I took the March SAT and got a 1460, which I think is a great score. However, I would like to get a little bit higher to have better chances at merit aid or for some reaches. I only missed 3 M, 6 CR, and 6 W. My question is, how can I close that gap? Even on the SAT score report, it said my scores for math and CR were in the highest score band and there were no tips on what I should improve on. Is it just more practice or do you have any test taking tips? I just don’t want to do worse this time because I thought I did awful on CR after leaving the test place but it turned out better than I though. If anyone has some tips for CR/W for the new SAT, that would be great. I’m going for mid to high 700s for CR/W and I don’t think I can do much better for math. I didn’t really study the first time so I don’t know what to do. I “knew” everything on the math section so I don’t think I really have to study the material for it. Not sure where to even start for CR/W.
Don’t make so many mistakes.
The easy place to improve is W. With more practice you should be able to cut grammar errors down to 1 or 2, which will make a noticeable difference in your score. @class0f2017
Take timed practice tests and make sure u know EXACTLY why you got each answer wrong. Time yourself STRICTLY. There is not much you can do to improve CR except being a little more careful but you can definitely do better on English. Just do English sections, over and over. There are 4 practice tests online plus some from Khan.
Yes, probably improving writing would be very doable. Do think about the questions you found more difficult and learn the information. There is no book for that, just some digging to verify whether your response is correct.
You are at a level where the test version itself may be more difficult than the earlier one. The tests are balanced so that you should get a very similar score each time. I have found one test version more difficult than another, but got comparable scores
I suspect admissions decisions and scholarships are rarely decided by which applicant got the higher score. None of us are that important to admissions committees, etc. Admissions committees make a class. If you have comparable scores to another applicant and the school needs a new tuba player for the school band, you may have the advantage if you play the instrument or be in unpredictable difficulty. because you musical skills topped out when playing the triangle in kindergarten. You can’t control the whole thing!
@marvin100 @zannah Yeah, I didn’t really prepare much in “official studying” for writing so I’m hoping to actuallly learn some grammar rules and terms in the next week.
About scholarships, I was talking mainly about Pitt which seems to really like high scores. The MINIMUM requirement on the old SAT is a 1450 CR+M and mine is current slightly lower than that and that’s just to start to be considered for something small. If I can improve a lot, hopefully from the writing, it just makes my app that much stronger in terms of objective stats.
I took the old SAT twice, once in November 2015 and once in January 2016. I scored 2320 in November; it was a pretty good score, but I felt like I could do better. With some time and effort, I achieved a 2400 on the January exam.
A word of warning: the variation between 2350 to 2400 (I don’t know what the equivalent is on the new scale) is usually due to chance. But that doesn’t mean you can’t score as high as possible.
The SAT, like any standardized test, is NOT a measure of how smart you are. In fact, its verbal section doesn’t really test how well you know English. I knew some people in China who didn’t know how to speak a lick of good English but still managed to get a perfect score.
In the weeks leading up to the exam, I would suggest you take as many practice tests as possible. This way, you’ll be very familiar with the questions asked and will have a good accounting for the possible types of questions asked on the exam. Between November and January, I spent Saturdays and Sundays as well as 75% of my winter break doing 2-4 practice tests. After I checked my answers, I would go back and rework all of the problems I missed (kind of like test questions). I kept a folder of all my missed questions and I glanced through them a couple days before the exam just to make sure I knew how to do them correctly. This strategy is especially helpful for writing questions because there are only so many types of sentence errors they can ask.
My critical reading score was probably the hardest to increase because it was largely application. However, I found out that as I began to take more and more practice tests, I was beginning to get a feel for what the question writers were asking. So repeated practice was what really helped me.
This site helped me a lot when I was preparing for the SAT: http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■/
When I was taking the exam, I would usually finish early, with about 10 minutes left for each section (this was the old exam). I used the extra time to check my answers and if it was a math section, I would try to solve the problem another way to verify my answer.
If you’ve done all the groundwork, be confident and ace the test!
The trick is: don’t ever be satisfied with simply understanding the correct answers to the questions you get wrong. Instead, do them over and over until you can execute them from start to finish.
Other posters have already given really great advice, but nonetheless I’ll post something I wrote for a different thread. I’ve edited it so it’s relevant, although it focuses more on getting a perfect score in a general situation vs your specific situation.
You know what you’ve gotten wrong; now see WHY. See if you are making careless mistakes, if you don’t understand the question, if you don’t know how to do the problem, or whatever other reason you missed the problem.
If careless mistakes, do some drill questions. Not necessarily even entire tests to begin with, just sets of questions (with time constraints) to help you get used to reading the question and answers carefully.
That goes hand in hand with understanding the question. Underline if you have to, or try to summarize the questions.
If you just plain old don’t know how to do a problem, that’s OK. If it’s one or two problems, review those subjects and you should be fine, but make sure you have a good understanding of how to do it. (I’m thinking math right now). If it’s several questions, do a thorough content review. Remember that the SAT is aligned with school curricula, so you know the information, it’s just a matter of remembering it. I admit reading is a little bit harder, but try to reread the passage and question if you’re stuck, finding subtle nuances in tone and meaning. (Long term, i.e. several months, my No. 1 suggestion!!! is to read some good books. They don’t have to be classics, heck, they can be dystopian YA novels, but high schoolers in this society need to read more books! (Join a summer reading club at your library if you’re taking SAT in fall!) Sounds silly, and results aren’t immediately tangible, but long-term, you are solidifying your base.
(NOTE: Since you only missed a few questions, follow first math strategy since you have a pretty solid content base)
(NOTE: You might also just do better on a certain passage topic, so don’t stress too much; since you’re already at a high level, next time you might just find the passage easier to understand or something. There’s a certain degree of randomness.)
The best way to truly get to 1600 level after fixing these mistakes is to just take practice tests, full length, and with time constraints. I suggest Khan Academy as a starting point: they have 4 College Board full length tests online. And make sure you go over the solutions to every single question you got wrong, and be able to EXPLAIN why you got it wrong and how to do it if you see something like it again.
(Finally, the most important thing to do is not stress out! You already have a great score; it’s awesome that you know that. Remember to be confident-- that actually makes a surprisingly big difference, since you don’t have to stress about getting a good score if you already have one.)
Also, good luck!