<p>First and foremost, USE THE BLUE BOOK - it’s the best book out there for official practice tests right from the test publisher.</p>
<p>Critical Reading - Brush up on vocab with Direct Hits and/or Quizlet/flashcards. These vocab questions are easily preventable mistakes as long as you master the vocab. For passage-based questions, try to first go through a couple tests without timing yourself. Take all the time you need, but try to get all the questions right. As you improve your accuracy, go back to timed tests and gradually work on timing.</p>
<p>Writing - Most sentences can be corrected by the way they sound. If something doesn’t sound right, it probably isn’t. That being said, I must warn you that it’s easy to second guess even “no errors” once you get into the 700s. As for the essay, use literature, history, current events, etc. but oftentimes, just using people gets you to that 10. It helps to brainstorm a list of examples organized by literature, history, people and current events, with attributes/themes associated with each example before the test. Make sure to learn this list, so that you are less likely to have writer’s block on test day (after all, you only have 25 minutes). Also, study the format of typical College Board essays and derive your own formula based on that. That way, you could write a crappy essay on one of those bad writing days, but still get a 10 (trust me, I’ve been there).</p>
<p>Here are some study resources that I have gathered from my own personal experience and through skimming these forums:</p>
<p>CR:
-Vocab: Direct Hits (book), SAT Vocab Cartoons (book), Quizlet (online), Mindsnacks (found on the Apple App store), Test Your English Vocabulary (Android app - just drills you on vocab with 10 question quizzes; great for on-the-go practice rather than studying)
-Passage Practice: Untimed Blue Book tests, Erica Meltzer’s CR Guide (book)</p>
<p>Writing:
-Erica Meltzer’s Grammar Guide
-For the essay: your own list of canned examples organized by people, literature and history, with themes/attributes for each</p>
<p>Know that you don’t need all of these resources (since that would probably cost a fortune) but if I were to recommend a couple, I would say: THE BLUE BOOK (absolute necessity), Mindsnacks (found on the Apple App store - the first lesson with 20 words is free, the other 24 lessons can be bought for ~$5) and Erica Meltzer’s The Critical Reader (I haven’t personally used this but I have heard rave reviews - if you don’t want to buy her book quite yet you could check out her website, which also has Grammar resources: <a href=“http://www.thecriticalreader.com/”>A closer look at "being" - The Critical Reader).</p>
<p>Hope this helps! Good Luck! :)</p>