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<p>Unofficial practice tests are likely to help you prepare for the real thing. But only official tests (i.e., those published by the College Board) give you the opportunity to hone your subjective sense for what the test writers are looking for and how they particularly phrase things. Unofficial tests may also have disproportionate coverage of certain topics and be of unrepresentative difficulty.</p>
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<p>At holistically reviewing schools (the highly competitive ones), circumstantial sensitivity implies that the fact that you have not taken AP courses will not be an explicit detriment since you have not had the opportunity to take AP courses. As with all applicants, you should, if you want to improve your admissions chances, make strives to do the most with what you are able to do, which in the best of cases includes expanding what you are able to do by, for example, founding a new organization.</p>
<p>I will not speculate on how much you can improve. It’s productive for you to hope that you can improve dramatically but recognize that this improvement will come with effort.</p>
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<p>The 2011 version would be preferred to the 2010 version unless there is a large enough price difference to render the 2011 version a significant financial burden.</p>
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<p>Nope. (Are you referring to the Presidential Scholars program perhaps? I did not apply for that.)</p>
<p>I’m sure you get this a lot, but I’d like to thank you for compiling this guide! It is INVALUABLE. I used to rely on auditory intuition for the grammar questions (not a terribly reliable method), but was recently able to achieve an 800 W with ease. I fell one question short of the 2400 mark, but I know you have helped countless others achieve excellence. Interestingly, though I am done with standardized testing, I still want to buy the book you say is in the works! Maybe I’ll get one for my future kids (and I realize this says sad things about me!) : D</p>
<p>silverturtle- what do you think is the SAT score threshold beyond which any score increases are superfluous? (For Ivies/Top25) Or is there a threshold by each subscore?</p>
<p>"Nope. (Are you referring to the Presidential Scholars program perhaps? I did not apply for that.) "</p>
<p>correct.</p>
<p>SILVERTURTLE @ silverturtle</p>
<p>You’re reading advice helped me so much on the SAT. I improved from 620 in March to 740 CR in June Thank you so much!</p>
<p>Just wondering SilverTurtle, do you mind sharing you psat, soph/junior, so I have an idea where one should realistically be starting from in order to reach a 2300+.</p>
<p>this will be helpful</p>
<p>i disagree on your approach to the writing section. memorizing an extensive laundry list of grammar rules is very tedious, difficult and inefficient method to ace the writing section.</p>
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<p>This seems to vary somewhat across the top schools. MIT, for instance, seems to differentiate very little among high scores. For there, working to improve a score already at 750 is certainly not worth the trouble. For top schools in general, I would say that scores 2300+ are all treated equally enough to warrant never retaking.</p>
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<p>I took the PSAT in October of my junior year and received 227 (74 CR, 80 M, 73 W). I wish not to sound arrogant, but I do consider this score to be somewhat aberrantly low, given that I had scored at or near 240 on the few practice PSAT’s that I took, received 2400 on the SAT a couple months later in my junior year, and had scored 2270 on the SAT during my freshman year. </p>
<p>This may demonstrate the slightly greater fickleness of PSAT scores in comparison to SAT scores, since harsher curves result from fewer questions. For example, on my PSAT -1 on Writing was 78, but -2 was 73; and, frustratingly, I disagree with one of the two questions I missed. </p>
<p>A starting point that is favorable for eventually improving to 2300+ cannot be singularly identified in a way that does not mislead, especially since capacities for improvement differentials are largely independent of the starting point and quite dependent upon the individual. With that said, however, I would say that for most people, scores 200+ on the PSAT during junior year after typical modest preparation (a couple practice tests) suggest the potential to score 2300+ on the SAT after adequate preparation.</p>
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<p>Fundamentally, there are really only two ways to approach the Writing section: learn grammar rules and then practice applying them by taking practice tests, or skip learning the grammar rules and simply take practice tests. Unless the rules are mis-learned, the former approach isat worstas good as the latter approach. I don’t completely understand your presumably implicit alternative suggestion; but if you mean to suggest that skipping the grammar-rule learning holds utility beyond mere time saving, I must therefore disagree absolutely.</p>
<p>It is, though, entirely possible for a student to find success by skipping the learning of grammar rules: he or she may have a magic linguistic ear or may be particularly talented at, while taking practice tests, correctly identifying and then precisely generalizing all of the underlying grammatical ideas that are being tested. But even such a student would benefit from explicitly learning those rules. And such a student exists among a sea of peers who are not so magical or talented. </p>
<p>If by “grammar rules” you intend to refer instead to grammar rules that are taught with the use of some formal grammatical parlance, I’ll grant that there are drawbacks to the use of such terminology, such as needless complication and student intimidation. For lots of students, however, learning about grammar rules in a grammatical way allows for a more precise mental organization of the concepts and in turn more fundamental grounding in seeing the rules that lurk (but not so deeply) beneath the questions’ surfaces.</p>
<p>^ a long list of seemingly complicated grammar rules is , as you agreed, very intimidating , and is a much more difficult method to tackle the writing section, as it will take more motivation, time, and willl be harder to apply to each writing question. </p>
<p>option 2 is not simply “skip grammar rules”, but dive directly into practice tests without learning a single rule before hand, and then after every test with a very good answers explanations book, go over the wrong quesitons and identify why you go it wrong, picking up on the grammar rule one-by-one and having more context for the next time you encounter that rule. After doing so for several more tests, you will begin to “snowball” the grammar rules and pick up on all of the ones tested by the ETS. By the end of your, say, 7th practice test, you will be able to identify the error in almost every question, and understand all the grammar rules tested in context (even if you don’t know the officail name of the rule or technical terms). This saves time, is -most importantly- much more light-weight and easy to do than the other method, and doesn’t require daunting and tedious memorization of rules. I personally used this method and went from a horrible writing score to an 800 on my last SAT. i can’t name more than a couple grammar rules, but i can show you in a question why somehting is wrong.</p>
<p>i have to agree with delmonico on that one.</p>
<p>Either way you’re gonna have to learn the material…Learning the rules saves you time later and is a more proven way of learning it. Learning by sound could help you increase your score if you have a lower starting point, but to get an 800, you need to know your stuff.</p>
<p>Henry Ford once said that he examined the laziest worker and tried to engineer his machines to his [the lazy man] needs, thus improving his efficiency.</p>
<p>@delmonico: Your “snowball” approach, except for students who face enormous difficulty in learning rules first before practicing (which, in my experience, is a much smaller group than many initially believe), seems inefficient.</p>
<p>For those complaining about memorizing grammar rules, remember that SAT does test things which you should ALREADY know. No one should really have to be memorizing countless rules to begin with.</p>