<p>First, let me explain my situation a little bit. I’m Dutch and I go to a regular Dutch high school. My native language isn’t English but I’ve had English lessons for over 7 years now. I am graduating this year and I am applying to Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Yale. I know these are all “reach” colleges and I know my chances of being accepted are very small but if I don’t get accepted (which, I think, is the most likely scenario) I will attend a Dutch university. I am merely applying because I would love to study in America. I am not applying to some more ‘reachable’ colleges because these generally do not have need-based financial aid for internationals. (To understand, college in the Netherlands costs about 2000€ in tuition per year for residents)
Now here’s my question;
Yesterday I took the official SAT practice test from the collegeboard website, I didn’t pay any attention to the timer and just finished the test as quickly as I could because I thought that the time would be my biggest problem. But I ended up having about 5 minutes left at the end of each section. Instead of checking my answers I just continue to the next section as it was getting late.
I got a 650 in CR, a 620 in Writing, a 740 in Maths and a 10 for my essay(Although I doubt a computer can accurately grade this) with a total score of 2010.
I’m taking the SAT on November the 8th. Do you have any tips or suggestions on how I can improve my score? I have bought the so-called ‘Blue Book’ with the DVD and I planned on just doing all the practice tests. Also, do you think being Dutch is an advantage or not with regards to my admission?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>