<p>I found this place by accident. Some links bring me to this place and suddenly, I was hooked. I signed up and here I am. I’m an international student preparing for both SAT I and SAT II this year. I should be taking SAT I on October 14th and SAT II somewhere around December and apply to US universities for 2007 Fall Admission using regular decision. </p>
<p>Problems started almost immediately. I am in a local university doing a preparatory course to equip myself with SAT I. I have to admit that with no background in English and low English proficiency level, I had to struggle in my class to survive. In the diagnostic test I did in my class, the teacher put my range as 550-590 for my grammar section. Well, I’ll work out on it sooner or later.</p>
<p>As for SAT II, there won’t be any teachers to teach us. Somehow I’m adventurous enough to take US History even though I’m an international student with no basic of US History. =/ I have no book with me. There’s no SAT US History book sold in the major bookstores. I have to depend on wikipedia, americanhistory.about.com and some other sites to learn about US History. I’m taking Math II and Physics as well. On tope of that, I still need to take TOEFL test. </p>
<p>Time is not on my side right now and I will have to work really hard if I want to enter a good university in US. any advices? I’m doing SAT II purely on self-study so I think that a bit of advices and tips will be good. I only hope that I can score 700+ in all my SAT test. Reading people’s thread asking opinion on retaking the test, I feel so inferior and low. =/ I’ll appreciate any kind of input.</p>
<p>use <a href=“http://www.course-notes.org%5B/url%5D”>www.course-notes.org</a> for US history self study… everything on the test is included there and the practice quizes are helpful.</p>
<p>AMAZON.COM will ship anywhere in the World! even if you live in the outskirts of zimbabwe.</p>
<p>and if you’ve just started taking the SAT’s and US universities and applying in a few months, I would also suggest taking a year off to learn english, really prepare yourself, boost your extracurricular activities, and trying next year. colleges don’t look down on gap year unless you’ve done NOTHING. money is an issue for international student too, especially for the dried up financial aid for international students.</p>
<p>otherwise, best of luck to you! i admire your adventurous-ness to even take on US history!!</p>
<p>For the advice to stay for another one year to master my English, that isn’t an option for me. I’m under a scholarship to study economics in US. So financial aid is not needed. My sponsors wants me to fly next year for fall admission. Should I fail to gain admission to any of the universities listed in the list my sponsor gave me, the scholarship will be terminated. It’s that simple. </p>
<p>Thanks for the link though. I will definetely check it out.</p>
<p>As for purchasing books online, I’m sorry that I did not mentioned earlier that I don’t have a paypal account, credit card, debit card or enough cash to purchase anything online. Shipping cost alone is my monthly allowance. </p>
<p>I don’t think that extra-curricular is my main concern right now. I do have a few national level competitions under my belt. I have working experiences and I’m a first aider as well. I was involved in scouting for 5 years too. Well, I don’t need to list them all but I think it should be enough, shouldn’t it? Or do I need extra extra-curricular activities?</p>