<p>Stop complaining about without money, I can’t do this I can’t do that…
I am not rich, and I took a PSAT mock exam in 8th grade ( it’s my fifth year in the US now, I am a freshie), and I got a 193. Not to brag, but I want to tell you that it is possible to study your butt off and get a good score. It’s even better that the current SAT does not bear much resemblance with aptitude test, this means that it is possible to get a good score without being super smart. It used to be even more like an IQ test ( I think Mensa used to accept SAT score as an alternative for iq test, but not anymore.)
Income does play a pretty big role with the scores, grades, etc. A lot of low income parents can’t give their kids much academic info or advice cuz they don’t know it themselves. Now this is a big problem cuz the kids will most likely be in a not so competitive school, and a lot of those schools don’t have much info for their kids either. So now the kids will have to figure out the details themselves. The problem is that not every kid is cunning and resourceful.
I would say you are pretty lucky to be in a boarding school. I bet your school offers a lot of competitions and info about colleges. I have never heard of medical internships or programs, amc, aime, usnco, summer programs, etc before I joined this forum.
You don’t need the prep classes to do on the SAT. They all say the same tricks as the prep books. Just check out practice books from the library and do them until you are familiar with them.
Honestly, I studied for about three weeks before I took the mock test. I did 30 vocabs a day (of course you can’t remember them all, but at least you retain some memory. Then I review the words the next day). This is certainly not for everyone and not the best method, but I did it since I only had a few weeks until the mock test and I really wanted to do good on it.
I am Asian and not so rich, which sucks even more for me. Not from a particularly great school . I am not first generation either ( my parents can’t help me though cuz one does not know English that well and both are not familiar with US education.)
Just get as much as you can from what you have. Don’t think and complain about what you don’t have. Life is never fair, and it seems to be even more unfair when you think about what you don’t have.
Not try to blame you , don’t get me wrong. It’s just that I have similar feeling regarding economic status and education like you.</p>