Recommendation for SAT PREP?
Hi. I am a Sophmore high school student. I took psat and got 35%, 125.
In other words, I failed the test.
I prepared my test my memorizing some SAT words, and by tutoring with a person online. I tutored with a proffessional person, who chrages 40 dollars, but Im not improving. I learned a lot, but Im not improving.
Can you guys recommend me a new SAT online tutor, a site that you guys think can improve me??
My Weakness:
-Vocabs, dont know a single.
-Math, I failed, Im good at school math, but not SAT
-Writing is still terrible, But i know the rules/strategies for writing
Thanks!
Tagged with: school math • tutor
Filed under: sat prep
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I’m an SAT tutor, and I also write articles on my website, http://www.abacuslearning.com . The articles are totally free and (hopefully) provide lots of good information. I’ll link to some of my most popular articles below.
- Some basic principles on how to do well on a standardized test:
http://www.abacuslearning.com/2006/10/28/ace-your-sat-psat-act-ssat-isee/
- Rule #1 in preparing for the verbal portions of the SAT: read something every day.
http://www.abacuslearning.com/2008/06/16/read-a-little-something-every-day/
- There are many ways to improve your vocabulary, and you should find the method that works for you:
http://www.abacuslearning.com/2006/11/30/improving-your-vocab-over-the-holidays/
- Sometimes, just a little bit of effort can pay off big time and help you get the right answer:
http://www.abacuslearning.com/2008/10/02/using-the-80-20-rule/
- If you aren’t going for a 240 on the PSAT or a 2400 on the SAT, you don’t necessarily need to answer all the questions (and in fact, you shouldn’t try):
http://www.abacuslearning.com/2009/07/18/how-many-questions-should-i-skip/
If your tutor isn’t working out, there’s a good chance it’s just not a good fit and you should move on and find someone else. I just have one question before I unequivocally recommend that:
Does your tutor assign homework, and do you do it?
Homework is part of the learning process (teachers don’t assign it just to torture you, I promise). Any tutor worth their fee will assign you homework to practice the techniques you go over, and so long as you do it and your tutor is a good match for you, you should make progress.
However, if you don’t do your homework, it may not be your tutor’s fault that you’re not improving. You don’t have to edit your question to answer this — just keep in mind that homework is an essential part of the process.
My recommendation is that you start by focusing on vocab and reading for now. Start reading the newspaper every day, just one or two articles start. Work your way up to the point where you’re reading several articles a day, and you’ll soon notice that your comprehension level has gone way up. You can learn vocab by reading the paper, too.
In terms of vocabulary resources, there are literally hundreds. You can buy flash cards, but that’s only worth it if you know that flash cards work for you. I’ve had plenty of students buy a block of cards that are really good, but then they don’t use them because it turns out they learn best by using words themselves in context, or by seeing pictures. There are books of vocab that focus on context, and I’ve seen at least one book with cartoon situations attached to every word that help you memorize the word. I have one student who is a visual learner, and he easily memorized every single word in the book, after weeks of struggling to memorize a single text-only flash card. So you should try to find the method that works best for you.
Once you get a little closer to the actual test (say, this summer) get the Official SAT Study Guide, which is an aqua-colored book that contains 10 real practice tests. Those are very valuable, because the practice problems come straight from the source and are the best for mimicking what will appear on the real test.
Beyond that, if you can’t find a tutor to work with, you can also find a lot of strategies and help in test-prep books published by companies like The Princeton Review and Kaplan. Those two are quite good and definitely work if you put in the effort to do the lessons and take the practice tests. They also contain good vocab lists, so you can continue your vocab work there.
The reason I don’t recommend that you jump into test prep right away is that most people who study for tests like this peak at some point, and then they start to burn out. That takes different amounts of time depending on the student, but after six months of prepping for the actual test, most students are mentally done with it and just want it to be over with. If they get too burnt out, their scores can actually go down. So don’t start with actual test prep until 4-6 months before you plan to take the real SAT (not the junior-year PSAT, which really doesn’t count), so that you peak right when you’re taking the actual test that colleges will see.
Feel free to check out my website and contact me if you have other questions.
Good luck!
Hi Michel !
The following Link will Definitely help you…
http://www.tcyonline.com/india/testCategory/categoryID/100003/FREE_SAT_Preparation
1 thing you need: dedication
I know it sounds corny but it comes from experience. In Freshman year, I took the PSAT and got a 169 and after a lot of hard work during summer break, I got a 204 this year. That’s an increase in 35 points.
Here’s how I did it (also for people who can’t afford to pay for extra tutoring/cram classes):
-get the 1000 flashcards Sparknotes English Vocabulary from Barns and Nobles for $10. Set a goal for yourself, like 10 words per day, or even 5, or 1, and study it. I like to study mine on the bus. Remember to also test yourself on the old words you’ve already memorized, because you will forget them easily (it’s so frustrating when words I’ve learned look completely foreign to me when I review!). And don’t worry about cramming in 1000 vocabs, take your time, relax, but also stay on schedule. I haven’t even gotten pass card 500 xD
-get the College Board SAT book, and do the practice tests in there. Believe me it helps! But before that, remember to read over the rules/tips and all the lessons the book got to give. Maybe your tutor covered this to you verbally already and you may not need to read it over again. But I needed to read it because I understand things a lot better when I read it myself, and also because I didn’t have the money to get professional SAT personal helpers like tutors. Make sure to time yourself when you take the test, and take it under ideal test conditions (meaning no cheating!) After you take the practice tests, remember to go back and check your answers, then try to find out why you got your answers wrong.
-When you’re taking the Math section, which you say is your weakest, you should first try to ask "What is the question asking?". Reword the question into simpler terms, the PSAT/SAT like to make their math questions look extremely complicated, but once you understand the question, the math is more or less easy. If you absolutely have no idea, you can always plug in the multiple choice answers back into the problem to see if it makes sense. The beauty of multiple choices =].
-I am not so good with Critical/Writing so I cannot give you much advice. But for the Critical, when you read the passage, underline keywords/frases, and ask yourself what is the reason the author is writing. This question often shows up quite often in the Reading section. For the vocab part, aside from studying the 1000 vocab, start with crossing out words that don’t make sense in the blanks. Then try to reason what the other words mean, and if you’ve managed to cross out more than 2 answers, then make an educated guess. =] For the first part of the Writing section, where you have to correct the sentences for grammatical errors, the shortest answer is usually the write one. This is now true all the time, so don’t stick by this rule too often.
-Most importantly: Sleep, eat a good breakfast, bring several pencils and a calculator, and arrive early to the testing area. These tactics help you feel more confident about yourself. =]
I hope these tips help you. Again, these tips are also found in the Collegeboard SAT book (which is how I know!). Take the time to read that book, it really clears things up for me, and it will for you too. I mentioned you need dedication…yes you do. Learning vocabs and sitting through 3 hour long tests are quite boring and tedious. Take breaks in between, but keep pushing yourself. Try to improve your score each time you take the test. These advices helped me, but I still needed to put in 5 hours of work per day for 2 weeks of my precious summer time. Oh and for your private tutor, if you feel you have learned something, then you ARE improving, you just haven’t learned how to apply the new things you’ve learned to the test.