<p>Ivy Leaguers: When did you start prepping for SAT I & II in high school?
One question about the SAT II. Can we take APUSH and take the SAT II as well? Which is more difficult?</p>
<p>I’m not an Ivy Leaguer. But I can guarantee you that there is a wide range - some will have started preparing in ninth grade or earlier, but many will not have prepared at all. In any case test scores are only a fraction of the admissions criteria.</p>
<p>You can take both - you can take any APs or SAT IIs that you want. Generally the SAT IIs are easier (I can confirm this for USH).</p>
<p>SAT I: Studied for PSAT soph/junior year a bit (really not that much), then studied over the summers (just doing the practice tests, etc) for oct of junior and senior year
SAT II: studied for 1 frosh, 2 soph, didn’t study for 2 junior year b/c had APs</p>
<p>didnt. just studied on my own</p>
<p>Took 8 week PR course for the SAT (not for everyone, some people I know have been very disappointed with their results, but I was pretty happy with it)</p>
<p>For SAT IIs, I bought books for Bio & Chem. I’d just taken AP Bio and AP Chem, so for Chem I just went through and did the cause/effect ones, which I felt most shaky about, and for bio just skimmed it and went over the bits on like eyes and ears.
For Math II, bought a book (Barrons, I believe) and read over/did a lot of it the summer before taking it October senior year.</p>
<p>I did absolutely none, but I am USAMO and USNCO (Chemistry Olympiad) so…</p>
<p>I didn’t prepare either (amusingly, in high school I didn’t realize anyone prepared). Use your PSAT score as a guide–if your PSAT is far from where you need your SAT to be, you probably want to get on it as soon as possible.</p>
<p>It varies. I knew one girl who prepped a good bit, and far in advance. She isn’t too well off and didn’t want to burden her family by taking the SAT more than once, and couldn’t afford prep classes. But even then, it wasn’t the prep that you see a lot of people talking about in the SAT subforum.
Another girl purposely didn’t prepare in that “obsessive, hype-y way” (a quote from her US News mini-article), because it’s just not her style. She’s always been very laid back, since she was a little kid.</p>
<p>Basically, out of all of the people I know who go to Ivies or other highly ranked colleges, no one preps the way you see people talking about on here, like the “Xiggi” method or starting months and months in advance. That kind of obsession strikes me as odd. I study a couple of says before the test, maybe starting as much as a week away, maybe starting the night before. I know I can get the scores I want without much practice. I’ve been taking the SAT sine I was 11, I know the test. Freaking out about it and studying like mad doesn’t strike me as a great idea for most people. Most people want scores they can attain without studying that much. Most people don’t want scores hugely out of their ability level.</p>
<p>I took two practice tests in the blue book, one sophomore year and one junior year, and that was it. Basically, I’m just extremely lazy and didn’t feel like studying, although my scores may have been a bit higher if I had.</p>
<p>I studied a bit for the Bio SAT 2 freshman year, but none at all for Math and Lit.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I hope you don’t lie about that in your college applications as well, no Brits qualified for USAMO and the British National Math Olympiad definitely is not at the same level as the USAMO.</p>
<p>Q: When did you start prepping for SAT I & II in high school?
A: I did not.</p>
<p>Well I’m not in Ivy League, or at least not yet, but I was accepted at UMich and UChicago.
