<p>This won’t be enough for me… With my low GPA (96 WEIGHTED), and exclusion from the top 8% of my class, there’s no way that an 1830 will get me into UT Austin. I need a 2100 at least.</p>
<p>Can someone please tell me how much they expect my score to go up if I extensively and critically study Gruber’s Official SAT guide 2011 and the 2011 Blue Book ? An 1830 is the result of little to no preparation, If i go through these two huge monster books, can I expect a 2100? Or am I looking at something more serious like needing a private tutor?</p>
<p>Thanks for your time and replies</p>
<p>the blue book helps tremendously - but please dont act so crude towards your scores - obviously you want to do better and are dissapointed, but an 1830 is still a good score…</p>
<p>But yes, just doing the blue book alone will get you 100 - 200 points extra</p>
<p>Sid, this poor guy is simply trying to reach out for help after a lackluster SAT performance (in his eyes), so there’s no way that would qualify as being crude towards your score. </p>
<p>That being said, UT Austin (if you’re in-state) is not so hard to gain admission to so long as you have decent scores (1830 definitely falls under this list). Also, not all of that 8% (the percentage keeps lowering, before I left texas I believe it was 10%) will pick up that offer from UT, so you have that going for you. I would go ahead and do the blue book, but make sure you don’t burn yourself out taking the exams. I just wanted to extend that word of caution to a lot of people here because it can really damage your motivation, will, and general psyche once you get to the actual exam. Rather, I would space them out and tackle them with proper discipline. Treat it as if you were taking a class. </p>
<p>Best of luck on gaining admission to UT! If you need any further advice, I’d be happy to refer you to some of my friends (lived in TX for 14 years, moved to VA before freshman yr. of hs, attending UVA in the fall) who can probably advise you even better. Just for the record, a couple of the people I have in mind (two 2380 scorers) have studied extensively and could definitely give you solid advice.</p>
<p>You could always get CAPed and just go to like UTSA and pay significantly less for a year than transfer. I plan on doing that, being that I am not top 8% and not a 2100 lol. But I can easily manage a 3.2 in college, which is the requirement for the CAP Program.</p>
<p>Wow thanks guys I wasn’t expecting such quick replies :)</p>
<p>Sid- I realize that my score is better than about 80% of other test takers, and I will admit I was a little discouraged because it seems I’ve been reading posts from the 20% that are in front of me for the last few hours… I will definitely follow your advice and study the blue book, hopefully it will get me those extra 1-200 points!</p>
<p>prattennis_1 - Wow, it is rare that advice on CC is as good as yours, thank you. I will follow your advice and keep doing practice tests. All I can really do at this point is get some good ECs in this summer, raise SAT as much as possible, and take an extremely challenging senior schedule and then hope for the best for my UT admission.</p>
<p>Grivacobae- I have heard of the “transfer” program in which you start out at UTSA and go to UT, and it is definitely something I will consider since UTSA is my safety school. I will have to talk to my counselor about it, but yeah if it does actually work a 3.2 should be doable.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the replies</p>