If you haven't done the practice test on the website (intentionally a bit harder than the actual SAT), and you haven't seen an ACTUAL SAT, I strongly urge you to spend a couple of minutes and download the FREE sample test from www.collegeboard.com . You should NOT take the test the night before the test, but at the very least leaf through the various sections to get a sense of the overall “feel” for the test.
Click here to read Adam's thoughts on the March 12th SAT test.
Be the first to hear about new features of our site, important SAT information, SAT tips, and much more.
Monday, August 8th
Dear Rocketeers,
Well, the summer's flying by, as it always does, but there's still another month in which you do a lot of REHEARSING for the SAT.
** First, before I forget: VERY IMPORTANT DEADLINE for any seniors who took the March 12 th SAT. If you want to CHALLENGE your essay score, you must submit the challenge form NO LATER than this Friday, August 12 th , to the SAT program. If you want the challenge form, just send me an email.
If you can't decide whether to challenge your score, you can send me the essay and I'll give you my evaluation (& RocketScore's) and recommend whether the score is worth challenging.
If you want a RULE OF THUMB (I'd rather not explain the statistics behind it), you can use the following formula: Double your READING score and add in your writing score. Divide that total by 250. If your essay score was LOWER than that number, there's a good chance you SHOULD challenge your score.
So, for example, let's say John got a 640 on his SAT reading score and a 590 on the writing, and his essay score was a 7. If we double his reading score and add in his writing score, we get 1870. Taking out our calculator, 1870 divided by 250 is 7.48. Since his essay score (7) was lower than 7.48, it's likely that his essay was harshly graded, so a challenge would probably result in a higher score.
That's good a rule of thumb, but I can evaluate your essay more precisely, of course. Anyway, send me an email if you want me to forward you the challenge form.
Okay, on to other matters.
** A NEW EXPERIMENTAL ESSAY TOPIC will be posted in the next day or two, so if you want to try your hand at the current one, I'd do it ASAP (although ALL the old experimental topics will shortly be posted for RocketScore's analysis, bringing the library of computer-scored topics to six. The experimental topics are handscored by yours truly so you get my personal analysis, and they give me the chance to gather enough student essays to program RocketScore for that topic.
** The Beta Club members are hard at work on the drills I send out every few days, and all those drills will be posted for extra practice once I analyze the results statistically to make sure the questions are as close to real SAT questions as possible. (So that apart from ACTUAL SAT's, these questions will be the next best thing.)
** About the SAT essay, I've noticed that a number of students are OVERusing big words. As I said in the book, you do NOT want to appear that you are TRYING to impress the graders, or your efforts will backfire. Just “sprinkle” your essay with big words, 1 or 2 per paragraph -- especially the opening and closing paragraphs -- is all it takes to impress the graders.
** For seniors, a number of you have written asking whether you should retake the SAT even though you scored very well the first time. Remember that if you scored very well the first time, the odds favor a score DECREASE on retesting. Consider a professional baseball player who hits 2 home runs in a game today. That's great – but the odds are that tomorrow he's going to do worse. The same is true with the SAT.
Moreover, unless the second score is DRAMATICALLY greater than the original score, it won't make any difference to the admissions committee. Indeed, a student who got a great score on the SAT and decided to take the test again might very likely appear a test-obsessed over-achiever to admissions officers.
If you're not sure whether you should retake the SAT or not, drop me an email. Be sure to include as much information about your situation as possible so I can give you an informed opinion, including PSAT scores, SAT scores, what sort of colleges you're considering, whether you're applying early or not.
A lot of seniors have written asking me about the personal statement for college applications. I mentioned in my last posting that I'd say more about it here, so I will.
The MOST IMPORTANT FUNCTION of the personal statement is this: to get you NOTICED. In other words, your personal statement must be MEMORABLE.
In short, the best personal statements TELL A STORY. Think ANECDOTE. (Good SAT Word, Look It Up). And an anecdote filled with CONCRETE IMAGES rather than dull ideas will be remembered.
You want the admissions committee members -- who have read thousands and thousands of essays over the years, and will have read dozens of essays the day they get to yours – to NOTICE and REMEMBER YOUR STORY.
It almost doesn't matter what the story is so long as it creates vivid images in the mind of the bored and jaded (GSWLIU) admissions officers.
Here are some essay prompts to get you started:
* The most EMBARRASSING thing that ever happened to me . . .
* The most SURPRISING thing that ever happened to me . . .
* The FUNNIEST thing that ever happened to me . . .
* The SCARIEST thing that ever happened to me . . .
* What I REMEMBER MOST about . . .
Then, when you've finished writing the anecdote, you can drop the “prompt.”
Those ideas should get you started.
More about college applications in my next bulletin, which will be coming out in the next few days!
