Q&A Thursday: SATs... WHAT DO I DO??
9:00 AMOLO ma beans!! I took the October SAT test and to many they think with my score I would be set for life. I got a score of.... Drum roll please... 2120. I was aiming for a 2300 but I guess for my first time that's pretty good. I know a lot of people are stressed about taking the SATs so I'm here to share some of my tips while answering some of your questions.
Q: Do colleges look at all of the test scores?
A: It all depends. Right now CollegeBoard offers a score choice option where you pick which ever score you want to send to the college you are applying to. Other colleges wants you to send in all of your test scores and they will pick the highest from of each section.
Q: What was the national average this year? Is there a curve?
A: The national average this year... FROM WHAT I HEARD... Is 1400 but I'm not sure at all. Yes there is a curve but I have no idea how they curve the test.
Tip 1 ~ (LOL look at me tryin to be ciute... it ain't workin)
DON'T GO TO THE NORMAL SAT PREP CLASSES!! Go to one where you think you will do the best in. I come from a 90% Asian community in the 626 area so literally there is a SAT class in every corner and the most popular is this program called Elite. They charge around $3000 for this summer boot camp class and yes they are very legit. They have their own backpacks, flashcards, teachers, counselors, and different score level classes AND they GUARANTEE a 300 points score improvement. INSERTS LOOPHOLE HERE... They can say that you started at 1600 and improved 300 to 1900. Okay yea sure that's still a lot but what if that's not the score that you want?? You can't take the class again... You literally have one shot or else you have to pay for another $3000. I used Kaplan and bought the unlimited prep package which includes ACT, PSAT, and SAT prep. You can take all of the courses over and over again and when I signed up they provided me with FREE workbooks. So literally for every new lesson you can ask them to send you new materials. Plus there are 500+ vocabulary flashcards online. The classes are offered both online and in person so it's super convenient. The only downside to this is that the time zone is in Eastern Time rather than Western time. ALSO GUESS WHAT... I scored higher than most people who took Elite, so Elite is not necessarily the best program after all. I also improved from 1400 to 2120, so that's a lot more than 300.
Tip 2 ~
I didn't memorize all the vocabulary and I was still fine. I AM NOT TELLING YOU NOT TO MEMORIZE THE VOCABULARY!! Rather I don't have time to memorize them and on the test there was literally only 2 vocabulary questions, you can either skip them or guess. You will be fine if you skip two and get all of the rest correct. Don't waste extra time on SAT if you don't have time. Just attend the classes and pay attention, do the homework and I think you should be fine.
Tip3 ~
Catch up on sleep two days before the test. This tip actually helped me so much. My teachers all knew that we were all going to take the SAT on Saturday, so all of them assigned really little homework. My sleeping schedule is basically taking a three hour nap for two afternoons straight, then at night sleeping around 5-6 hours. The night before I slept for about 8 hours, I slept at 10 and woke up the next day at 6. I felt perfectly fine until the last two sections of the test.
Tip 4 ~
BRING MINT WITH YOU!! Mint is suppose to wake you up and keep you focused and it adds clears your head when you drink water with it while you have it in your mouth. My tutor told me this and it did help. For the snack break I brought two granola bars and one bottle of water. Divide the granola bar into four and the bottle of water into four.
Tip 5 ~
Literally wear your pajamas and dress in layers when you go take the test. Wear the most comfortable thing ever but make sure that you don't fall asleep. Also wear layers so you don't grow cold or hot from the class.
I hope you guys can follow all of these tips and succeed in your future SAT tests!! Until next time, stay cool ma beans.
Tip 1 ~ (LOL look at me tryin to be ciute... it ain't workin)
DON'T GO TO THE NORMAL SAT PREP CLASSES!! Go to one where you think you will do the best in. I come from a 90% Asian community in the 626 area so literally there is a SAT class in every corner and the most popular is this program called Elite. They charge around $3000 for this summer boot camp class and yes they are very legit. They have their own backpacks, flashcards, teachers, counselors, and different score level classes AND they GUARANTEE a 300 points score improvement. INSERTS LOOPHOLE HERE... They can say that you started at 1600 and improved 300 to 1900. Okay yea sure that's still a lot but what if that's not the score that you want?? You can't take the class again... You literally have one shot or else you have to pay for another $3000. I used Kaplan and bought the unlimited prep package which includes ACT, PSAT, and SAT prep. You can take all of the courses over and over again and when I signed up they provided me with FREE workbooks. So literally for every new lesson you can ask them to send you new materials. Plus there are 500+ vocabulary flashcards online. The classes are offered both online and in person so it's super convenient. The only downside to this is that the time zone is in Eastern Time rather than Western time. ALSO GUESS WHAT... I scored higher than most people who took Elite, so Elite is not necessarily the best program after all. I also improved from 1400 to 2120, so that's a lot more than 300.
Tip 2 ~
I didn't memorize all the vocabulary and I was still fine. I AM NOT TELLING YOU NOT TO MEMORIZE THE VOCABULARY!! Rather I don't have time to memorize them and on the test there was literally only 2 vocabulary questions, you can either skip them or guess. You will be fine if you skip two and get all of the rest correct. Don't waste extra time on SAT if you don't have time. Just attend the classes and pay attention, do the homework and I think you should be fine.
Tip3 ~
Catch up on sleep two days before the test. This tip actually helped me so much. My teachers all knew that we were all going to take the SAT on Saturday, so all of them assigned really little homework. My sleeping schedule is basically taking a three hour nap for two afternoons straight, then at night sleeping around 5-6 hours. The night before I slept for about 8 hours, I slept at 10 and woke up the next day at 6. I felt perfectly fine until the last two sections of the test.
Tip 4 ~
BRING MINT WITH YOU!! Mint is suppose to wake you up and keep you focused and it adds clears your head when you drink water with it while you have it in your mouth. My tutor told me this and it did help. For the snack break I brought two granola bars and one bottle of water. Divide the granola bar into four and the bottle of water into four.
Tip 5 ~
Literally wear your pajamas and dress in layers when you go take the test. Wear the most comfortable thing ever but make sure that you don't fall asleep. Also wear layers so you don't grow cold or hot from the class.
I hope you guys can follow all of these tips and succeed in your future SAT tests!! Until next time, stay cool ma beans.
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