<p>The SAT is making me so mad and it is getting very fustrating. I am honor student, president and founder of our invisible children club and a CA speech and debate champion but i am not a good test taker.</p>
<p>1550 overall
450-CR
500-Math
600- Writing</p>
<p>How do I improve. </p>
<p>Should I just give up on the SAT and take the ACT?</p>
<p>What shall I do?</p>
<p>Help!!!</p>
<p>Practice, practice, practice.
If you are not a naturally good test taker, you will have to work harder than others to get good scores. Find out what you are messing up on and try to improve it.</p>
<p>Buy some study books and take the tests. Then go over the tests and see what you missed and why you missed them. Then practice those things until you improve.</p>
<p>Yea I pretty much stunk at the SAT for some reason</p>
<p>Read more. That will help you much more than studying books.</p>
<p>dude, I am exactly like u, except I can’t break the 1900 barrier. I took a practice ACT and got a 31 (from The Real ACT book).
So, don’t get frustrated and try the ACT and see how u do.
Trust me on this ^^ I wasted countless time on the SAT and struggled w/ it.</p>
<p>practice makes perfect.</p>
<p>Not to be a jerk, but are your debate awards from your local CA circuit in some speech event? I cant think of any high level LD or policy debate who didn’t get at least a 1350 math and reading.</p>
<p>Take the ACT!!! If you want to get in to USC!!! (Personally, I was accepted, but USC last spring, but I declined their offer)</p>
<p>On my 3rd try on the ACT, compared to my only try on the SAT, I scored 200 points higher than the SAT.</p>
<p>3rd try on ACT: 27 (1830)</p>
<p>Only SAT: 1640</p>
<p>Nearly a 200 point difference.</p>
<p>Also, there are some people, who are plainly not SAT takers (while there are other people, who do well on them). I admit that I was and still will be one of them. The ACT has no vocabulary and its reading section is shorter in time, but the passage are easier.</p>
<p>What rank are you? Have you been to Boys/Girls State? Being valedictorian could help you.</p>
<p>You were accepted to USC with an 1830? Wow…I was rejected with a 2210…</p>
<p>The prep books are great. There is a definite way to take the test and you need to get inside the heads of the test writers. You are obviously a very capable person and maybe what makes you good at debate is hurting you in taking the test.</p>
<p>No matter where you end up, you will succeed and will get past the silly attitudes of folks like Rfern.</p>
<p>My D found she was overly confident and made stupid mistakes. All of the large test books are great. Find the one that makes the most sense to you. I like Kaplan and Princeton Review. They help you to organize your test taking and to focus on your weak points. </p>
<p>There may be one section/question type in each section that is pulling down your grade. Find out what it is and drill like mad.</p>
<p>Being good at debate should make you good at standardized tests. Debate stresses critical thinking skills and requires paying very focused attention to current events and historical/empirical parallels. Also good debaters generally read piles and piles of topic specific literature that is often written in an extremely abstruse manner. I cant believe that a high level debater could not at least get a 600 (17-18 wrong) on the reading section. Debate also requires argumentative logic and strategy that corresponds with the Math section of the test. </p>
<p>Your major problem may be that you just haven’t done enough practice or that you take liberties with your understanding of topics. I know a girl at my school who was in AP lang who always went so above and beyond the confines of the tests implied meaning that she got a horrible score on the SAT CR. Think to yourself, am I approaching this passage literally or idealizing it so that it is easier to understand. When I studied for the SAT I found that Socratic reasoning was usually the best way to teach yourself how the test make thinks.</p>
<p>So we have an anomaly … someone good at debate and not good at taking tests. There are lots of reasons for poor test taking so now is the time to figure out what skills you need to work on … have fun hunting. </p>
<p>Good test taking and overall knowledge of the world are not necessarily hand in hand.</p>
<p>simple. Look at the amount of questions you need to answer correctly to get a certain score for each section of the exam (math, reading, writing) and then determine how many questions you’re going to attempt to answer per section based on your desired score. Most people don’t get above 500 because they answer too many questions.</p>
<p>No easy answer … hard work.</p>
<p>Why not take the ACT ? It’s much easier!</p>
<p>I did know the USA team is powerful ,but I believe that China will get the champion!!!D</p>
<p>hehe,I think so!</p>
<p>you want the honest to god truth???</p>
<p>WaffleHouse</p>
<p>brought me up from 29 to 32 and 1370/2010 to 1490/2180</p>
<p>no joke.</p>
<p>hash browns add 75 cents get like tripple hash brown covering you plate and sausage biscuits. Dont get waffles and syrip tho, it got too much sugar. </p>
<p>Also be sure to use the bath room before every test. both number one and number two, even if you dont really have to go, just do it. you dont wanna be in the middle of the math test and be all like “dude, i gotta take a massive doo doo”. Well good luck</p>
<p>also practice your breathing</p>