How many points can I realistically expect to go up?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>My PSAT wasn’t bad, 1910, seeing that I didn’t even know it was being administered that day but the latest “PSAT” I took, which was on Sparknotes really got me depressed lol
Math 410, this was really surprising, I’ve never been good at math but have always gotten straight A’s
CR 690, This was okay
W 790, I missed one, and was surprised I did that well
Now, I took this test with 0 prep and was BS’ing a lot but it conveys the message that I really have to buckle down
I am using Gruber’s for Math and studying 2 hours each day for just math
For CR I am memorizing the 250 Sparknotes words and using Hot Words on top of that, I’m reading three classical books and a few articles daily, I’d say an hour a day goes into CR
For Writing, I do an old SAT essay once a week, I have a grammar book that I flip through and also am doing the Blue Book for writing, I’d say 20-30 min. a day</p>

<p>Overall, I am using BB primarily and PR secondary. My prep routine is around 3 hr 45 min a day. I’m really trying to do my absolute BEST. </p>

<p>That said, with all the prep that I am doing what is the highest possible score that I can get, and the lowest possible score?</p>

2

<p>bumpp! Anyone???</p>

3

<p>Dont you think 3hrs 45mins a day is overdoing it? And it was a test from Sparknotes that you were unhappy with. It os probably a bad test. Use only real CB tests and see how you do. If I were you, I would calm down. You don’t need 2 hrs of prep each day for just math. Go over maybe a section or two a day from the BB. I’m sure its possible for you to get a 2200+. But over stressing by doing anything more than an hour a day is not going to help you. After an hour, you will have hit the point of diminishing returns.</p>

4

<p>The highest possible score you can get is 2400 and the lowest possible score is 600, regardless of how much you study. That said, you can make a 200-300 point improvement on math just by learning the basics and practicing. I’m not sure how much improvement you can make in CR. CR is kind of hard to improve once you’re in the 700s range.</p>

5

<p>Well, I started out with an hour of prep a day. The wierd thing is that I really don’t notice how time flies, I think it’s, well I wouldn’t use the word “enjoyable,” but informative, it makes me feel more confident. I’m fine doing 3 hrs and most of the books that I’m reading are summer assignment anyway, I’m just asking myself all of the “SAT CR” questions as I go. It’s really not as much as it seems!</p>

6

<p>If I were you, I wouldn’t be stressing out too much. It seems you’re already well on your way to a good Cr score. Your sparknotes Math score was definitely lower than what you could do. It has a lot of errors, and includes a few problems that would not show up on the test. I get 70-100 points lower on it than I usually get for math. Writing it seems you pretty much have that covered.</p>

7

<p>Spend less time. You’ll become stressed and tired-- at this point you won’t be performing as well as you should be and instead, you’ll be wasting practice tests, etc.</p>

<p>I only study when I’m wide awake and know that i’m going to be able to do my best. I’ve tried to study when i’m sleepy and nothing sinks in…Seriously, you’ll just waste time instead.</p>

<p>And if you don’t do so hot on practice tests, you’ll have a lower self-esteem. I get hella ****ed off when I do bad on a practice test, and i’m sure you wouldn’t be happy either if you knew you could have EASILY solved the question if you were thinking more clearly. It’s so god damn annoying to know how obvious the answer was but your brain didn’t correctly associate something (e.x, a triangle has 2 equal sides, so 2 angles are equal when your tired you might miss that and not be able to do the problem). </p>

<p>About the math:
Note that I would say the secret to doing well on the math part is completely based on associations which is mostly learnable. When you see something, you need to quickly do a “checklist” in your mind of things that are related. Circle: Area, circumference, arcs. When you see a triangle: angles, area, what are the side lengths, 30-60-90?, 45-45-90?, isosceles, equalateral?. Distance: rt=d, total time?, total dist?, rate of change?. Problem with exponents: factoring, exponent rules, FOIL.</p>

<p>Things like that are what you need to be thinking about. Sure, you will run into some questions that you have never seen everr. Great, there’s like 4 of those, the rest are just repeats over and over and over. By associating comcepts with what they tell you, you can solve the problem very easily. The few exceptions are, I suppose you can say, are intelligience based, but the more concepts you learn, the easier the test is. I think knowing\practicing the tests is really what the SAT is testing for and not intellect. You can studyyy.
That’s my adviice.</p>

8

<p>dareallycoolguy0, knowing that the sparknotes test could be a little harder makes me feel a tad bit better, lol, thanks!
Cjgone, thanks for the awesome advice! I’m really trying to get geometry ingrained into my head at the moment as it’s not my hottest subject!</p>

9

<p>I think you can expect to improve a lot. Many diagnostic tests are inaccurate. I am in the school of belief that you can improve more than the simple 300 points or so that everyone seems to talk about. At Elite (where I go to for SAT prep), a classmate of mine was getting ~1400s or so on his SATs a couple of months back. Now, with much preparation, he’s reached about 2000 and there are still 8 weeks remaining in the program - there is incredible potential to boost your score 700, 800, even 900 points with simple techniques. Grammar, in particular, seems to be the easiest to improve: learn a couple of basic rules and you net yourself perhaps 100 more points. Math is supposedly the easiest section and reading is just a b</p>