<p>I <em>try</em> to read through the books that give “strategies” and whatnot for improving your scores… granted, I haven’t read through very much of any of them (because I get bored EXTREMELy quickly since I don’t feel i’m learning anything)… </p>
<p>Anyways, it just seems that I know everything that i’m reading.</p>
<p>My question is: does taking lots of practice tests help? Is it the best way to prepare, for someone who already has a good score?</p>
<p>EDIT: I intially hit the post button before i finished…so i posted before actually asking the question, sorry:)</p>
<p>You have almost answered your own question. Students who are truly motivated do not need to take a prep course, everything they might need is already published in the Kaplan, Princeton, Barron’s, Peterson’s, Mcgraw Hill, etc books. Some people study these books and get an 800 on each section. Some folks are not that motivated. You might be one of them. Some people need to sit in a structured class and take structured practice tests and pay lots of $$$. Some folks only need to go thru 20 practice tests on their own. Some people will not get it no matter what they do. It is all relative to what kind of temperament and motivation you have. So you see, your question is impossible to answer. You will most likely get lots of babble responses that won’t mean a thing to you because only you know yourself. So what kind of person are you?</p>
<p>Well, I don’t know in what sense you mean the word “motivated”… I want to do well, and if I get advice saying “reading those books <em>will</em> help improve your scores”, I would read them… maybe that answers your question. </p>
<p>So far, based on PSAT and like one or two practice tests, i’m fairly consistent 96-97 percentile… </p>
<p>Additionally: I’m looking specifically for improvement in the critical reading, and slightly in writing. I’m not worrying about math at all.</p>
<p>Has anyone, preferabbly in the same score range, had a good experience reading SAT books and becoming better at taking the Critical Reading section?</p>
<p>similarly, do you think that doing practice tests and just getting used to doing the reading really helps? </p>
<p>I’m probably close to where you are and I find that I often have the same problems… I’ve found that just reading the book probably wont help you as much as taking practice tests, but taking those tests will only increase you’re score so much (as in one can’t say: “Yay!!! I’ve improved 100 points over 4 tests! If I take 8 more, I’ll get a 900 on CR!!!” It doesnt work… I’ve tried…). But seriously, to improve on CR, you just have to learn to read faster and comprehend more of what you read and, as some people suggest, study those vocab cards (which i refuse to do because my score as actually gone down after studying those) and hope you get lucky in that a few of those words are actually on the actual test… But if you need to improve on Writing (the MC part, I suck at essays…), buy, borrow, rent, or steal (not recommended) any Writing book, which ALWAYS has a list of the key grammar rules; read the list look at the examples. It helped me sooo much (perhaps it was because I was grammar deficient - “I do good.”). Math is just basically you know it or you don’t.</p>
<p>Without doubt, if you are already in the 96th percentile, you should be able to work thru 200 or 300 sample reading/verbal questions, in several different books, and get to the 99th percentile. Many others on this board have. Forget the into section, just read the explanations after answering the questions. Keep in mind that one or two of the sample questions might have wrong or strange answers. Again, you must try to answer the questions, not just look at the answers.</p>
<p>One further question, to HeWei (or anyone) – what are the “vocab cards” you’re talking about? Or is it something which I would find in any SAT book if I actually read it?</p>
<p>Alot of people (some most of are obsessed… could be a good thing…) make notecards of vocab words that have the words on one side and their definitions on the other. Then they go through these “lists” constantly… like for some people it really is constantly…</p>
<p>Hmm, where do they get the words to put on it? Or do they just have like, thousands of cards? </p>
<p>hehe</p>
<p>I thought i heard of a book, once, called like “common vocab on sat” or osmething like that… maybe someone’s heard of it… or maybe it’s a fluke…</p>
<p>i’d be interested in trying some flashcards if i had a list of a relatively small # of words… (as in a couple hundred maybe)</p>
<p>Yea, basically every company that does college prep puts out a huge list of words that “commonly” appear on the SAT. Most of them are kinda obvious but there are a few that are pretty tough.</p>
<p>I personally have turned into a vocab card freak. I’m going through a word list of 3400 words and putting all the words I don’t know on flashcards. I just do one section (aka one letter of the alphabet) each night. Its not bad, actually its kinda fun (okay, that was really dorky). Will it help for the SAT? I think atleast a little bit. But its also cool to show off to your friends by busting out your expansive vocab. =)</p>
<p>LOL… I’m not even sure I know 3400 words… (let me count: a, the, and, or… thats 4!) But really, I wish I had your “tenaciousness” cause all i really did was look over the list that i had the night before the test once and I thought I should have studied more… Good for you!</p>
<p>Haha excellent. That makes it worth it! As long as I have my CC buddies to “buoy” me, I shall march forward on my vocab conquest. (And yes, I did restructure that sentence several times just to fit in the vocab) =)</p>
<p>HiWei,
instead of “tenaciousness” you might wanna use “tenacity” which would have really made you sound intelligent
lmao, the SAT has made me a verbal/writing freak because those r the sections i need to improve on</p>
<p>alexf2000:
You say that “In many cases it is much better to practice with computer than with the book”. What cases are you talking about? On what do you base that statement? I can’t see the advantage offered by taking the test on the computer.</p>