<p>Took a practice SAT with 10 sections and got a 32 Grammar, 430 Reading, 500 Math, 230 Writing. Totals to 1192. Also 0 on Essay, don’t know what that was about because it was online. And I have a tutor coming in tommorrow morning 3x a week for 2 hours a day. I will be practicing and trying to do my best to up my scores. Any tips and advice to up these scores before i take it later in Junior Year??? This is 1 on 1 sessions with a tutor too btw.</p>
<p>you probably haven’t yet received a score for your writing. 1 on 1 sessions should help, but don’t be lazy. the worst thing you can do is to not spend the time on the practice questions. collegeboard materials are great to supplement your 1 on 1 (whether K or PR).</p>
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<p>Like cecilturtle said, you should go out and buy a book to do practice questions from. I think collegeboard makes their own book which you can get. They explain each section, the kinds of questions they will ask, and how to make the right choices for the answers. Do practice every day.</p>
<p>so-called diagnostic tests from test prep companies are notorious for underscoring your initial test because they “guarantee” a certain number of points improvement.</p>
<p>the only real diagnostic tests are the ones from the college board book of prior years SAT tests. With the exception of the essay, you can score everything from the answers in the back of the book to get a true “diagnosis”! </p>
<p>As far as the essay goes, it’s important to fill up as much of the 2 pages as possible because longer essays get higher scores.</p>
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<p>So much this. I would even go as far to say that the PSAT does a horrible job of “diagnosing” how you will do on the SAT. Lots of people did well/poorly on it at my high school ended up doing poorly/well on the SAT. Just do an old test and see how you compare. Those books are your best friend!</p>
<p>And actually got a 380 on writing portion, it was calculated wrong, either way improvement is a must. Also 9 on essay.</p>
<p>Also does Pitt just score math and reading or is writing included??? Tutor asked me what score I want and I said Get each of my scores to 550 for math, reading, and writing, is that reasonable for Pitt??? Or what should I aim for as a benchmark in each category???</p>
<p>I would suggest your benchmarks should be a 600 for all sections.</p>
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<p>This is a <em>minimum</em> of doing well for Pitt. I.E. your combined M&CR should be 1200 at LEAST.</p>
<p>Also everything wittyuser123 said is gold. I would also suggest (and this is a personal suggestion that <em>happened</em> to work for me) that you pick out a few classic literature books (i.e. Dickens, Austen, etc.) to read and comprehend. The kind of writing and vocabulary of these books, and the comprehension of such, definitely helps prepare for CR.</p>
<p>I got a 590 in the CR section and 700 in M and was accepted to Pitt fairly quickly. Although you should do your best to improve in every section, don’t feel like you’re at a complete loss if you’re not very strong in a specific one as long as you make up for it some other way. Along those lines, if you do all you can to bring your scores up and they’re still not up to par, make sure your essay is stellar.</p>