My Response to Vadox

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>Your guide to how you improved your SAT score is a load of bull. I know many people who got over 2300 and know how hard they worked to get their scores. I’ve gotten 2230 myself which isn’t great, but I only achieved it through many hours of studying. A month before I took the SAT I was taking three practice tests day on the weekends and one practice test during school days. Practicing till you can do the SAT in your sleep is not only beneficial because it helps you deal with fatigue during the test, but also lets you make fewer mistakes and do the questions faster. </p>

<p>BTW, the I think the Rocket Review book is also a load of crap. It’s intended for people to score below 700 on each section of the SAT in the first place. Also, it’s advice on Critical Reading is not very good since it suggests to spend sufficiently more time on the questions instead of the passage itself. One thing I can say is if you don’t understand the passage well, there’s no way you can answer the questions correctly. </p>

<p>I’ve never known anyone who can improve their SAT scores by 200 points by not studying. Generally, not practicing SAT will bring one’s score down to the 1900s. Even for people who scored over 2200 on the past. </p>

<p>I recommend people to do exactly the opposite of whatever vadox says because he obviously wants people to fail their SATs.</p>

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<p>Well I’ve only really read through RocketReview’s Math Section so far, but here’s my response:</p>

<p>You’re right about one thing, about how studying someone’s study habit isn’t necessarily the best way to study. The best way is to study yourself and develop your own habit. As for RocketReview, I think it’s a good book on some levels. It actually gives you questions that show how you can easily fall for common SAT tricks(gives explanations, how to avoid it, etc) and how reading the question very carefully can help you. Obviously this is something you can develop by yourself, and you shouldn’t depend on some book’s strategies; if you implement the strategy of reading the question like 3 times and making sure the answer works before moving on, then you’ve moven forward by implementing a useful strategy. </p>

<p>I really like its vocab list. Of course I don’t believe its 323 word high frequency in terms of the word at the top of the list has the absolute best chance of showing up, but it is somewhat accurate(based on practice tests that I"ve taken), and really lets you know what some of the most important words are. All he was trying to do was help people, and I don’t see why someone would spend his or her time writing all of that and giving links to make people score lower. Granted, I don’t beleive in any study habit that says do this and you’ll get 2300 because it depends entirely on the individual’s effort.</p>

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<p>Well first of all, if this was your response to Vadox, you would have pm’d it to him. Instead you chose to write it in public. This isn’t your response to Vadox. Grow a pair, and correctly title your thread “my complaints against Vadox.”</p>

<p>One crucial thing that allowed him to ace the CR section was his mindset and attitude toward the passages. He seemed to enjoy reading and emphasized that if you don’t enjoy the reading, you won’t do well. I take that a step further, and say that you should study how to enjoy reading. If you read a lot, you’ll excel on the passages, providing you’ve read enough to find enjoyment in any type of passage that’s given to you, as indeed Vadox had. </p>

<p>I’ve started reading RR’s math section, and I like it. He (Robinson) cannot get you to a perfect score, granted. But then again, nobody can. He is giving you tools to catalyze your own learning and to avoid the many pitfalls of the test. I think he is intentionally trying to sound arrogant, saying things like “use these four rules on every question you ever see, they’re always the best.” However, as with any test book, pick and choose the advice you want to follow. </p>

<p>Additionally, he did not say that he didn’t study. He said he didn’t study in the conventional $2,000 SAT prep course manner. He became focused in his studies of mathematics, understanding every concept, thereby furthering his ability to REASON with his concepts. Remember, it’s a REASONING test. His constant reading and solving of math problems helped him reason with those kinds of questions. He didn’t work any less hard than your 2300+ friends; he worked DIFFERENTLY. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to both maintain a 98 average and thoroughly comprehend every tidbit of knowledge that’s presented to you in a high level math class, but it’s not easy.</p>

