<p>I didn’t have a dramatic increase (I had two weeks to study last SAT) but I went up from a 600 to a 640 by going over the essay. This did help with the essay increase: talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/645763-how-to-write-a-12-essay-in-just-10-days.html</p>
<p>Depending on when you are next taking your SAT, there are a lot of things you can do. First thing, review your score report and focus on the areas where you had the most trouble. This doesn’t mean you should neglect other areas, but that you should just do some in-depth study of the trouble areas (for me, I have trouble with passage reading in CR). If you don’t have a test preparation book, I’d go and check out Princeton Review’s Cracking the SAT from the library, as well as Master the SAT for additional practice tests.</p>
<p>However, if you can afford a tutor, go for it! It can only help you more. I’ve only had self-study so that’s all I can recommend from personal experience. </p>