[djgustashaw]

well, it may be a little late for me to get any tips now; i've taken it 3 times and may be taking it a 4th if i'm not personally satisfied with my upcoming scores. do ya'll have any tips to do better? just curious.

 

[usc goose]

pretty much all i did was vocab load. and vocab load. and vocab load. i studied a crazy amount of word lists. ended up 740 math, 800 verbal.

 

[djgustashaw]

!!!!!!!!!!!

smart guy! i have a 97gpa at school w/lots of honors and ap classes, but for some reason, doing well on the SAT has always eluded me. aargh, if this damn test keeps me from going where i want to go for college after four years of working my butt off.....

 

[usc goose]

97? whatever happened to the 4.0? and i realize you want to get the recognition of a good college and all that but i don't think college name means what it used to or is all it's cracked up to be. (then again sometimes i do wonder what life would have been like if i went to caltech instead, i was deciding down to the wire) call me naive but i still believe if you work hard and treat people right it doesn't matter the specifics of your path, you'll still get where you want to go.

you feel like you need more help in math or verbal or are both of equal concern? oh yeah, don't study the day before the test. relax and take in the world and let things settle. try and sleep well. drink gatorade the day to keep your electrolytes in balance because if you drink too much water it just makes you want to pee. and i don't know if it'll work for you but for the mcats i had cherry twist by crystal method going through my head the whole day. (it takes 7 hours to take that one) my mind was working on some next level quickness that day with that song though.

"got mo' rhthym"

 

[bralack42]

In my neck of da woods we take the ACT, which apparently is very similar to the SAT. What I did was I bought a review CD-ROM, didn't do the interactive crap, but just used the accompanying test booklet to refresh question types. For instance, on the math part, you can expect certain concepts to show up (geometric mean was one I hadta refresh myself on, also basic grammar concepts, etc.). But yeah, do what usc goose says and relax. Too many people stress out over something as silly as a number.

Good luck, and use the Force.

 

[gloco]

Don't take it.

 

[djgustashaw]

oh, the 4.0 hasn't gone away. that's actually how most schools still do it. but my school is backwards

if you go on a scale of 1-4 though, i do have a 4.0.

anyway, math is definitely of more concern. i've gotten my scores back twice (i'm still waiting on the third), and both times i got the same score on math and verbal. fortunately, both came up considerably the second time. but i want to go to georgia tech, so my math still needs to come up a bit. this last time i took it felt good, so maybe it came up enough to where i'll be happy. i know that i felt REALLY good about the verbal, but unfortunately GT doesn't pay much attention to verbal :/

 

[usc goose]

the best resource for any kind of sat math i found was the barrons sat math IIc prep book. go to the back, it has all the shorcut formulas in about, ummm.... it's been a while, maybe 8 or 10 pages. don't just memorize them but understand the principles behind them. that;s what i found helped me.

but i really hope you did as well as we all hope you did on this last round so you can put it behind you and so you can go enjoy the rest of your high school life with one less concern. life should be enjoyed you know?

good luck.

edit: yes that book helps with the sat I math. even though there might be things you don't need in there, they may come up as extrapolations of requisite knowledge.

 

[JuveDuke]

In Atlanta we don't do the 1-4 grade scale anymore. I'm sure many schools/scholarship services get annoyed when they ask for a number between 1-4 and they get your average grade.

I'd suggest trying out the ACT if you do well in your classes but struggle with the SAT. I never took the ACT but I've heard that it is more material based (or at least the math section) as opposed to the more logic/trick based questions on the SAT. Also, take the SAT again if you don't like your score, who knows, maybe it will be an easy math day (My first score was 160 points lower than my other 2).

I've seen quite a few people get accepted to GT with ~1200 SAT scores (usually high 600's on math, though) with good school performance. I'll be attending Tech this fall. Hopefully I'll see you there next year.

 

[Davie]

I would highly recommend that you try one of the books or courses by the Princeton Review. They not only give you subject review, but also focus on how the test is put together. The idea is that if you understand the logic of how the test is designed, you can boost your score even if you don't know the answers. This actually worked for me. It was about ten years ago, and I'd been out of college for several years when I had to take the GRE. I'd always done very well on standardized tests but that morning I froze. But just by using the Princeton Review's advice, I managed to score just as well as I always had.

Also, they demonstrated how the questions and answers used by some other test review companies, such as Kaplans, were sometimes wrong, in the sense that what was a correct answer on the Kaplan test would be scored as incorrect on the actual SAT. Maybe things have changed in the last ten years, but given my experiences back then I would swear by the Princeton Review.

 

[JuveDuke]

Quote:

Originally posted by Davie Blah. my experiences back then I would swear by the Princeton Review.

I would also go with a Princeton Review book. They seem to make some of the best books for academic review.

 

[dd3mon]

I bought a book called "10 Real SATs" - it helped a ton with the math section. The math questions aren't difficult (I was fairly advanced in math, none of the topics covered were new to me) - but the type of questions they ask are sometimes unorthodox and take some getting used to (hence, taking "10 Real SATs" in the comfort of your own home).

I also took an after-school SAT prep class offered by my school. We did mostly vocab quizzes, and real SAT practicing, but also we learned important information about getting into colleges, etc. If there's anything like this available to you, go for it. If not, gearing up on as much vocab as possible will help you tremendously.

I ended up with a 790 math and a 710 verbal, needless to say I had no trouble getting into good 'ol Purdue

-dd3mon

 

[skippy]

here's what i did: i read the questions and filled in the bubble of the letter i thought was the correct answer.

i got a pretty decent score that way.

 

[Sol_Zhen]

You can study for it, but not the last day or two before the test. Then, just unwind and relax. I test better relaxed and rested.

 

[hempcamp]

Several things:

A. Taking the test multiple times doesn't appreciably increase your score, or your standing in the eyes of admissions counselors.

B. Relax! It's only a test! Admissions counselors use the scores broadly to sort out people they don't think will succeed, but tend to focus very little on the SAT score when it comes down to the wire. Your GPA shows academic strength on its own, and that counts for a lot. The difficulty of your courses and extra-curricular activities also count for a lot.

C. Apply to a breadth of schools, several "more difficult" to get in to than your main choice, several "less difficult." I suggest applying to 5-8 schools that you would definitely go to if accepted.

Best wishes! GT is a great school -- 7 years ago I was accepted there, and at VT, Purdue, Univ. of MD, and Johns Hopkins, ended up attending Univ. of Delaware, and I sure didn't have 1600s on my SATs either!

--Chris