<p>I will just repeat that this is not the way to acquire vocabulary. Reading is important but so are the speech patterns of your parents, ironically. Are your parents English speaking?</p>
<p>SAT’s aren’t the total answer to admissions either. They may be used as a cut off to establish the general pool of candidates but after that, schools use lots of other criteria.</p>
<p>The original purpose of the SAT’s is to measure aptitude, at least the SAT I’s. SAT II’s measure academic experience and knowledge, in subjects. Theoretically you should not have to study SAT I’s. I know many people prep and improve, but my kids didn’t at all. Your father should know though that there is no way to get great SAT’s through study alone. Some kids won’t study and will get 800’s, other will study a lot and manage to get a higher score, like a 640 versus a 540, but the background and aptitude have to be there for the really high scores, period.</p>
<p>Community colleges are great institutions. Using that as a threat is really insulting to all the students who attend these schools, and more and more are doing two years at community college to save money. Your parents should love you “even if” you go to cc!</p>
<p>It sounds like your father wants you to get into a prestigious school to reflect well on him. Honestly, the situation sounds pathological. I don’t know what you can do about it unless you can get him into counseling with you. I am sorry. Your value as a person is not defined by your SAT scores or where you go to college. I hope you can hold onto that through the years.</p>