<p>I really can’t understand where you’re coming from. You didn’t do as well as he, and so are complaining that his methods which yielded him a better score are obsolete? I mean, I could understand if you scored that using his methods and were blaming him for it. But, that’s not the case. . . . I can give you a cupcake if you’d like, but that’s really the one thing you could ever hope to achieve by posting this.</p>

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<p>I’m too lazy right now to refute everything and anything (plus, Godfather did a very good job). I have a problem with this though:</p>

<p>*Practicing till you can do the SAT in your sleep is not only beneficial because it helps you deal with fatigue during the test, but also lets you make fewer mistakes and do the questions faster.<br>
*</p>

<p>OR, you may have gained experience with testing in school (like I did), and not need to practice filling in little bubbles on the SAT. I look at the test in this light now: It’s very very easy, but with 200+ questions you’re bound to make a mistake here or there… that’s the only thing separating high scorers.</p>

<p>I’ll just leave with one quote in the first paragraph from my thread:</p>

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<p>I cannot see what indication you received that vadox wanted people to fail. He was very generous to have written such a thorough overview on how he excelled to achieve such a high score. I appreciated it a lot, and I’m sure the majority of others did too…</p>

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<p>Sci-Fry, if you think he’s a very generous person who gives good advice, I recommend you to follow his advice and do every problem in your math textbook. Also, don’t practice for your SAT at all and relax on the day of the test. The SAT tests mental capacity so if you relax on the actual test it’ll be over for you. I have some friends with 4.4 weighted GPAs and straight As who barely top 2000 on for their SATs because the SAT tests you on different things materials than those learned in school. </p>

<p>You can do every single math problem in your calculus book and still recieve a 700 on your SAT 1 Math. My friend won a couple awards for math competitions at the State level and I was surprised when I found out he got 750 on his SAT 1 Math. </p>

<p>Also, what Vadox said for the vocabulary is also a waste of time since it takes a long time to draw those pictures, and memorizing only 10 words a day fairly little. Most people can memorize hundreds of words in a few days before the test. </p>

<p>Godfatherbob, I appreciate your comments, but I’d like to say that after taking many SAT practice tests, one naturally gets absorbed in the test. Another thing is, not all the passages are going to interest everyone and it’s not easy to become interested in all the passages. However, I agree with what Valtrox said on reading a lot since it takes longer to prep for the reading passages, so reading a lot on a daily basis will definately help. </p>

<p>I’m only posting this for the welfare of the people who actually take vadox’s advice seriously because I’ve been a victim of bad advice myself. When I first started studying for the SAT, I took advice from someone who got 2390 his SAT. He told me to follow advice from rocket review and take 1 practice test a week for eight weeks before my actual SAT. I must admit, I treasured his advice and followed it. However, my SAT score did not improve after I finnished reading Rocket’s Review and I was getting 1800s on SAT practice tests. I realized that something was seriously wrong with the advice he gave me. I just don’t want people to waste time following vadox’s advice only to recieve bad SAT scores.</p>

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<p>^ if you think vadox’s methods are wrong, then don’t follow them, period. If you think that you can do better with your ways, that’s fine. What’s not good is when you knowingly blast at someone because his methods aren’t compatible with you.</p>

<p>Seriously, if you’ve got nothing good to say, then keep ur mouth shut.</p>

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<p>Hey dude the person you are against is already a popular one on CC.</p>

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<p>That actually wasn’t the point I was making. I appreciated the fact that he took the initiative to share his strategies with us. I don’t intend to use all of them, because I know that people all have unique ways of studying, but I still like to see all the different strategies people use. This way I can try them out and see which ones best suit me.</p>

<p>But thank you for the advice. I agree with you there.</p>

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You seem a little angry.</p>

<p>Vadox spent a good amount of time writing his guide so that he might help others. Not everyone will agree with his recommendations, but this is no reason to vilify his purely charitable efforts. That said, following Vadox’s SAT advice to the letter likely isn’t a good idea, as each person will benefit the most from their own unique way of learning, the discovery of which is best left up to the individual.</p>

