Help SATs are coming! Can you tell what you did to study for it and what score you got from studying?

Question

It's almost mid July already and i really need help. Sat prep centers such as Princeton Review and Kaplan are very expensive. 12 days for 1000 dollars. How much do prep centers help you improve? Is it the same thing as studying on your own?

What should i do, should i just go for the prep center or study on my own w/ those big fat books ?

I am really afraid of studying on my own and i am so scared of the SAT.

Please give me some suggestions and tell me what you did to get your sat score that you got and share some experiences!

Answer 1

The prep classes do help, and I usually recommend them, but if you’re leery of the cost (and rightly so) I imagine that there’s nothing in the prep class that someone who’s been couldn’t relate to you w/out charge, or that you couldn’t get from studying. Don’t be afraid to study, or of the SAT itself! It won’t kill you, and even if you don’t do as well as you’d like, you can always try again. And it’s never the only thing that colleges look at!
Strategies:
Skim the questions before reading the passages, because then you know sort of what you’re looking for, and you don’t have to spend as much time re-reading to find the answers. But do actually read the passages; some people try to just read the questions then search for the answers, and that can lose valuable points with the trick answers they throw in there.
Figures in the math section, generally speaking, are drawn to scale (or at least proportional) even when they tell you they’re not. So if you can guess at and measure angles and relative lengths, if you need to, that can be close enough to get you an answer.
Things like that. Taking standardized tests is a lot about just knowing what’s on the test and how it’s formatted, and that’s what prep classes help you know. I’m not sure you don’t get the same knowledge by just TAKING THE REAL TEST once, and that’s what I recommend. But mainly: Relax!!! I’m sure you’ll do fine.
If you want the long list of tips, the fist-track prep guide:
Practice, practice, practice! Take lots of practice tests, that’s the best way! Make sure you time yourself, too, because one of the hardest things about these tests is the time limit, and your AWARENESS of the time limit. The first thing you do at a prep class is take a practice test, to see what you personally need to work on.
The best study/prep books you can get is the official one: _The Official SAT Study Guide_. It’s written by the actual producers of the test, and has real SAT questions for you to study with. If that doesn’t work for you (everyone’s different) I always recommend the Princeton Review book. I didn’t get their book for the SAT, but a few of my friends got good results with it and I always used them for reviewing for the AP tests I took. After that, I hear the Barron’s review books are really good.
The BEST practice you can get, however, is from taking the test itself. I keep telling people: early and often! It doesn’t hurt anything to take the test half a dozen different times, if you have the time and money to —I took the SAT four times and the ACT eight! Only the top score matters, and THE BEST way to do well on the test is to know exactly what you’re dealing with. Taking the test will get you accustomed to the test format—from the directions to the time limit—in a way that simply taking practice tests cannot.
These kinds of tests don’t really test your knowledge, or even how smart you are. They test how good you are AT THE TEST. So it is something that you do better on the more you try, even if you haven’t learned any more between test dates. Early and often! Or if you’re going into your senior year, take it in October and again in November; that’s a bit late, but you’ll probably do better with a second try, just because you know the test better. The key is KNOWING the test, and FEELING like you’re well prepared. The main help that prep classes give you, in my opinion, is the CONFIDENCE that you’re going to do better. It’s a psychological thing. Well, I’m telling you: You’ll do just fine! (lol, I know that’s a bit presumptuous and pretentious of me. But have confidence!)
There’s an SAT Question of the Day from College Board that I’ve been suggesting to everyone: http://apps.collegeboard.com/qotd/question.do Even if you don’t study intensively every day, you can still take a few minutes each day to answer a question, read the reasoning behind the answer, and think about the test.
The SAT is mostly straight forward: math and English (well-- math, critical reading, and critical writing). In the math especially, you need to identify what you need work on, and specifically find information (in a review book or elsewhere) to help you with those subjects. Mostly, make sure you’re familiar with the concepts involved. The SAT covers very specific areas in math, and nothing else. It’s mostly Algebra and Geometry, but you don’t need to know equations as much as you just need to practice working problems, solving for x and finding angles and such. Also try to be really familiar with basic Trigonometry: sine, cosine, tangent. I always had to stop and think, “Wait, which is which?” I think those appear more on the ACT, though. Math was always my lowest score, because I hated it and didn't study for it as much as I should have-- I'm great at Calculus, but I hated and avoided the Geomerty. It's about studying the right kind of math, so definitely go over the math info in a review book.
English: the best way to improve your critical reading/writing scores is to READ. A lot. The more you read, the better your grammar and vocabulary. The better your grammar and vocabulary, the better you’ll do on the test. I have 800 critical reading, 780 writing, and I read constantly. For an added bit of vocabulary, both www.webster.com and www.dictionary.com have a Word of the Day that you can get emailed to you. Failing that, practice, practice, practice! Try looking at Latin and Greek roots. Memorizing vocabulary is good, but it’s even better if you can see a word you don’t know and be able to figure out what it means from the roots. If you get a review book (Princeton’s Review is good, or Barron’s, or the one released by College Board) actually go over the grammar material and vocabulary in it, and make sure you’re familiar with the grammar rules. It will help.
I can’t say as much about the writing portion on the test. It’s newer, and I only took the ACT with writing once (or maybe twice), and the SAT twice. And I’ve always been really bad at timed writing. Like, horrible. I need at least an hour and a word processor to write anything well! The SAT writing section (the written part, that is; some of the “English” questions count toward your “critical writing” score) is only 25 minutes long (I think), but if you can set up a few well organized paragraphs and make sure you’ve made it clear where you’re headed, with a strong thesis, that’s good enough. That’s what I’ve been told, anyway. Make sure you put down your strongest points first, so even if you don’t finish, you’ve gotten best parts down. The writing is also harder to study for. Since you never know what sort of prompt you’re going to get, even taking practice tests isn’t always helpful. Still do the practice tests, though, and keep improving your vocabulary and grammar. Also, reading non-fiction and essays can help with this, just so you’re familiar the type of writing and the formats for essays, beyond what you read and write for school. And remember that the “writing” score out of 800 isn’t only based on your essay. I only got 8 out of 12 on my essay, which isn’t great, but I got all of the “writing” multiple choice questions right, so I ended up with a 780 on that section.

