SAT Hints

[Omar]

I'm taking my second SAT next Saturday, and even though I did much better than the national average, I really would like to up around 1250.

I've done a test prep course, read several books, done the CB question of the day for a while and I'm curious if any smart* people have any tips or hint that helped them do well. I know the basic tricks on guessing and such, but in case there's anything I missed.

* Smart meaning people that did well (600+ per section is consider well)

[Alacrity]

I might not have gotten a 600+ on both sections, but in 7th grade I got a 400 on the math and a 530 in the verbal. All I can try to offer as a hint is to stay calm and do what you know first, then come back and take your time on what you're unsure of. Don't overthink the questions, and good luck. I hope you do well :)

[Omar]

Originally posted by Alacrity@Oct 2 2004, 05:01 PM
I might not have gotten a 600+ on both sections, but in 7th grade I got a 400 on the math and a 530 in the verbal. All I can try to offer as a hint is to stay calm and do what you know first, then come back and take your time on what you're unsure of. Don't overthink the questions, and good luck. I hope you do well :)
Alacrity is an SAT word :lol:

[Alacrity]

Originally posted by Omar+Oct 2 2004, 07:03 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Omar @ Oct 2 2004, 07:03 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--Alacrity@Oct 2 2004, 05:01 PM
I might not have gotten a 600+ on both sections, but in 7th grade I got a 400 on the math and a 530 in the verbal. All I can try to offer as a hint is to stay calm and do what you know first, then come back and take your time on what you&#39;re unsure of. Don&#39;t overthink the questions, and good luck. I hope you do well :)
Alacrity is an SAT word :lol: [/b][/quote]
It was my 8th grade honors English vocab word last week too :lol: :lol:

[Mark]

Sounds tough.

[emmmers]

Originally posted by Mark@Oct 2 2004, 07:17 PM
Sounds tough.
Damn you Canadians. :lol:

[Neil]

Originally posted by When.Karma.Attacks+Oct 2 2004, 11:40 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (When.Karma.Attacks @ Oct 2 2004, 11:40 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--Mark@Oct 2 2004, 07:17 PM
Sounds tough.
Damn you Canadians. :lol: [/b][/quote]
What&#39;s an SAT? :lol:

[Hana]

Seriously, what is the SAT thing? :unsure:

[Todd]

Originally posted by Hana@Oct 4 2004, 08:10 AM
Seriously, what is the SAT thing? :unsure:
something something test (I have no idea what the S and A stand for)

basically, its like a standardized test that you take and colleges use your score when you apply to help determine if you&#39;re accepted or not.

I think the GSCEs or whatever they&#39;re called in England are similar

[Hana]

Originally posted by Todd+Oct 4 2004, 07:06 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Todd @ Oct 4 2004, 07:06 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--Hana@Oct 4 2004, 08:10 AM
Seriously, what is the SAT thing? :unsure:
something something test (I have no idea what the S and A stand for)

basically, its like a standardized test that you take and colleges use your score when you apply to help determine if you&#39;re accepted or not.

I think the GSCEs or whatever they&#39;re called in England are similar [/b][/quote]
We don&#39;t have these bullsh*ts in my wonderful country :)

[Canadian Joe]

God, you guys don&#39;t know what SAT stands for?&#33;


Scholastic Aptitude Test :D



Owned by a Canadian. Nice.








And I&#39;m sure I&#39;d do real well on it, considering I&#39;m averaging 95% in high school...senior year too (well, just starting it...that&#39;s the average for 10th and 11th grade combined) :rolleyes: :whistle:

[Kate]

Vocab. Lots and lots of vocab and analogies.

I took both the SAT and the ACT, the SAT mostly because I took the PSAT and qualified for the National Merit competition, and that requires all sorts of crap like an essay, a recommendation, and the SAT.

