So I am taking the october sat like many of you and I have been prepping myself. I am not satisfied with my 1780 and I am shooting for 1900+(trying to be reasonable). So my question is many people say the best way of improving your score is to spam practice tests and look over answers does that really help? What are the odds of one type of question being on the OCT sat? I am not saying this method is wrong i am just wondering how/why it works.
Here’s what I suggest: do lots and lots and lots of practice problems.
Then track the topics that are tripping you up. (Some books, like Barrons, make this easier. They have a chart at the end of each practice test that lets you know what topic is tested on each question. So you highlight the numbers you got wrong, and circle the ones you skipped.)
After a while, patterns will emerge. If you always get tripped up on the proportion problems, either learn them or start to skip them.
The SAT has what many would consider a unique test format, so the more practice tests you do, the more acquainted you will be with the format. This will allow you to perform better on the content and not be tripped up by formatting. The material and topics covered on the SAT are also very repetitive. The same type of questions do appear on different essays, so practicing geometry and grammar rules in the official question format can only help you.
The thing is, you cannot simply look over your practice tests, you need to comb through them carefully, and make sure you not only understand what you missed and why, but are also able to solve the problems that you missed. Like somebody already said, if you notice a pattern of what you’re missing, you’ll be able to isolate the topic and study that to improve. For this reason, taking a bunch of practice tests is useful. Plus, you’ll start building up stamina, and not be so fatigued towards the end of your actual test.