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.
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Scoring "Formula" for the New SAT
After analyzing the March 7th results, I can now offer the following guidelines for the maximum number of errors you can make on any given test and still achieve a given score level. Interestingly, the number of errors does not seem to vary much between the various sections, even though the total number of questions—67 reading, 54 math, 49 writing—varies quite a bit.
Okay, here goes. To get an 800, you must make no more than 1 or 2 total errors (on the reading, writing, or math sections). Nobody, even a genius, should be shooting for an 800. A great score happens accidentally on the way to a good score, so don't take too many chances. More realistically, here's the maximum number of errors you can make and still hit your target score level:
750: no more than 3 or 4 errors.
700: no more than 6 or 7 errors.
650: no more than 10 or 11 errors.
600: no more than about 15 errors.
550: no more than about 20 errors.
500: no more than about 25 errors.
Remember that if you're making more than 3 errors in any given section, you're moving TOO FAST and you would improve your score if you SLOWED DOWN.
Last Minute Advice for the May 7th SAT:
RocketScore's Ultimate Score Booster Drill
I realize there are only days before the May 7th SAT. Don't panic. There's still an amazing drill you can do that is the single most effective score booster ever developed, but you must do the drill EXACTLY as laid out—NO DEVIATIONS.
To do an extreme untimed SAT, you use an actual SAT (must be an actual test, either from The Official SAT Study Guide or from the free download you can get from www.CollegeBoard.com).
You MUST TAKE AT LEAST 2-3 times longer PER SECTION. NOT NOT NOT NOT "A BIT" LONGER PER SECTION—which just encourages sloppiness—but a LOT LOT LOT LONGER PER SECTION (which encourages perfect technique).
Your goal is to see how close you can get—without any outside help or use of dictionaries or whatever, of course—to ZERO ERRORS.
(If you don't have enough time to complete an entire test, do at least one section of each type.)
So extreme untimed means UNLIMITED time. You know the kind of reading question, say, where you've got it down to two choices but you can't decide. Well, if it takes you AN HOUR to decide that single choice, SO BE IT!
IF YOU CAN'T DECIDE A SINGLE QUESTION, LOOK AT IT TOMORROW. And if you can't decide tomorrow, look at it the next day.
Your goal is to find the questions that normally FRUSTRATE you—and to WORK THROUGH THE FRUSTRATION. Most people short-circuit the frustration—and their thinking—by saying, "Oh, the answer's probably A." Then they check the answer key, and if they were right they say, "Great, I knew it," and if they were wrong they say, "Oh, I knew it was the other choice." But either way they're fooling themselves.
The whole point of an extreme untimed drill is to raise your level of awareness—about your THINKING PROCESS—to a whole new level.
THIS DRILL IS THE SINGLE MOST EFFECTIVE BOOST TO SCORES that you can possibly do, I'm not kidding. This single drill can raise total scores 100-200 points virtually overnight—or as long as it takes to do the entire test!
If you aren't super-angry with me while doing the test, you aren't trying hard enough! This drill is very, very, very, VERY hard to do. But INCREDIBLY EFFECTIVE, especially if your score has been "stuck" for a while.
