Thanks @laurenlucelucca wow you sounds like you are in a pressure cooker situation. My mom gives me a haaard time but she also is a social dumbo so on the one hand I feel sympathetic but on the other hand I wish my mom would talk more with other parents!
I’ll look up Direct Hit books and other materials mentioned in this thread - hope I can find some of the book in the library because my mom won’t have money for all of the books!
Does everyone in this thread self-study for SAT or do you do these books in addition to prep programs like Kaplan?
As I said before, it depends how much you want to get. Practice will make your scores to increase. There are so much resources on CC that you can look for. Have you taken the SAT or any practice tests?
What is your score?
I haven’t taken the test. I’m a freshman. My family can’t afford to send me to Kaplan. I’m interested in hearing stories about people who did well on SAT by self-study.
Depending on where you’re at, Barron’s SAT 2400 is a great tool. I started Junior Year with a 207 PSAT, and, after using Barron’s SAT 2400 and taking all of the tests in the blue book, went up to a 2380. Great book if you keep getting the difficult questions wrong.
No matter what book you buy, get the official SAT studyguide (blue book) to supplement it with. That way, you can do “studying” in another book and take real practice tests in the blue book. It worked best for me- I had the Princeton Review book, by the way. It did the job.
@ILikePlants self-study is honestly the best way to go. Kaplan classes teach study skills basically. Just have the diligence and patience to keep yourself motivated and you’ll be fine.
PWN the Math SAT guide is probably one of the best. I helped me increase my math score by 100 points (540-640)
@ILikePlants DD got a 2300 first sitting w/ blue book and then she used the “Black Book” to understand why she got answers wrong. She said it really helped her. Her PSAT was good but no where near 230 (can’t remember what it was) and she said she felt this book combo helped her get her score. She did no other tutoring or prep. She has always been an avid reader of quality literature and that helped, too, she said for grammar rules and vocab. Good luck!
I think that motivation and dedication will help you. Take some practice test to see how well are you doing. PWNTHESAT math book is the best for math at least for me. But I don’t know what is your weakness area on the test. Most students here on CC are good test taker so they do well on the test.