<p>Hello everyone! I am a soon to be junior enjoying my summer! However I am approaching a critical year in my educational career. This upcoming year I plan on taking my SATs and ACTs. In my freshman and sophomore years I have taken pre-tests. On my SAT pretest I scored an 1800, and on my ACT pretest I scored a 22. I didn’t study or really prepare for either test because I wasn’t informed of test taking (my old school wasn’t really organized). I am planning on applying for Columbia and a few other ivy leagues. I know these schools want high scores on these tests; usually a 2200 or better on the SAT, and 30 or better on the ACT. I would like to know if based on my scores will I be able to improve my scores to that level by springtime? And what are some effective study guides and/ or practices to improve my scores? (P.S I have been practicing with a College Board prep book)</p>
<p>no offense but i think those schools are out of your league… i don’t understand why you are blaming your own school for your scores when there are a bunch of books out there for you to use… </p>
<p>at least that’s how i see it…
anyways good luck.</p>
<p>Till next spring… woah woah you have so much time.</p>
<p>@AsianDoctor I don’t know if you read my entry properly but I am not by any means blaming my school for my scores. I actually stated that I did not study for the tests. And no, the school that I went to was quite poor and did not even have a library, but I did take the initiative to buy the SAT test prep book this summer. I only stated that the school did not inform me of the pre tests. I am not sure if you’re aware, but not everyone has the opportunity to attend schools with proper resources. Again, if you read the entry properly, I did not ask for your opinion on whether or not the schools were “in my league”. I asked whether or not I will be able to improve by spring with the help of practice that I hoped someone would be able to suggest. Hopefully you were able to read and comprehend this. Thank you : )</p>
<p>@medicsz My parents and older sister keep telling me that, but naturally I am a worry-wart : ) Do you happen to know of any good practicing methods to use? </p>
<p>@Leialei123 Have you read the Silverturtle and Xiggi’ advice threads?</p>
<p>@medicsz No, this is kind of my first day using this site. Are they users on here?</p>
<p>@Leialei123
Silverturtle’s: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/955109-silverturtle-s-guide-to-sat-and-admissions-success-p1.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/955109-silverturtle-s-guide-to-sat-and-admissions-success-p1.html</a></p>
<p>Xiggi’s: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggi-s-sat-prep-advice-p1.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggi-s-sat-prep-advice-p1.html</a></p>
<p>@medicsz Thanks so much! These look like great help.</p>
<p>@leialei123 sorry about that… anyways 1800/22 on the SAT/ACT i believe is too low to qualify for ivy unless you’re internationally recognized for something…</p>
<p>also, my school doesn’t have a single ACT/SAT book… i have to go to the library to get the few books that there are…and i don’t understand why you got so offended, because you were asking that based on your scores if you can go to those schools so i was just being brutally honest. isn’t that better than saying: “oh yeah! that’s fantastic! go for it!”
anyways: sorry if i offended you </p>
<p>@AsianDoctor - Unless a person practices for the SAT and ACT, Ivy League-level scores will always be out of reach for him/her. I think you’re misunderstanding the fact that the OP clearly stated that the 1800 and 22 were from practice pre-tests taken without studying, so they are far from official. </p>
<p>@Leialei123 - It looks like the SAT might be the test for you! If you take a look at the ACT/SAT Concordance Table (<a href=“http://www.act.org/aap/concordance/estimate.html”>http://www.act.org/aap/concordance/estimate.html</a>), it appears that your SAT score (without practice) is the equivalent of a 27 on the ACT, whereas you scored 5 points lower (22) on your practice ACT. That being said, take that with a grain of salt because who knows? You could probably bring up your ACT score significantly with just a little bit of practice, whereas the SAT score might take a little bit more time to improve.</p>
