<p>I am a senior who is thinking of retaking the SAT I for the third time in December, which is about two weeks from now. I took the SAT I for the second time in October 2008, and got a 2230. (M750,CR750,W730, with essay a subscore of 9). I got a 2150 (M750, CR730,W680) when I took the SAT I for the first time in Oct. 2007.</p>
<p>On the Oct 2008 test, I had two errors in the “difficult” category about algerbra and functions on the math section, two errors and an omitted question on the writing section. Five errors on the CR. </p>
<p>I feel that I can do better on the math section and the essay part. Most of my friends, all of which have scored in the 2300+ range, have advised me against retaking it.</p>
<p>Can I have some feedback on whether I should retake the test? And if so, how can I best use the two weeks to prepare for it? Or is it worth it to walk into the December test without additional preparation and just try my luck on the math and the essay for the last time?</p>
<p>My ideal score for the 3rd time is something in the 2300 range, if that is not too far of a reach.
Schools that I am applying to are Yale, Columbia, Georgetown SFS, Wesleyan, Johns Hopkins, UC’s, Claremont McKenna College… among others. I think my current score (2230) would generally place me on the middle to high end of these schools’ middle 50% SAT in the accepted applicant pool. (Sorry, I don’t know how to phrase it better.)</p>
<p>I appreciate any feedback on whether I should take the test and on test preparation that you may have. Thank you all very much!</p>
<p>i say retake. you dont need much prep. withh 750 cr aready, just find a good way to write essays, skim writing rules, and go over tough math probs</p>
<p>if your math is a 750, then honestly you need to be more careful. odds are that’s where you’re losing your marks consistently. just double check everything very closely and the 800 is very very very achievable for someone with a 750 (that’s just a 2 to 3 wrong margin). </p>
<p>your CR might be maxed out, very hard for anyone to say but a 750 CR is good and it shouldn’t be lost in the midst of your other two scores which are only mediocre for yale. in fact with the 750 CR, your potential for a superscore of 2350 is very high considering how easy it is to improve the writing and math sections.</p>
<p>for W, you should just practice every writing question from any book you can find and soon enough (if you review properly) you’ll be consistently getting 800s, or near 800s for writing. as for the essay, it’s probably the hardest thing on the sat to improve drastically but a few preplanned examples and a sprinkle of SAT-essay-ish words can do wonders.</p>
<p>with that, i’d advise you to retake and aim for the 2350. cheers.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it. You can get a +50 in math simply by checking your answers, and my Writing went from a 710 to an 800 from Sept. to Oct. simply by going on Sparknotes (of all places) and looking up some SAT grammar rules. Just read over those tricky rules and you can get 800s in both of those sections. As for CR, look for textual justifications whenever you pick answers. Annnd I think that’s it. :D</p>
<p>Thank you all for the valuable input. In the coming days I think I will be working on my speed for the math section (so I have even more time to recheck). I
s that a good idea? Or should I actually try to slow down when I work through the math problems? I typically have about 10-13 minutes left to redo the more difficult problems on a math section. </p>
<p>I will also be practicing and reviewing as many MC writing problems as I can lay my hands on. I will probably glance through some strategies for CR the day before the test just so I can remember the strategy and keep by 750CR score from dropping down on the Dec test.</p>
<p>WR is really easy to improve. Like everyone else above me, i definitely suggest doing a LOT of practice tests. That’s the easiest way to improve WR. You can easily go up 100 pts just by seeing what type of questions you keep on missing and reviewing some basic grammar rules.</p>
<p>Thanks
As a non-native speaker who’s been in the States for five years, I feel that the 2-4 problems that I am missing in the Writing section are in the error ID part and are often idiom-related. I am often torn between choosing the underlined preposition use and choosing No Error because hearing the sentence aloud in my head doesn’t always help me. Does anyone have any recommendation for some study material that has a somewhat comprehensive list of idiomatic usages?</p>
