February 2012
7 posts
5 tags
Wait…Score Choice and Superscoring…Can You Do...
FAQ #4
Q. What’s the deal with Score Choice and Superscoring?
A. Thank heavens for reliable sources.* I can never remember the answer to this question.
Here’s hoping it sticks this time…..
1) Score Choice:
This means that *you* can pick which scores to send. Most schools will let you do this, but a handful (GW, Georgetown, Stanford, and Yale come to mind offhand)...
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The Xiggi Method
The legendary (and yet strangely elusive) “Xiggi Method,” is solid SAT advice from a regular College Confidential contributor. There are nearly 1000 comments about “the method” — to give you some idea of the level of status this advice has achieved.
Personally, I don’t agree with everything Xiggi advises (e.g. I’m not sure you have to buy tons of...
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Tip #17 (she says with confidence)
Tip #17
Sentence Completion (aka the Vocab Questions):
On this one you really should take my advice, because I only got one wrong out of 7 SATs last year (yes, I’m bragging, but my Math score entitles me to brag about my Reading and Writing scores.)
Ok, here’s “The Method”: Any time you don’t know a word, look it up. Period. End of story.** Even if you got...
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7 SATs Later, Sharing What I Learned
Updating the Resource Page daily. Attempting to share everything I learned, post-7 SATs. (I feel like I need a tag line: “I made mistakes so you don’t have to,”….or “Do as I say, not as I did,”…or something like that.)
OFFICIAL College Board Solutions to the Blue Book. Incidentally, I didn’t always find these to be the most helpful.
...
PWN the SAT Q&A: Want a free copy of the PWN the... →
pwnthesat:
The whole reason I started PWN the SAT is that I think good, solid test prep advice should be available to everyone, not just people who have access to top-notch tutors or prep courses. That’s why the content on my sites will always be free, and although I am selling a book now (I need…
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Filling Up that Page, Tip by SAT Tip
Medium Questions have Medium Answers: If you’re working too hard on an easy question (i.e. the beginning of a section), you’re probably doing something wrong. Similarly, if you come to an answer too easily at the end of a section (especially Math, though maybe that’s just me) — you’ve probably done something wrong too. This does not apply to the Critical Reading...
January 2012
13 posts
4 tags
I Love A Great Quote
If you’re taking the SAT tomorrow, don’t forget these wise words:
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
— Winston Churchill
Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis
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SAT Prep On A Budget
Are you living on a shoestring? (Me too, by the way.)
Do not fret about this SAT thing — I’ve got you covered.
But…..(big big BUT) — You must follow this plan methodically. Veer at your own risk. I learned my lesson.
Ok, here goes — 10 easy (haha) steps to great SAT prep:
THE Surefire $218 46-Week SAT Test Prep Plan*:
End of 10th grade, start yourself...
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I Believe I Was Stymied Enough For All of Us
It’s always hard to see your story distilled into a couple of paragraphs — but I’ll tell you this: that one lone little 800 still makes me feel good, all these months later — especially when I see it in print like that.
Trust me when I say, get yourself an 800 — it feels good — and it’s a good that keeps on giving. I need to break that baby out when...
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Avoiding “The Porkchop” — And Other Things You May...
….Tip by Tip….
The Curve: Don’t spend your time worrying about the SAT Curve. For more details, check out this post.
QAS: When you sign up for the SAT, order the Question-and-Answer Service (aka QAS) if you plan on taking the SAT again. It’s an extra $18, but well worth it because you get back the test booklet of the test you took. The QAS comes in the mail (not...
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Slowly But Surely, Filling Up the Site with SAT...
Someone might as well benefit from all those SATs I took last year.
Resource and Tips pages will continue to be filled up over the next few days (weeks…..months)….Check out the links on the righthand navigation bar for updates.
And the Books page (my personal passion), well, stay tuned. If I learned nothing else last year, I have a visceral understanding now that everything takes...