...Considering it got me full tuition, I&#39;d say it&#39;s worth it. :chemist:

[Neil]

Originally posted by SmashPilot@Oct 4 2004, 01:25 PM
God, you guys don&#39;t know what SAT stands for?&#33;


Scholastic Aptitude Test :D



Owned by a Canadian. Nice.








And I&#39;m sure I&#39;d do real well on it, considering I&#39;m averaging 95% in high school...senior year too (well, just starting it...that&#39;s the average for 10th and 11th grade combined) :rolleyes: :whistle:
Lucky you, my average is like 47% or something like that :&#39;(

[Canadian Joe]

Originally posted by Neil+Oct 5 2004, 07:33 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Neil @ Oct 5 2004, 07:33 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--SmashPilot@Oct 4 2004, 01:25 PM
God, you guys don&#39;t know what SAT stands for?&#33;


Scholastic Aptitude Test :D



Owned by a Canadian. Nice.








And I&#39;m sure I&#39;d do real well on it, considering I&#39;m averaging 95% in high school...senior year too (well, just starting it...that&#39;s the average for 10th and 11th grade combined) :rolleyes: :whistle:
Lucky you, my average is like 47% or something like that :&#39;( [/b][/quote]
:P

You&#39;ll pick it up eventually...


Of course, as I type this, I&#39;m putting together yet another project... Well, that, and a CD of Red Vs. Blue...one of my teachers wants to show a few of those in class :lol:

[Holiday]

Originally posted by Omar@Oct 2 2004, 10:55 PM
I&#39;m taking my second SAT next Saturday, and even though I did much better than the national average, I really would like to up around 1250.

I&#39;ve done a test prep course, read several books, done the CB question of the day for a while and I&#39;m curious if any smart* people have any tips or hint that helped them do well. I know the basic tricks on guessing and such, but in case there&#39;s anything I missed.

* Smart meaning people that did well (600+ per section is consider well)
smart hehehe the SAT isnt everything.
i scored:
Math-610
Verbla-590
so i got a 1200
but the funny thing is that i not only passed my English AP test (even w/ those Verbal scores) i also got 100% on my Calculus placement exam. hehehehe.
but those scores deffinatly mean alot to colleges,
where are you planning on applying at?

(edit- LMAO&#33; i cant do simple arithmatic&#33;)

[emmmers]

Vocab. Lots and lots of vocab and analogies.Except they gave up analogies and added a writing part instead.


...Considering it got me full tuition, I&#39;d say it&#39;s worth it. :chemist:Wow that&#39;s awesome. I&#39;m gonna take the PSAT in about a week as a sophomore. You don&#39;t have to take the PSAT for the first time as a junior to get that scholarship right? And what score exactly qualifies for the scholarship?

[Mark]

Originally posted by SmashPilot@Oct 4 2004, 03:55 PM
God, you guys don&#39;t know what SAT stands for?&#33;


Scholastic Aptitude Test :D
I thought it was Standardized, not Scholastic. :lol:

I&#39;m doing great in school too. Go us&#33; :lol:

[Anthony.]

Originally posted by SmashPilot@Oct 4 2004, 02:25 PM
God, you guys don&#39;t know what SAT stands for?&#33;


Scholastic Aptitude Test :D



Owned by a Canadian. Nice.








And I&#39;m sure I&#39;d do real well on it, considering I&#39;m averaging 95% in high school...senior year too (well, just starting it...that&#39;s the average for 10th and 11th grade combined) :rolleyes: :whistle:
I hate you :lol: . My top average got to, like, 92%, usually I do in the mid-upper 80&#39;s range. I&#39;m pretty satisfied by it.

[goso88]

The SATs are very unpredicatable. I know a person who takes all honors and ap classes, has a 3.9 gpa and scored terribly on the SATS :unsure:


You don&#39;t have to take the PSAT for the first time as a junior to get that scholarship right? And what score exactly qualifies for the scholarship?

Actually, I think you do :mellow: . Its not offered to sophomore, I think.