Waiting on Cornell, Harvard, Yale, UPenn, and Northwestern</p>
<p>I began studying for the SAT I sophomore year, took it thrice and now have a superscore of 2220.</p>
<p>The SAT II’s:
Didn’t study for Math II (740)
Studied a month for USH, but only got a 650 
5 on AP though
French w/ Listening-didn’t do much to prepare for. 600</p>
<p>I go to Stanford and was accepted to Yale/others.</p>
<p>I took the SAT/ACT my junior year without studying to see how I’d do. (1960/31). Then I studied over the summer and took them again fall of my senior year (2180/34). I pretty much only sent my ACT to colleges.</p>
<p>I’m a freshie… I started studying (like buying the book and reading through 1 section) before 9th grade started. I looked over it a bit over thanksgiving break, then a little more over winter break… but i don’t study it a lot.</p>
<p>Current junior and prospective Ivy applicant. I havn’t studied much for SAT, took a few practice tests just to try and get a few 2400s under my belt before I take the real thing (aiming for 2350+). Did not even look at anything PSAT related Soph/Junior years and scored 205/230 respectively. </p>
<p>Most of the Ivy admits I know from my own school required very little studying to succeed in standardized tests, and none of them started obsessively studying for SAT’s in 8th/9th grade.</p>
<p>What are you talking about i started prepping in the womb.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I count as an Ivy Leaguer, but…</p>
<p>I did study for the SAT, but I think my score was a result of exposure, not studying. When I was in middle school we had a remedial/intervention period for all students. I tested into the group of students who didn’t need remedial classes, so I had a “challenge” rotation. One of the segments was SAT prep… in seventh grade. It was fairly useless because it was the old SAT (even though the new SAT had already been issued), but my exposure to the test started early. Then I took the PSAT in ninth and tenth grade - I wouldn’t call it studying for them, but I took one or two practice tests and glanced over a book I bought. I did about the same for the first SAT. For my second SAT, I bought an SAT book (McGraw Hill I think) and worked through about 2/3 of it, so I definitely studied.</p>
<p>It also helps what kind of school you go to. For a lot of the students on CC, their school is prepping them for the SAT with high level work. I went to a crappy school and had frankly never been given an SAT-like math problem in class, etc. The girl I tutor is in seventh grade. Though nothing is labeled explicitly like an SAT problem, she definitely has critical reading, writing, and math questions reminiscent of the SAT, other standardized testing and, well, just logic and basic skills. She has had a lot more “prep” than I had, without even realizing it.</p>
<p>EDIT: I never prep for SAT IIs, AP exams, or finals. The only exception is the SAT Math II - math isn’t my strngest subject and I had been out of math for over six months. I still didn’t do so hot.</p>
<p>I am not an Ivy Leaguer; never even considered applying. But I got an 800 in SAT II Chem/Math IIc/Phys and started studying for all three the day before (I devoted just one day to all of them together; 9 hours on chem, 2-3 on phys and 30 mins on math). And I think some people could possibly manage in less (I honestly didn’t need to spend 9 hours on chemistry; I thought it was harder than it actually was).</p>
<p>I’m an Ivy Leaguer: Brown '14. </p>
<p>SAT 1s: I started studying sophomore year and stopped junior year, when I found out I sucked at it lol. Then, I went to ACT, which I still wasn’t GREAT at, but better (31, which is a pretty good scores, but average/below average for most Ivies).
SAT 2s: I literally studied the night before and took 3. Math 2: 790 Math 1:760 Chem:700. Could’ve done much better on chem if I took AP (I’m in IB) and if I actually studied for it lol.</p>
<p>Will prob be applying to an ivy so,</p>
<p>Chem SAT subject test: Took the AP class and reviewed for the AP test. Did two practice tests, and got a 790.</p>
<p>SAT reasoning: Started studying start of junior year, and took it early in October (2250). Used the blue collegeboard book. I’ll prob go over grammar rules and possibly retake in march.</p>
<p>SAT literature: Went through kaplan end of sophomore year, did the practice tests in the back. I read alot though, so there wasn’t much prep (mainly literary terms). Haven’t taken it yet, but I’m around 770 ish.</p>
<p>Prep depends alot on whether you had natural prep. I’ve always read, so the SAT reading and writing sections came pretty easily. I’m decent at math, so light practice got me to 750+. My Chem AP class was also pretty thorough.</p>
<p>More prep doesn’t mean you lack intelligence or talent in that area. You might simply have had less exposure. SAT’s are just tests in the end, though, so don’t worry about them too much.</p>