<p>I’M CURRENTLY A COLEGE STUDENT WHO HAS TAKEN THE SATs 3 TIMES AND WOULD LIKE TO HELP HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS WHO NEED IT. I RETOOK THE SAT FOR THE 4TH TIME IN ORDER TO TRANSFER.</p>
<p>BEFORE I BEGIN MY RANT, TAKE MY ADVICE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. THE BEST I’VE EVER DONE ON EACH SECTION ON PRACTICE TESTS:</p>
<p>Math: 700
Writing: 780
Critical Reading: 640</p>
<p>WRITING SECTION:</p>
<p>A mistake I used to make was think that supporting my arguments on the SAT essay with a literary work would guarantee a higher score because I felt it made it more credible. WRONG!! </p>
<p>I’ve taken the SAT three times before and it was on the third time where I supported my arguments with personal observations and a fully fabricated book:)(yes, it’s okay to make up a book on the SAT essay as long as it isn’t something outrageous like “George Bush is the smartest man alive” and is rational) that I got an 11. In terms of diction, it was sub-par to some example I’ve seen on CC so far. I’ll even type out the entire thing if you guys are interested.</p>
<p>Moral of the story: Support your essays with whatever you feel most comfortable with because then you don’t have to waste precious time racking your brain on how to “come up with big words” in order to sound authentic. If you feel most comfortable supporting your arguments with literary works, then continue using them. However, if you feel more comfortable with using personal observations, USE THEM! Frankly, CB isn’t that crazy about your diction. All they want is structure and proper supports. Don’t forget, you can also use “I” on the SAT Essay. Also, write out the examples on this link out on index cards and study them. If you know them by heart, you’ll kill the Sentence Errors portion. <a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools;
<p>MATH SECTION:</p>
<p>There’s really no better way to improve your math score than to study. Personally, I only used College Board’s blue book. Go over the entire math section in BB and write down whatever formulas or concepts you don’t understand on index cards(I used yellow index cards cuz they were more vibrant than boring white ones). Wherever you go, take the index cards with you and always look over them. It really helps a lot. Also, CB would never test you on anything that isn’t in the BB. Make sure you also take all the 10 practice Math sections in the BB, they really help.</p>
<p>CRITICAL READING SECTION:</p>
<p>Okay, I really can’t offer much advice on the CR section seeing as I really didn’t do too well on it. However, what I did was read a lot. When people say read a lot of books in order to prepare for the CR section on SAT, they never specify what kind of books. I’ll be honest, I’m not much of a reader so I wouldn’t suggest reading novels to prepare for the CR. What I did was I read a lot of CR passages. At first, read the CR pages without answering the questions. Just keeping reading them all for some time so you can get used to them. After becoming acclimated to the lengthy passages, you start to subconsciously read between the lines. Additionally, read what interests you but would also be considered educational at the same time(for me, Businessweek, The Economist, Wall Street Journal).</p>