[abc123__]

Okay, I'm going to be a junior. I'm a pretty good student.
I'm ranked 1st in class.
All A's.
I take the toughest classes offered
My GPA is a 101.98 on a 100 point scale with a 5% weight for honors classes (which isn't a whole lot)

I have tons of EC's which I enjoy and am devoted to:
Drama -- - I am a prominent actress who often gets significant roles and lead roles
Speech team --- I often place 1st, 2nd, 3rd in our meets and the state championship.
Band -- I am part of the jazz band.
I am 1st trombonist.
I have made it into KV band, which is audtion-only. I participate as much in band as possible.
I also play tennis, but I'm no good at it. I just kind of do it because I lack excerise =/
I write on the school newspaper regularly
I participate in the school's peerhelpers program
I am on student council
I was an ambassador for Maine Youth Leadership --- SUPERBLY amazing program by the way! Selective.
I recieved the Maine Youth Excellence in art award in 9th grade
I have participated in New England drama festival.
French and Drama department awards for 9th grade
Sheperd Award blah blah blah and more stuff--



_____________________________________________

So basically, the point I'm trying to communicate is that I feel like I'm all set to get into a relatively good school -- maybe I might even have a shot at an ivy?.....Except I will bomb my SATS.

I'm going to be a junior. That means I'm going to take the SATS soon.

I got 85th percentile on the critical reading and writing sections. 79th percentile on the math on the PSATS


What are some ways in which I could raise my score? THe thing is, I'm not naturally intelligent. At all. People think I am, but truthfully, I only know how to get good grades.

I also don't work well under pressure. I'm absent-minded and I can't keep focus while reading long passages.

So far, I've bought a SAT study book, and I've taken a few practice tests. I get about 8 or so wrong each section. :-(

I don't know what to do! I need to raise my scores in each section by 200 points or so, and that's stressing me out so badly. =( Can you guys help me at all? Is there ANYONE out there that has raised their score up by 200!? I'm thinking of hiring a tutor but I fear getting ripped off and I don't want to waste all my parents' money.

How much should I study? WHAT should I study? Should I hire a tutor?

[daydreamin9]

...................just study harder and get urself a tutor

[chdairkld]

Ah, I am slaughtered my the SAT's and I'm going to be a senior in the fall. I feel the same way, I'm not naturally brilliant and so even though I get totally awesome grades my SAT scores were so dissapointing.

[mango.baby]

you won't get slaughtered.
you'll be fine.
i didn't go crazy with SAT prep classes and all that junk but i did well on the SATs.
the first time i took my SAT's the end of sophomore year. i didn't try very hard on it and i didn't study at all and i wasn't really taking the test too seriously so i kind of bombed it and ended up with a 620 in math, 620 in critical reading, and 570 in writing.
so over junior year i worked hard in school and did a little bit of the big blue collegeboard SAT book everyday. i seriously studied my ass off in general, and not just for the SAT's. i had like 5 AP classes so my teachers went testing crazy and gave us a whole bunch of strategies and stuff, so that was my preparation. and then i took them this past june and i got a 2330. i think i got extremelyyyyy lucky because the writing prompt was similar to one of my practice prompts and the vocab words were all ones i knew or could work out the meaning of.

don't worry about the long passages. i have a ridiculously short attention span and i got through them just fine. your junior year will help out A LOT. you study so much and learn so much you won't know what hit you =.=

the SATs are as much about luck and test-taking skills as they are about knowledge, and the only way to get better at taking the SAT is to practice.
there are always the same types of math problems and the writing strategy for the essay portion is basically the same with every prompt.
as for the critical reading and writing MC, you need to know it. learn every word you possibly can and hope you get lucky that the words are on the test.

[flyaway]

raising ur score by 200 is not undoable
before I took the sat, i got practice tests scores around 1900-2000
on the real one i got 2220
so it's definately doable
between the test&the practice ones, i did many practice tests and just got the hang of it
just practice and u'll do fine

[xx_melody]

Depends. How do you study and learn effectively? What are your study habits? If you can concentrate and study for a set amount of time, I highly recommend you take an SAT class, especially since you're in excellent shape already. You won't be "wasting" money, trust me, lol. For me, I took the Princeton Review course the summer before my junior year started and they just assigned aloooot of homework. They also had these practice tests every two weeks or so, which were really similar to the real SATS..the essays were graded by UC Berkeley graduates or something. I didn't really like the class though because my teacher wasn't that great and the class was too uncomfortable. If you decide not to take the class though, you should study by practicing alot, which is what I'm doing right now. Hope that helps!

[azn_kira]

O.O oh wow....your situation is EXACTLY like mine...it's freaky...lol..except my ECs are a bit different...but yeah...

um..i was having the exact same problem...i had gotten around 1880 on my PSAT in Oct., and i brought my score up to around 2100 as of last week=] i would definately suggest getting some books from places such as College Board and Princeton Review and Kaplan, and just take a bunch of practice tests...and i searched online classes...which were all pretty expensive, but the one offered at College Board was only around $70 and it was 3 month term. I would say it was worth it... my first test taken on there was around 1920 (they make you take a pretest so you can see how much you improve afterwards) and the one i took last week was in the 2000-2200 range (the bad thing is after your pretest your other 6 tests they only give you ranges) but yeah..i would say there is an improvement.

Um...because they only gave me ranges, i looked at the number of problems i got wrong..and in my pretest i got around 10 wrong in each section with a 10 on my essay, and in my most recent one i got 2 wrong in the math, 6 wrong in the writing with a 12 on my essay and 13 wrong on my reading..so i would say there is improvement=]

i would probably recommend signing up for the online class since for $70 dollars it's pretty cheap and it's for 3 months, which is right up to when i plan on taking it in Oct. (i signed up pin July)
edit
oh yeah, reading some posts above, i'm also hoping my Junior year will help a lot, with all 7 of my classes being IB i heard the classes help a lot with SATs too...so yeah...^^

[eliteninja]

if your that worried
i would suggest you go
to an SAT academy or hire
a tutor. that`s what i did

it cost around 900 but
. go somewhere with a
good rep. ask around, & if
you`re korean, you could look
in the little korean phone/address
book most korean people get in the
mail depending on your city

there`s a book that my tutor
provided called the rocket review
revolution by adam robinson

gives GREAT strategic
techniques to crack the SATs.

even if you are diligent on
your school tests, it won`t matter
b/c the SAT is NOT like school

good luck!

[thesarahchong]

I'm definitely worried about my SATs as well.
I'll be going into my junior year, and whereas I'm all settled and ready in academics&extracurricular, I'm going to get nowhere on the big thing. PSATS: 1770 which isn't so hot. I was planning on taking Elite SAT prep courses this summer, but it was way too expensive for my low family income.
Just have to study out of that big blue book for now.