<p>Since you are a rising junior, you are starting standardized test prep at the right time. Make sure to buy both the Red ACT book as well as the Blue SAT book, if you haven’t already because they are published by the test-makers and are excellent practice tools. There are different strategies for each test, so make sure to explore College Confidential resources as well as the various study guides to understand the differences between them (the main differences imo being ACT tests speed, trig/advanced math concepts and science, SAT tests critical thinking, vocab and fairly basic math concepts). I’m honestly not too familiar with the ACT (I never took it very seriously but ended up with a 34) but for the SAT, the key is to practice doing tests untimed in order to master the accuracy portion of the test. Timing is less of an issue on the SAT, so if you master accuracy (especially on Critical Reading), the rest should come easily to you. People on this forum have recommended a variety of sources to study for the SAT including Erica Meltzer’s CR and Writing guides, Direct Hits vocab books, and PWN the SAT Math (or something like that) so those are probably your best bet as far as external resources go. </p>
<p>All in all, good luck and feel free to message me if you have any questions. Welcome to College Confidential! :)</p>
<p>Oh btw a decent score for Ivy-level schools is ~2200+ for the SAT (which you were right about) and ~33+ for the ACT. </p>
<p>@Leialei123 You are actually in a great position.</p>
<ol>
<li>You have lots of time.</li>
<li>You have a great attitude.</li>
<li>You come from a disadvantaged background.</li>
</ol>
<p>These will all work to your advantage. But of course there is a lot of work that you will have to do to make it happen. @medicsz’s advice is the perfect place to start on test prep.</p>
<p>Have you talked to your guidance counselor yet? There are tons of opportunities for special help for people that come from disadvantaged backgrounds and are working hard. You need to start finding them. I would recommend reaching out to multiple adults at your school and pushing on them to help you find scholarships, tutoring, and application support. </p>
<p>Feel a sense of entitlement. You are right, there are lots of students out there who come from more privileged backgrounds. It is unfair. And there are lots of people who recognize that inequality and are trying to fight it. You need to find those people and show them that you are the future success story that they are looking for.</p>
<p>I know you said you practice with the College Board book, but which book did you take your tests out of? Use the official books if you really want an accurate reflection of scores. (Blue book for SAT and red book for ACT). Good luck</p>
<p>@EngineBus2015 thank you for your reply. (sorry for my late reply, I was in the process of moving and the internet was cut off) I read somewhere that the CollegeBoard SAT and ACT prep books are the only accurate prep books, so I bought the blue SAT one the beginning of this summer. I will try to look for the red ACT book next time I visit Barnes & Nobles. On the critical reading I scored a 690 and a 620 on the writing, but on the math I only scored a 560. I definitely need to get better at pacing myself on the math portion. Is the PWN available at book stores?</p>
<p>@Leialei123 - I believe so. Otherwise, you could just order off of Amazon.</p>
<p>The 600-1800 range is where people who need to work on fundamental skills (i.e., knowing how to work with shapes or understanding how grammar works) land most of the time. The 1800-2400 range is the climb that happens afterward.</p>
<p>If you’ve hit 1800/22, you’ve got the ability to score a 2400/36. All you have to do is practice (and if you don’t feel comfortable with Silverturtle or Xiggi, go ahead and treat the tests like a giant problem and work out your own solutions and strategies) and refine your approach until you get in the range you want.</p>
<p>Also, don’t buy the whole “you need a 2200 for Columbia” myth. The importance of scores is major- and context-dependent- I know several people with 1800s headed to the Ivy League next year, because colleges are aware of the difference in quality between public high schools and aren’t just going to privilege some prep school kids who got a superior education handed to them. Go and work on this- you can do it!</p>
<p>One final tip: don’t take up months of prep. Set aside 2-3 weeks to focus nearly exclusively on test prep (pick one test that you feel better about) and take a practice test (GRADE IT YOURSELF) every single day. Work through your strategy- identify your weaknesses and make them your strengths. Good luck!</p>
<p>Before you purchase any prep book, check out your public/school library first. If they have none, you may form a book exchange club with a few friends that each would buy a different prep book. These books you would only use them once and would be done within a month anyway.</p>
<p>You have enough time to prepare for the SAT, so don’t worry about what others say in regards to that. There are a lot of free, online resources that you can use for test prep (Links for such are scattered around this website, and one I know of is the CK12 organization). The blue book is great for its practice tests, but having access to the other, well-mentioned books is a plus that fits well with your goals. </p>