General tips on taking the tests:
Always make sure you know exactly what you need to take: pencils with good erasers, a good calculator (I swear by my TI-83 Plus), your ID, and your admission ticket. The more prepared you FEEL, the better you'll do.
TAKE FOOD! The first few times I took the SAT I was starving by the end. You have a break in the middle of the test during which you can eat. Take chewing gum or hard candy, too. I’m not sure if it’s true that gum helps you concentrate or that mint aids thinking, but I’ve always liked having something to chew or suck on while taking tests.
Try not to be nervous. Anxiety is what kills a lot of people on these tests, so you need to convince yourself that you're well prepared for it. It sounds bizarre, but while you're taking the test, try to separate yourself from what you're doing a little bit and think about it objectively. It's just a test!
DON’T read the instructions at the beginning of each section! I promise they don’t say anything important beyond what the proctor of the test will have already said, and you need that time.
What I always did, though it may not help everyone: start each section at the end. First, this gives you a very tangible goal; you might forget how many questions are in a section, but if start and the end you’re counting down, and you always know exactly how many questions you have left. Second, especially in the math section on both tests, it’s been proven that the harder questions are at the end, so doing the test backwards gets the hard ones out of the way, and you can GAIN confidence while you’re working, rather than losing it as you get to the harder ones.
And the basics: eliminate wrong choices. It helps some people to physically mark through the obviously wrong choices in narrowing down the answers. On the math questions, it’s sometimes faster to just plug in the answers to see which one’s right than to actually work through the formulas. Sleep well the night before, and if you’re someone who needs time to wake up, get up a little early so you’re fully awake by test time.
And that’s what you need to know. Take practice tests. HAVE CONFIDENCE! You're better off than many people, just because you're taking it seriously! A lot of people just blow off the SAT and ACT when it comes to it. That's another thing: you might consider taking the ACT as well. If it's going to stress you more, don't do it. But a lot of people are just better at one or the other, and most schools will now look at either, so it can't hurt.
I really hope this helps! And I congratulate you if you actually read all of that. Lol, sometimes I get carried away. Good luck!

Answer 2

Well, first of all, try to relax. If you go into the test all freaked out, you won't do as well.

With regards to prep courses, you really need to ask yourself two questions - "what can I afford?" and "how much help do I need?" There is a plethora of test prep materials out there - costs range from $18 for some study books to $3399 for 32 hours of personal tutoring. You can also find free stuff online, or at your school library. Of course, personal tutoring is pretty much guaranteed to raise your scores, but if you already know the material or can study well on your own, you'll probably do fine by just working from the books.

First of all, try to get an objective assessment of your current skills. If you've taken Algebra II, Geometry, and a few years of high-school English, you've covered all the necessary material. If you've done well in those classes, you're probably set as far as the knowledge base goes.

The best way to assess your skill level is to take a few SAT practice tests. You can find free practice tests for the SAT online (try the College Board website, or do a Google search). Take a look at your scores on these tests - consider which questions you got wrong, and try to figure out why you got them wrong. This will help you find out what you need to study, as well as giving you a feel for what the real thing will be like.