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FAQ #3: Obtaining SAT Scores From Way Back When
FAQ #3:
Q. How can I find out my old SAT scores?
A. Click on this College Board link and follow the directions.
Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis
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Lorna Sheridan from Sonoma News included me in her education column:
llustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis
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The SAT Curve
At least once a week, someone asks me some variation of: “What’s the best month to take the SAT?” ”Aren’t some tests harder than others?” “Shouldn’t I steer clear of October because that’s when all the smart kids take the SAT?” etc. etc. etc.
Without really knowing why I’m saying this, I always respond, “Don’t...
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How To Tackle the Reading Section, and Other FAQs
One of the many joyful aspects of this project has been the encouraging emails, some of which ask questions that I always attempt to answer promptly, and with gusto.
(I’m not perfect though, so if I didn’t respond to your email with prompt gusto — I am so sorry. Email me again, ok? I have, on rare and desperate occasions, resorted to email bankruptcy.)
Anyhoo, a primary...
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Good Poker Players Make Good SAT-Takers (And Other...
I’ve spent the last few weeks gorging on books I’d set aside to read over the course of the past year.
One such book was None of the Above: Behind the Myth of Scholastic Aptitude by David Owen, which was published in 1985 — and while I can’t vouch for it’s accuracy all these years later (the SAT has morphed a few times since the book was published), I can...
December 2011
6 posts
3 tags
Take 2: About the Perfect Score Project
Taking the next few days to update this site with current information. About Pageand Graphs & Charts: check, check. Next up: FAQ, Tips, Resources, etc.
December 30, 2011
If you want to read the original, pre-journey, more innocent, less knowing, and probably more magical thinking “About Page” for this website, you can check it out via this link. But, I wrote that page in a...
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I Need Closure
I do realize it’s time to move on, but the truth is, I’m harboring a secret resentment about my December essay. I’ve said it before, but I’ve got to say it again: who arethese people grading the SAT essays? And I defy any one of them to write a better essay in less than 25 minutes under the pressure of testing conditions!
I got back my December essay yesterday, and...
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December SAT Scores (aka, My Buddha)
I’d characterize yesterday as an epically bad day in my 46 years of life, and while the turmoil had nothing to do with the SAT, my December scores did not help.
Yes, I do realize (intellectually) that I should feel happy about my Reading and Writing scores; but honestly, that Math score feels crushing, like a bully. Today, well, I’m trying to see it as my Buddha.
The worst...
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SAT FAQ: Just the Facts
Two weeks after my 7th (and last) SAT in 2011, and I’m finally making it through the mountain of paper* that had piled up over the course of the year.
I’m stunned by all the treasure I discovered along the way that was suffocating in a 6 foot blob on top of the guest bed.
Take, for example, this FAQ from Erik the Red, which I’d printed out and highlighted on March 29,...
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November 2011
15 posts
4 tags
Limbering Up for Saturday’s Essay
Four days until my final SAT for this project (and yes, I feel sad. I hate goodbyes). Saturday’s test will make 7 SATs in 2011, plus the two I took in 1982 (one of whichwas emailed to me by Erik the Red; I can’t wait to take it next week).
I’ve been quieter on the blog front than usual because I’m trying to focus (so hard for some of us). I find that once I start...
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Take Heed (I Am)
SAT tutor, Stacey Howe-Lott, left a comment below with some test taking tips that she hadn’t mentioned before because she thought everyone knew these things….
Given that somehow they didn’t hit my radar for the first 46 years of my life, I’m going to assume that there are probably others out there who also may have been absent on the day these strategies were given...
Bubble This →
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Inspiration Friday
I love a good quote.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” —Aristotle
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge. ” —Daniel Boorstin
“An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you...
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I Meant Spurious…Not Specious (whoops)
Email exchange with PWNtheSAT while on phone with very nice supervisor of credit report website.
Attempting to get charges reversed:
Me (to PWN): Is this the proper use of specious?
PWNtheSAT: I wouldn’t say specious for that…specious is really more about arguments.
Uh Oh. Whoops. Hopefully she didn’t notice.
Me: What about spurious?
PWNtheSAT: :) yeah that...
4 tags
The Essay (I Am Dying For A 12)
(Or maybe I’m just diverting attention from my math score.)
I’ve taken the SAT 6 times in 2011, and my highest official test day score has been a 10 (out of 12).
