I took the January SAT and I got a 1980 (Math: 760 CR: 530 Writing: 690), my goal is to try to get my score around a
2250-2300. This was my first time taking it, and I plan to take it again in June and October. What should I do to study in order to get my score in 2200s; and should I consider taking the ACTS? Any advice is appreciated
My S got a 195 on the PSAT (61 on CR & W, 73 M) in October and scored a 2250 on the January SAT. He did PrepScholar which was $400 for a year of review. He started in mid September, but didn’t really start studying PrepScholar, other than the required 5 hours per week and the bimonthly practice SAT test, until winter break in December. Overall he gave it something like a 6 1/2 out 10 in helpfulness, so if you can’t afford it you can get by without it. He took practice tests from the Blue Book every other week (he got through 8 of them) but once he was done he went over all the math problems until he knew how to do them. He ended up scoring 770 on math, he missed one problem which he thinks he mismarked on accident. For CR he used Erica Meltzer’s Critical Reading Book, but also gave it a 6.5/10. He got a 700 on CR. For writing he used Erica Meltzer’s SAT Grammar book 2nd edition. He gave that a 10/10. Overall he missed 2 MC writing questions. For the essay he got SAT prompts and would write his response and have an English teacher at our school correct it and he would rewrite it until it was perfect. He wrote something like 10 of these. He got a 10 on the essay. Overall, his writing score was a 780. On his practice tests from the Blue Book he went from an 1860 in September to a high of 2150 in January, the final two he took I think he was around 2130 average. By the time he was done, I think he put in about 90 hours on PrepScholar and about another 90 between the Meltzer books, the Blue Book and the English teacher.
I would recommend using the blue CollegeBoard SAT book rather than Kaplan, Princeton Review, Barron’s etc, considering that CollegeBoard is the actual test maker. In the end, the best thing that you can do is take practice tests and go over your answers. Since you’re scoring in the 1900’s, it’s not like your missing any essential skill sets. You just need to familiarize yourself with the SAT format. Trust me, after taking enough practice tests, you will know what Critical Reading questions will be asked just by reading the passage, what the answers to the Writing questions are after barely glancing at them, and which shortcuts to use in the Math section. It’s very formulaic.
@pmtennis28 I wrote a well-received article on scoring a 2400 here: How to Get a Perfect 1600 SAT Score, by a 2400 Expert Full Scorer
The guide is so long I can’t paste the whole article here, but the main strategy is that you must be zeroed in on learning from your mistakes and understanding why you made them. You also need to focus on your weaknesses - it seems like yours is primarily in critical reading. For that, I also wrote a detailed guide to mastering this section here: http://blog.prepscholar.com/how-to-get-800-on-sat-reading-10-strategies-by-a-perfect-scorer