If you need work with the math part, go to your math teacher and see if you can get some SAT level math tests to work on (they don't actually have to be published by the SAT people, just at that level of difficulty). Study the concepts and look at HOW they solve the problems. It won't do you any good to simply memorize a particular problem - you need to understand the concepts behind them.

If your weakness is in the English section, your best bet is to do a lot of reading. It doesn't matter so much what you read, as long as it's reasonably well written and at a high-school level, minimum (Harry Potter is fine, Bernstein Bears are not). Read newspapers and magazines - look up words you don't know and store them away in your knowledge base. Make sure that you understand what the articles are saying. Review the basics of punctuation and grammar. Much of the English section (from what I remember) consists of reading short articles and answering questions about them, or correcting the grammar and spelling in sentences. If you're comfortable with doing this, you're set.

One thing I would definitely suggest practicing (even if you're already good at it) is the essay part. Try to find yourself a good editor, whether it's a teacher, friend, or relative and have them critique your writing according to the guidelines on the SAT website. The grading is somewhat subjective on this part of the test (which I personally dislike), but if you do well, it says good things about your communication skills.

One last thing I would suggest is to take the first available SAT test - that way, if you don't score as well as you would like, you will still have a chance to take it again and do better.

As to my own scores, I graduated in 2004, so I took the old SAT. I studied by myself (mostly the English half) and took several practice tests. It paid off - I got a perfect score and a full ride through college.

Answer 3

Ah, shucks! Nowadays, they have so many ways to beat the SATs or whatever. The purpose of the SAT, ACT, and so on, is just to see if you were paying attention in class.
In other words, it is not big deal, except for getting into a good college, scholarships, etc., because there is no correlation between how well a person takes a test and how well they do at higher learning...or in life.
Go to your library and ask for a SAT study guide. You can also find some on the net.
As to whether those study groups are better or not, it depends upon YOU. If you can learn on your own, then those others are a complete waste of time.
For me, you could say it just came naturally. In the 8th grade, I was tested at the college sophomore level; SATs are so simple! (Sorry) Of course, I am no good at music, art and social skills!
You can do it; just get a study guide and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! Most of the problem is people prepare for the test, then the mind goes blank. So, it is an emotional response as much as anything. That's why you need to prepare.

Answer 4

I think that prep classes help to a certain extent. Once you reach a certain level (2000 +), you're better off studying on your own or getting a tutor. I got a 2060 on my first try after taking the Kaplan prep class last summer, but by spending time studying vocab by myself and doing a lot of practice tests and getting a tutor once/week, I got a 2280 four months later.

So it's really about sitting down and reading more difficult books, doing practice tests, asking for help on specific types of questions (for example, geometry skills for the math section) and you'll have a great chance of doing better.

Answer 5

Get the Princeton Review Book. You can read it in a Week and just peruse through it...there you are! I don't think it is that expensive btw. or hire a college guy/girl who will teach you basic Algebra 2 or geometry, or..help you with critical reading. they won't ask you too much money, it is for their own experience as teachers especially if they are majoring in math or english. so it will probably be cheap and they need jobs...some do. anyway, good luck! and study a little before the test, i mean not just like. o-o SAT is in 2 days! Just try a little hard. sit with a Princeton Review (awesome book) they got cool tricks and short-cutes to the answers...and they explain math i think..i didn't get to that part yet tho. good luck!!!!XO

Answer 6

Those prep classes are expensive, but they really help. I took a prep class and it raised me 300 points! My first try I got a 1650 (out 0f 2400), but after a prep class I got a 1950! But if you can't afford a class... just buy a book that has alot of full-length practice exams, like the one that I had, titled "10 Real SAT's"... the key is to practice and practice and practice... and don't stress... the SAT's questions aren't designed to see how good you are at a specific problem... they're designed to see how you think and how much logic you have. Good luck!

Answer 7

The SAT measures your reasoning skills. There are things like trick questions and multistep questions that look like they've only got one step if you don't look closely. I used the practice tests on the collegeboard web site and got a 2250 the beginning of my junior year. I think another way of preparing that's a little more fun and a little less school-y is to do things like solve logic puzzles and sudoku puzzles and jugsaw puzzles. They're much less stressful than studying (which is something I hate doing and therefore usually do not partake in) and they really do help you logically figure problems out. :)

Answer 8

im only 14 and i haven't take them yet so all i can tell you is too just use the books and take it easy there is nothing to be scared of. just study a little at a time and don't stress over it!!