<p>I took the SAT for the first time in March and despite my good standing in school, I received a mere 1780 on the SAT. Overall, I’m very dissatisfied with my score and I do plan on retaking it. Before that, however, I wanted to know what some high scoring students did to prepare for this test. </p>
<p>Scores by section:
CR: 550 
(I struggle most with the reading comprehension)
Math: 610
Writing: 620</p>
<p>I don’t know if my score counts as high scoring, a 2170, but I was able to bring my PSAT score of 188 to a 2170. A month beforehand I studied but I didn’t take full tests which may be considered bad but to me it was easier. i did sections one at a time. I tackled my trouble sections and did those sections over and over again. Doing the questions, I didn’t even time myself because time has never been an issue with me and if you do the sections over and over, you should know how to the problems so it won’t take as much time. Always use the Blue Book. Get different versions of the Blue Book, do the problems, skip all the helpful crap and do those problems! After you are done with the section, go through your wrong answers and don’t cheat yourself. No, “oh well I was gonna pick that answer but i switched it, i’ll keep it”. STOP IT! DON’T DO IT! You got the answer wrong. If you get answers wrong, go back and see if you can understand why, if you don’t, ask a teacher and look it up. Then go back and do the questions over again but doing them correctly. Then take more sections. If you’re good in Writing more than others, do the others more. It’s knowing yourself and being disciplined. Good luck!!! I’m sure you will do fantastic :)</p>
<p>this was originally a response to this thread lol but I decided to make it it’s own thread
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1631197-from-1540-to-2310-my-success-story-and-how-to-improve-your-score.html?new=1”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1631197-from-1540-to-2310-my-success-story-and-how-to-improve-your-score.html?new=1</a></p>
<p>In my opinion, SAT is highly cumulative; your efforts in elementary/middle school have all, in some way, prepared you for it. Therefore, getting a huge boost in score may take some effort. </p>
<p>If you want to go from 1700-2200+, you can’t simply rely on tricks/knowing the test. It is best if you develop true skills in those 3 sections by relearning algebra 1 and improving arithmetic skills etc… (math) learning vocab and reading analytically more (reading) and writing essays and improving your grammar skills (writing) without any specific emphasis on standardized testing. After 2000+, you may start to prepare especially for the sAT</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! One question though, what exactly did you do to prepare for the reading comprehension? Did you only do the practice questions or did you do it in combination with something else (like reading literature etc.) Also, would you mind sharing your scores for each section? I think that would be really helpful! Thanks :)</p>
<p>Not necessarily literature. The main idea is being able to understand what a text is talking about, no matter the content of the text. Taking AP Lang, reading with purpose (just being able to interpret the text as you read) etc… are all good. RC is a basic life skill, so it’s easy to develop.
Practice tests are very effective here: I believe that RC is the easiest to improve by brute practice and repetitive work.
Math, not so much-takes some development of ingenuity, and writing requires grammar rules, but RC, imo, requires mainly experience with reading.</p>
<p>I got a 800M/750W/680CR and plan on retaking, but I feel your pain as CR has been my Achilles’ Heel since elementary school. What I suggest would be looking at practice tests, even if you look over the same 5 tests 10 times, and time yourself reading the passage. Your ability to read passages quickly and understand the meaning in that short time will dictate how well you do on that passage. While you read, underline and write one-word notes in the margins to make looking back easier. The first couple passages dont even do the questions, just give yourself a 1-sentence summary to make sure you understood it. This is what helped me, even though I did rather poorly on this test, but its my first time and not a shabby score my any means, though maybe not extremely good either…</p>