[MadDog5145]

Quote:

Originally posted by 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 700 verbal, needless to say I had no trouble getting into good 'ol Purdue -dd3mon

I also highly recommend these. Practice makes perfect.

BTW, I despise the SAT's. And no matter what people say, poor SAT scores can weigh you down. I had 1360 combined with a 4.9 (5.3 scale) GPA and could not get into Penn State Honors, while a classmate of mine had a 1420 along with a 4.55 GPA and not only got into the Honors program but into their exlcusive accelerated med. program. I was a little more than confused.......

 

[hempcamp]

Quote:

Originally posted by MadDog5145 BTW, I despise the SAT's. And no matter what people say, poor SAT scores can weigh you down. I had 1360 combined with a 4.9 (5.3 scale) GPA and could not get into Penn State Honors, while a classmate of mine had a 1420 along with a 4.55 GPA and not only got into the Honors program but into their exlcusive accelerated med. program. I was a little more than confused.......

1360 on your SATs is far from poor! The reason you are confused is that so many factors (and so much subjectivity based on individual committee members!) go in to selecting students for colleges and honors programs. It's kinda like choosing good headphones: there's a general consensus about what is good, but when it comes down to it, there's a great deal of personal feeling that goes into choosing the right one(s).

Students with lower SATs than yours probably got into the PSU-Jefferson accelerated med program and PSU honors program. You can't let some stupid test score keeping you from being a doctor though, if that's what you really want to do. There are many good doctors out there who didn't score above 1360 on their SATs!

--Chris

PS - SATs are definitely one of the things where practice *does not* necessarily make perfect. Few students ever score more than 100 points more than their original score, regardless of how many times they re-take the test and how many Kaplan courses they take.

 

[andrzejpw]

I have experiences similar to yours. I've taken the SAT twice. The first time I took it pretty much cold, the second I studied a week or two before. I just can't break 1500

. My best is a 1460. Say what you will, but 1500 was a goal for me. What I recommend: study your geometry. Personally, I'm a year ahead in math. Calculus makes you dumber! On the test, there was a problem were I had to find the area of a right triangle. For the life of me, I couldn't remember 1/2 *base * height. I ended up using an integral

. Later on, I finally derived the formula by figuring out it was just half of a rectangle. So review your geometry. Also, review arithmetic and geometric sequence formulas. They always seem to like those.

 

[raymondlin]

Right, I never understand how SAT works, and seen them lots on TV and films.

So can someone tell me what is a good score and do you get one for Math and one for Literature ?

 

[bdb55]

Quote:

Originally posted by raymondlin So can someone tell me what is a good score and do you get one for Math and one for Literature ?

1600 is a perfect score (800 for math and 800 for verbal)

 

[Jonny Quest]

Don't go in hung over like I did

 

[doobooloo]

aah. i did that once also. hung over, with little sleep, and on empty stomach...

that wasn't the best sat experience for me.

oh well. no more sats for me...

 

[yidimsum]

I taught Princeton Review for SAT and was about to teach Kaplan. I highly recommend Princeton Review over Kaplan. Princeton Review actually has a "method" of figuring out the answer through elimination while Kaplan is just a bunch of problems. Only good thing about Kaplan is that they have a huge practice test library.

 

[MacDEF]

1) Make vocab flash cards and study them in your free time.

2) Review basic algebra and geometry -- the math section is almost entirely algebra and basic geometry.

3) Make vocab flash cards and study them in your free time.

4) Use one of the Princeton guides to get a feel for the format and style of the SAT.

5) Make vocab flash cards and study them in your free time.

6) Take a few practice tests to get comfortable with the test itself.

7) Make vocab flash cards and study them in your free time.

(Seriously, the verbal section is as much dependent on understanding particular words as it is a test of your "verbal" abilities or understanding of English overall. If you increase your vocab, you'll increase your verbal score. That, combined with getting a feel for the types of questions included in the verbal section, is enough to significantly improve your verbal score.)

 

[tommyatkins]

Quote:

Originally posted by bdb55 1600 is a perfect score (800 for math and 800 for verbal)

Actually 1600 is the highest score. This does not mean one answered all the questions correctly. (It typically does in math, though) It is based on how others who took the same test do. I really dont' know what is considered a good score. I've heard 1200 is pretty good, 1400 quite good, and 1500+ very nice! (yay subjective terms!). I really dislike the SAT, and the method they use to select the questions for next year, but I did well enough to get me into the school I wanted (actually the two I wanted).

Oh and MacDEF pretty much nailed it.

In the grand scheme of things, they really don't matter much, so don't stress, just do your prep work, and do your best. Oh, it's also helpful to go over your PSAT (if you have one) to see what kinds of mistakes you make.

TA