Is it possible to raise a 1470 SAT score to an 1800 without any tutoring or prep courses?
November 5th, 2009 | 
Author: 
Hi and welcome to my blog,
I opened this blog to help anyone who is preparing for his SAT.
I remember myself when I started - I was so lost and in such a panic.
Luckily I got this great SAT guide that helped me a lot . So study hard and good luck!
I am really aiming for an 1800 on my second SAT. The first time I took the SAT I was tired and I was kind of sick so I made the following scores
Math: 450
Reading: 460
Writing: 560
Now the last practice test I took my scores were (I took a timed practice test)
Math: 530 (after averaging out the range in the princeton review book)
Reading: 620 (after averaging out the range in the princeton review book)
Writing: 630 (after averaging out the range in the princeton review book)
I had a neighbor of mines, who used to grade essays for collegeboard, grade my essay and I received a score of 5.
I want to get my math up in the 600s range. Is it possible for me to do this good on the REAL SAT ON OCTOBER 10th. I am really aiming for a 1900 though. I am a senior in high school. I studied 2 hours every day during the summer for the SAT. School started for me 4 weeks ago and even since then I have been studying for the SAT. Could it happen?
I have taken about 10 practice tests ever since May (the 1st week of summer). I plan on taking 2 more.
Any tips?
I own these books.
Sat math 800
Kaplan SAT Math workbook
Collegeboard official SAT Study guide
Princeton review cracking the SAT
and Princetion review 11 SAT practice tests
I do better on the collegeboard practice SAT tests though, I get more questions correct on all of the sections I get about 40 to 50 points higher on the total. So I usually make 1800s on the collegeboard SAT practice tests.
Posted in sat prep | 
Tags: collegeboard, grade essays, kaplan, math workbook, neighbor, practice test, practice tests, princetion review, princeton review, score
first of all, sounds like you’ve been studying hard good job.
lol.
and…i was typing and it got deleted..so…hm..
it is possible for you to get a 1900, there are good days and bad days. you might have a good breakfast, and get an easy essay question. theres just so many factors that play into it.
as for your study review books, they’re all prettyy good, but the collegeboard one is more accurate than the others, because they are the ones who created the test. and, if you’ve taken the psat (pre-sat) which i think you would have taken it last year, as this year might be too late for you to try, you could see what you did wrong, etc.
for the actual test, studying only helps you to a point. you have to be able to recognize what kind of question it is, calculator question or not, passage readings where you have to be the author, vocab/context clues questions, pronoun agreement, wrong word choice, etc. for the passage readings i heard the questions get harder as you progress in the section of the passage. there are some people for the double passage who reads one and then answer it, and then do the same for the next, or some ppl who just read both and then answer it all. you have your own way of attacking the passages.
for grammar, you should be able to recognize whether its the wrong word choice (usually wrong prepositions,etc) or whether theres a pronoun agreement (who vs whom vs that) or even whether the pronoun is clear (mary and ann are at the park, she wants to eat pie…you dont know who she is) and there was that one passage reading with the questions about grammar stuff…i never fully read the passage, just skimmed it to save time, and just get the general idea of what its talking about, because you dont have alot of time, and its not a reading comprehension part of the test.
and for math…just understand the concepts.
best of luck to you. ^_^
The difference between a good day and a bad day can be 500 points.
Sure, 1900 is possible. When you take the real test, have a good dinner the night before, and don’t stay up late, not even to study. In the morning, have a breakfast that will stick with you, but nothing that will upset your stomach and make you go to the bathroom. And take granola bars and water so that you can eat during the break. The break is really short, so you won’t have time to do much.
Look through your wrong answers on the practice test, and make sure you know what you did wrong on each one. Could it be that you just didn’t see the trick on some of the math problems? There’s often a clever way to do things, and the long way around. If the online practice questions are any guide, there’s only maybe 1% of the SAT math questions that cannot be done in one’s head if one sees how to do it. Get a math-oriented friend (maybe find the smartest person in your class, and offer to buy them a free dinner) and ask them to look over your mistakes, and tell you how they would do it.
There is no quick fix for the essay, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make improvement. Ask people to critique your essays, giving suggestions as to how to say things, and also being brutal about correcting grammar and spelling. Some people even post parts of their practice essays here, but don’t put up too much if you want people to answer.
The collegeboard SAT tests are the only tests you should be taking. The only book you should use for practice tests is the Collegeboard’s official SAT study guide. The actual SAT test makers make that book and they use similar questions to actual SAT tests.
Go over the answers you get wrong in GREAT detail. Achieving an 1800 isn’t hard. Focus on practicing math and grammar problems. Make flashcards for the critical reading.