them in testing environment, and the program also scores your essay (Don’t know how accurate it is). </p>
<p>Finally, I do not recommend that you strive to ace the tests and make a 36 or 2400 your only acceptable score. Settle for something reasonable, but high like 2100-2300. Making a perfect score your goal will more than likely leave you upset as the probability of any given person scoring perfect scores is super low. </p>
<p>Plenty of people with excellent grades do not do well on these tests. Doing well in school is a matter of memorization, and the SAT is a reasoning test. Some people can reason better than others, and the only way to get better is with practice. There’s people barely in the top 10% with 2300+ and people in the top 10 in the 1800’s (in my school at least). GPA and SAT score don’t correlate unfortunately</p>
<p>@kevinjuan @Peezus any review books you guys recommend?</p>
<p>Anything by collegeboard is great practice material. Since you’re only a sophomore, you can expect school to help you as well</p>