<p>I made a topic about this previously, but I wanted to rephrase my questions.
Here’s the story:
I have taken the SAT twice, in January and March of 2013. My January scores were 800 CR, 720 W and 680 M. My March scores were 780 CR, 700 W, 700 M. Both of these scores were attained with the help of one to one tutoring. </p>
<p>After I completed my subject tests in June, I decided that I wanted to prepare individually over the summer, because I felt I could make much more improvement on my own. I purchased PWN the sat math and Erica meltzer’s ultimate grammar guide to assist me in my studies. As of now I have completed all of the lessons and exercises in the PWN book, and am working through the final pages of the grammar guide. I recently took a real practice test, and scored a 750 on writing, a 740 on math and a 740 on critical reading.
My questions are these, is there any essay book/guide to help me improve my essay score from around 8-9 to the double-digit range. I believe that is what is holding back my writing score. As for math, do you have any suggestions as to how I can take my skills up to the next level? I have the ability to do very well on the math, I just need more consistency.
Finally, where else can I find real practice SAT’s? I have run out of them in the blue book. Thanks so much for reading all of that, I look forward to your suggestions.</p>
<p>First, to write a good essay ( the one which earn a two digit score), try this </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/645763-how-write-12-essay-just-10-days.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/645763-how-write-12-essay-just-10-days.html</a></p>
<p>You must have read that. But Frankly, it helps a lot.
Collect 30 examples beforehand and you are good to go.
I suggest you using 2 examples ( rather than 3 ) and explain them in detail. You will definitely score a two digit score within 8-10 days and if you do more, you might even reach striking 12. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>For math. Find out what exactly are you missing. Is it the last ( the hardest) questions? or is it the question from a particular chapter ( say algebra). Whatever it is, note that down.
And practice those particular questions which you got wrong last time you practiced.</p></li>
<li><p>More practice tests? What exactly have you practiced till now? ( I might have few new)
And can you please share how the hell did you managed to score 800 on CR?.. I hardly score 670-700 :(</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thank you for your assistance. I will try to come up with 30 examples, I have a feeling it will be somewhat difficult.</p>
<p>In terms of the math, it is not that I cannot get the hardest questions right, it is that every now and then there is a certain question that uses information I know in a very unfamiliar way, so I get tripped up. I’m not sure how to “fix” this, as it’s pretty random.</p>
<p>I’ve done all of the tests in the official college board blue book, do you know where I could get more “real” tests?</p>
<p>And the critical reading… it’s very hard to explain exactly “how” I do it. When I was younger I was an avid reader, so I’m sure that helped with my sat critical reading…</p>
<p>For the difficult vocabulary questions, I first come up with words that could fit in the blanks and then I attempt to find synonyms in the answer choices. If that doesn’t work, I try to eliminate the words that I know for sure are incorrect. I do have a good vocabulary, but this comes from having studied many words from lists.
For the reading-based questions, I always read the entire passage before looking at the questions. As soon as I finish reading, I come up with the “main idea” of the passage. I then go through the questions, and if one asks about a certain line or lines, I only look at the specified words, nothing else. A key point is to make sure that you only pay attention to precisely the lines that they’re asking about, because often they have answer choices that are true according to other parts of the passage, but are incorrect.</p>
<p>I see only one option to improve your math section. Go through as much questions as you can. Not only from BB, but also from every other ‘good’ book. ( Princeton Review’s, Barron’s, Gruber’s or Dr. Chungs). Don’t practice each and every section. But just go through questions. Note the ones that are not easy to understand. And the ones which you feel you can easily solve, leave them …
After noting those questions, collect them in a notebook.
Then see how a question can be asked in a way which is difficult to decipher. Certainly, you will collect a lot of examples that you find unfamiliar and difficult to understand. If you got through a lot of them , you will certainly know how a question in particular section ( say algebra) is asked to make it difficult to understand.
If you go through these 5/6 books, I am sure no question ( that uses information in unfamiliar way) will be left behind.
If you have 800 in CR, Math’s easy and can be mastered in short time.
Good luck !
And yes, I do have some practice tests. I cannot post the links here.
Do contact me, after my no. of posts reach 15 :)</p>
<p>Or, you could just ping me with your e-mail address.
And thanks for your suggestions on CR section. Will try them :)</p>