I’ve scored four 9’s and two 10’s. It is possible though to get an 800 on the Writing Section with a “10” on your Essay (I can attest).
If it makes you feel any better, my friend Catherine...
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“Fair Test” Procedures for SAT Day
After my terrible SAT experience last Saturday, I decided to look into whether or not any official rules had been broken.
Turns out there is an official SAT rule guide, The SAT Standard Testing Room Manual, which I think is worth reading before you take an SAT (especially Section A, which is only 11 pages long).
From the first paragraph:
“The SAT Program has established policies and...
Gmail Password Change Instructions for Mac,...
If you have a Mac, iPhone and iTunes, but use Google for Mail, Calendar, and Address Book, here are the directions if you change your password for Gmail to get it all working again. You have to have everything clicked perfectly, or it doesn’t work.
I hope to save somebody out there the hours of frustration hat I went through by changing ONE gmail password. (This happened to me the last...
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IQ: What Does It All Mean?
From the book, Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life by Winifred Gallagher:
Asian students actually achieve much more than their IQs would seem to predict, because they work so hard in school. Thanks to their culture’s stress on academic achievement and not shaming the family, says Nisbett, “A Chinese-American with an IQ of 100 achieves at the level of a white American with an...
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PWN the SAT: The Best SAT Tutor in America! →
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Day Before Test Day Thoughts
Are you taking the SAT tomorrow? I have this feeling it’s not one of the “popular dates.” Feels neither fish nor fowl to me (i.e. too late for seniors/too early for juniors).
This will be my 6th SAT in 2011, and my second to last before I’m done with this project. Then, onto the next (whatever that is). Everyone asks, “The ACT?” Maybe. I do want to take...
4 tags
Yesterday Was Difficult. Today Will Be Better.
I’ll start with the end:
I’m about to go purchase a filofax, which, if you’re taking the SAT this year, I’m sure you have no idea what I’m even talking about. And no, I’m not a technophobe; I’ve even been called an “early adopter.”
But I can’t survive another day like yesterday; I know I won’t make it. Technologynearly (not...
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Words: Beware of the “Easy” Ones (they can be the...
The vocabulary aspect of the SAT remains my favorite part of this whole project. I’m referring here to both the “Vocabulary Section,” as well as the Critical Reading passages.
I never tire of learning new words, parsing words I already know, or being reminded of words I want to bring back into rotation. Take, for example, my list this week:
inchoate
recondite
dirge
...
October 2011
21 posts
4 tags
How’d You Do It? (i.e. Raise Your SAT Score)
Stacey Howe-Lott remains the single highest score increaser I’ve been able to personally locate. As implausible as this sounds, she’s a mom too, who discovered the joy of the SAT long after high school. Incidentally, Stacey is now an SAT tutor and works via Skype.
Unlike me (thus far, though I will optimistically point out that my year isn’t over), Stacey managed to...
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I Have a Question: How’d You Do It?
Tell me the story
Whenever someone sends me their scores, I reply back with the same question:
How’d you do it?
My favorite email last week was from a father of a daughter who is a junior in high school. She took both the SAT and the PSAT this month (October). And lest you think to yourself, “that’s too much….” Guess what?
She rocked it!
Critical Reading...
“I like flaws and feel more comfortable around people who have them. I myself am...”
– Augusten Burroughs, Magical Thinking (via room42)
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I’m Feeling Icarus
Why did I have to effuse in such an absurdly over the top manner the other day?
I’m pretty sure that’s where my bad luck began.
Trust me when I say that the jubilation came to a screeching halt right after I tallied my scores from a full practice SAT the very next morning.
Not a pretty sight. And humbling.
Please stop me if you ever see me doing that happy dance again.
...
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Watch Your Back (That’s All I’m Sayin’)
Or “Savor the Flavor,” as PWNtheSAT said to me yesterday, as I screamed with rage after being messed with, again (and again and again), by the SAT math section.
I inadvertently struck a nerve a week or two ago when I suggested that you need to know more than just solid math to do well on the math portion of the SAT.
One (anonymous) commenter even left me this message on Psychology...