[Todd]

Originally posted by goso88@Oct 5 2004, 10:04 PM
The SATs are very unpredicatable.
I agree. I got a 27 on the ACT. While it&#39;s not excellent, it&#39;s pretty good. Then on the SATs which I took a week later (or earlier, I just remember them being a week apart) I barley broke into the 1000s, which is horrible and according to my high school counsler, the low 1000s on the SAT is equivalent to the high teens on the ACT

[Leslie]

The SAT&#39;s are unpredictable. I got a 1180 on them and a 27 or 28 on the ACT. Both of those scores are low, but I still managed to get into a good school.. I sure know I didn&#39;t get in on those scores, rather because of what I did in high school and my personal statement.

Anyways, back to the topic... yes, study a lot of analogies, mathy stuff and vocab. And be sure to make sure if there&#39;s a guessing penalty or not (I think there is on the SAT) cause it can make a big difference in your score.

[Kate]

*nods to above posts* Yes, the SATs are pretty unpredictable. I&#39;m pretty sure that I just got lucky. I scored a 710 on math and 690 on verbal, for a grand total of 1400.


I&#39;m gonna take the PSAT in about a week as a sophomore. You don&#39;t have to take the PSAT for the first time as a junior to get that scholarship right? And what score exactly qualifies for the scholarship?

You can take the test as a sophomore and still compete for the scholarship as long as you take it again as a junior. As for getting the scholarship, it depends on how many people take the test and how well they do. The top 50,000 scores across the country qualify either for Commended Scholar (most schools will give scholarship money to Commended students) or Semifinalist, in which case they have to jump through a series of hoops such as the aforementioned essay, recommendation letter, and the SAT. After you complete all that, they will tell you if you made Finalist or not, and then it&#39;s completely up to the participating schools and corporations to shell out the dough. Generally, to qualify for Commended you will have to test in the 95-98th percentile, and for Semifinalist, the 99th percentile.

I hope that helps.

[emmmers]

Originally posted by katethegreat@Oct 7 2004, 07:37 AM
You can take the test as a sophomore and still compete for the scholarship as long as you take it again as a junior. As for getting the scholarship, it depends on how many people take the test and how well they do. The top 50,000 scores across the country qualify either for Commended Scholar (most schools will give scholarship money to Commended students) or Semifinalist, in which case they have to jump through a series of hoops such as the aforementioned essay, recommendation letter, and the SAT. After you complete all that, they will tell you if you made Finalist or not, and then it&#39;s completely up to the participating schools and corporations to shell out the dough. Generally, to qualify for Commended you will have to test in the 95-98th percentile, and for Semifinalist, the 99th percentile.
So Semifinalist is actually harder to get than Commended?

And yes thanks for the clarification, it really helped.

[Omar]

I heard the ACT was difficult because there&#39;s less time and 200 questions and more areas of testing. I was told the ACT was more difficult than the SAT. No bother, I took the test on Saturday and it seemed a bit easier than my previous one.

The SAT used to stand for the Scholastic Aptitude Test, then Scholastic Assessment Test and now, because of the questionability of it&#39;s title, the SAT simply stands for the SAT lol.

I agree, the SAT isn&#39;t everything, and I don&#39;t believe people above 600 are necessarily smart, but most test preps consider people to break down into each below 1200 or above. I was right below it before I took the recent test.

Also, just to say, for those of you outside America who consider yourself lucky, the SAT is a way for people like me who don&#39;t strive vigorously in school to show we have the skills necessary. Although I am in an AP class...

At this point, this is my list of colleges of choice:

Loyola Marymount University
Southern Medthodist University
Baylor University
University of North Texas
maybe UT Austin, but they&#39;re very tough

Does anyone recommend I take the ACT?

[goso88]

Omar- people tend to do better on the ACT than the SATs. So if you have any doubts, why don&#39;t you just give it a try? :D