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<p>Everybody has their own opinion on hwo to prep. Mr. Gruber has his, Adam Robinson has his, and, yes, Vadox has his. You seem to disagree highly with Adam Robinson’s ideas, so with Vadox’s, especially in regard to mathematics. I agree with you, that the SAT is NOT like any other test you take in school. Like I said, it’s a reasoning test–it tests your ability to reason with the concepts that it expects you to already have. The fact that it only covers topics up to Algebra 2 tells you that they expect every single person who takes the test to understand every single mathematical topic up to and including Algebra 2.</p>

<p>In order for Vadox to improve his ability to reason with the concepts he already knew, he focused hard on the concepts that he was being taught–none of which were to appear on the SAT. The point was for him to become accustomed to applying concepts and mastering them to the point of being able to utilize them in any problem that requires their ussage. It worked for him (to some extent; as he said, he scored a 770), but if that’s not what would work for you then. . . begoneth.</p>

<p>Seriously though, sample as many methods as you can. If it really took you eight weeks to figure out that RR wasn’t helping your score, then you can’t really blame the guy who scored 2390. That method worked for him–not for you. But that does not demerit his method in any way, for indeed he scored a 2390, a score that could have easily been a 2400 had his curve been more forgiving. </p>

<p>You whole approach seems to be predicated in rapidity–indeed you said that most students “can memorize hundreds of words in the days before the test.” And these eight practice tests were suppose to occur during the eight weeks before the test? Read Vadox’s title again. He got to a 2330 in 18 monthes–not eight weeks. His method entailed a long term correction of study habits, reading habbits, and scholastic vigor. Neither of your method’s is necessarily superior. However, even if your method is perfect for you, your demeanor needs work.</p>

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<p>I think that’s pretty much summed up this topic. We don’t require any further discussion (it’ll probably lead to some sort of internet war :/)</p>

<p>I think we can conclude that we all adapt to different methods of studying that work for us, and suit our character. It’s always a good idea to hear the strategies that other people use, even if we don’t adopt them, because it’ll ensure that we use the best strategies for ourselves.</p>

<p>Vadox’s thread was definitely a treat to a lot of us, including myself…</p>

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<p>*His method entailed a long term correction of study habits, reading habits, and scholastic vigor. *</p>

<p>Damn, it’s like you know me inside-out… when I grow up, you be my lawyer :D</p>

<p>EDIT: I’ve been lazy and haven’t bothered to justify this thread a real reply. Out of curiosity, does anybody want me to actually respond to the OP?</p>

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<p>I don’t think a response from you is necessary. Most people opposing his allegation that you’re an evil, high-achieving goblin who wants people to fail their SATs (or something along the lines of that) have established their opinion that everyone has unique ways of studying, but the more we learn about, the better.</p>

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<p>Very true. But * if we were * to start an internet war, I think we’d all know who’d win. :D</p>

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<p>Lmao. Well that’s one interpretation. . . . I was leaning more toward stalker, though. My alias will be “Vadoxophile.”</p>

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<p>Vadox recommended me RR so I started reading the writing section recently and somehow just by reading that one section twice my writing score went up to 700s from 580. Seriously, if it doesn’t work for you, this is not the place to whine. You can go and make your own way of prepping for SATs or whatever, we don’t give a crap.</p>

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<p>No one likes a party pooper.</p>

<p>Don’t complain
Don’t whine
Don’t point fingers</p>

<p>If you don’t like it, walk away.</p>

<p>End of story.</p>

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<p>Well done! I genuinely feel happy for you. My CR scores are currently ranging low like yours were, so I’m hoping to improve like you did with the use of RR (I ordered it a few days ago :D).</p>

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<p>…what gives? How come my thread’s gone? ***</p>

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<p>Idk about that, but in response to the bashing RR received here, I just want to say that after TWO WEEKS of reading RR for roughly 15-30 minutes per day (if that), my Math score went from a 590 to a 760 on BB test, only missing two questions for the entire 3 sections.</p>