My dream school is to go to NYU Stern. However, my SATs aren’t really there. Ive been scoring rather low on the SATs and its really scaring me because i can’t even get up to 1900. All of the people at Stern have either a 1900 or higher and I’m having trouble reaching that. I personally think its because I don’t test well at all. Any huge test besides a classroom test, I usually do terrible on. However, everything else is there. I have a rigorous course load with many APs, 3.8 GPA, and I have great extracurriculars. The only thing that’s missing are good SAT scores. I know they say that SAT scores don’t determine your acceptance into the school, but I feel like when it comes to Stern, they actually do. So besides the usual test prep (which I’ve tried already), what can I do to improve my scores? I’ve taken it twice now and I want May to be the last time I’ll take them. Please help!!!
You’re right when you say that Stern cares a lot about SAT scores, as do a lot of competitive business schools. It’s really difficult to improve your scores in such a short amount of time, and if you’ve already tried the test prep courses, then there isn’t a whole lot that you can do other than study.
My best advice would be to get a test prep book (multiple probably) and practice everyday for a short period of time and work to understand what each section is looking for. You can’t teach yourself everything before May, but you can become familiar with the type of questions and learn some vocab words.
Best of luck. I know that low SAT scores can be ungodly stressful and unfair, but it may be useful to look at different schools too.
Never fear,
I have delved into SAT test prep and got a decent score (2100: 640 CR, 770 Math, 690 WR) and I’ve additionally done a lot of research on test prep. There’s a lot of information on these forums out there (so much, it might be a bit overwhelming), so I’ll try to condense my personal advice in this post.
Also, I was in the same situation as you. I had great grades, class rigor, awesome GPA, but previously, my SAT scores didn’t cut it. So I might be able to help you out. However, there are some questions you need to ask yourself before you find the best improvement method and get a boss score.
First, which sections do you struggle in? Which sections are your strengths? [I was always a good math student, so I never had to really study]. However, for writing and reading, I can help.
Also, what type of learning environment do you work well in? Do you like to sit in an class (I hated them and thought it was a huge waste of time; I personally thought that everything taught in an SAT class could be easily gleaned by reading a shoddy prep book).
Are you a very self-driven, highly motivated learner? Or do you prefer learning one-one one (with a tutor)?
I ask because if you want to do well, you have to find what works best for you. I was very motivated to study on my own and found a good tutor.
Onto some advice.
For CR, if you struggle with vocabulary, there is no real alternative other than going after vocab lists and memorizing them. I had a good vocabulary to start with, but the way I learned vocab is by taking tons of practice SAT’s, going back to every sentence completion question, and learning the definitions of every word I didn’t know. Even if I got that question right, but didn’t know another word in the choices, I looked it up. I learned a lot of words, and I also learned by using an app called MAGOOSH SAT flash cards. This helped a lot, and I missed only one question on the sentence completion portion on the CR. There’s a great book out there for vocab called direct hits: Core and Toughest vocab. You should take a look at those. There’s a lot of words, but chances are there are many that you know.
It may suck, but once you get a lot of words, it’ll be satisfying using them, memorizing them, and getting better on the Sentence completion.
http://www.amazon.com/Direct-Hits-Vocabulary-Edition-Volume/dp/1936551136.
For passages, there’s only one good book out there. Erica Meltzer’s “The Critical Reader”. The book gives you a thorough breakdown of every type of SAT reading question, and gives you better context of the section as a whole.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Critical-Reader-Erica-Meltzer/dp/1479224715/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y
Disclaimer Yes, I only got a 640 which is relatively garbage, but I hadn’t worked through the entire book when I took my test.
For writing, just buy Erica Meltzer’s other book (The ultimate guide to SAT grammar). This book is kind of if you’re clueless on grammar. However, I improved quickly on this section because there 4 rules that appear over and over on the test, and mastering those will get you a decent score. [I missed 3 on the writing]
Phew. I could've made that a lot shorter, but I hope this helps!
AtharvaLarva
EDIT: I don’t know how to fix these italics.
Also, If you are going use practice tests, never, EVER use a practice test from a non-collegeboard company. The questions are poorly designed and inaccurate. CB’s tests are the real deal, and only practice with them.
@AtharvaLarva you can use [ i]italics text/ i to produce italics text.
AtharvaLarva is right, but it’d be better to provide some info of your academic background (courses taken, and SAT CR/W/M scores - you could have 500/800/500 for example).
I can help a bit on math, probably not so much on reading or writing (I have 800 on math and math II but only ~600s on R/W). In general, you should see first which areas you have trouble with (e.g. it could be the difference between combinations/permutations, or finding the areas of weird shapes).
On the actual test, a good rule of thumb is to read and interpret the question exactly as written. Some math questions include weird wordings or unusual function notation, but if you keep to this rule, you will be fine. In particular, note the difference between “which of the following could…” and “which of the following must…” Easy difference, but it can trip up students.