/sci/ - Science & Math

>Critical Reading: 64/80
>Math: 69/80

Your advice is to do better.

I got a 31 on the ACT and an 8/12 on the essay. I need to improve my essay writing abilities as for the SAT it goes into the actual score (unlike the ACT)

I got a 710 on the math, 690 on the reading and like 550 on the writing. It was good enough to get where I wanted to go. Especially since the writing portion wasn't really taken seriously by colleges yet when I took the test.

Get a good book and study all of the SAT common vocabs. Work your geometry and learn your basic SAT Equations for figuring out probability. Read a lot. Make sure to do the practice tests. Every time you screw up, make SURE you know why you did and fix it. Take it again until you get a perfect score.

>>2672495
yep that sounds about like what I am planning to do. I have 2 princeton review books: one for strategies w/ 2 practice tests and one with 11 practice tests. vocab is definitely going to be a bitch though...

Fuck the SAT. I got a 36 on the ACT and a 2160 on the SAT. Living in Illinois means we get a shitload of ACT prep but no SAT prep.

Is taking an IB not an option?

>>2672504
bleh. I hated the ACT. the critical reading is more difficult and there is a science section. I want to ace the SAT so I can be done with the ACT... its personal opinion though


>>2672508
what is that?

>2 months to prepare.

More than enough time to prepare for anything. I put about a weeks worth of revision into each of my A Levels and I came out fine. Take your time, go over material with your teachers and if possible study with a friend.

The best thing I ever did was just copy stuff down. Stuff you've written months ago, write it down again. Look it over. Practice everything and ensure that you've got it the way you want it.

Most importantly, feel comfortable. Plenty of people are going to do worse than you.

>>2672516

International Baccalaureate.

It's the new thing for all the clever kids to take. Much more useful.

i got a 237 on the psat ^.^

wasnt a finalist tho cuz im not the right race or gender ^.^

OP here -- my theory is that I can study my way to consistently perfect scores on math and writing as they both follow rules (math & grammer). But, critical reading, however, may be a little bit trickier. I am going to study roots and vocabulary words but is there any advice to improve passage based reading question scores? its so subjective it seems hard to really "study" imo

>hasn't taken sat yet
>OP is underage b&.
Regardless, it's too late for you now but you should've taken it once at the start of junior year and then again in June. I got like 19xx the first time and 2090 [760 on the math (missed one, what a bitch), 650 reading, 680 writing] the second time, not studying at all for either of them other than doing one math practice section. That shit is easy if you have any intelligence at all, if you need to stay up studying for days to do well then you are a huge pussy.

Also, just a note, pretty much all colleges put you into one of three groups:
1. <1600 (the bad scores)
2. 1600-2000 (the meh/alright)
3. 2000-2400 (the good scores)
Being in group one is negative on your transcript, group two is neutral, group 3 is positive. They really don't give a shit how good your scores are after 2000 unless you get a perfect.

dont waste your time on this stupid test

>>2672556
obvious troll is obvious. 237 is national merit finalist anywhere in the country regardless of race/gender

>>2672556
It matters what state you do it in too. One of my cousins got a merit scholarship for his PSAT score in Nebraska, Yet I didn't even though I scored 12 points higher than him because I live in Texas.

>>2672516
Critical reading more difficult? The SAT focuses more on Critical Reading and Writing than on Math. The SAT is more subjective in it's cases than the ACT. The ACT is more around Science and Math. I don't know how you found it more difficult.

Also, the science section is just reading graphs. Can you not interpret graphs? Something tells me your score in either ACT or SAT would be poor.

OP:

I took the SAT back when it was out of 1600 and got a 1570, so I don't know much about the essay. All I would recommend is writing a lot (which apparently is important).

Improve your Critical Reading via looking up some difficult vocabulary words. Get vocabulary books to study.

Also, do a lot of practice tests and find out why the answer to a Critical Reading thing was wrong (the thing about these is they say get the BEST answer, even though there are many answers).

The thing to remember about the math sections is the middle section and the last part. The last part is the most difficult (so practice like I stated above and see how to do it).

The middle section of the math test isn't difficult -- but it is tricky. Something may be measured in cm and then the answers are in meters but one of the answers will contain the number you would get in cm but say meters for the units so just pay attention to those.

Other then that, get lots of sleep, take a few snacks with you, eat a good breakfast, etc.

>>2672564

>improve passage based reading question scores?

Yep.

Read more books. Just go buy loads of books that excite you. Sci-fi, horror, fiction. Make sure they're well written. Personally, I recommend The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse and Life: A User's Manual by Georges Perec.

>>2672564
> both follow rules
> grammer

lol

>>2672565
yeah I studied the beginning of my junior year for the PSAT. i can easily get 2100+ but i want a perfect 2400 for scholarships and entry to top schools. and i guess if studying is for pussies then i am an enormous pussy who is going to go to harvard...

>>2672574
Yeah, but 220 cutoff is about the highest anywhere in the US. 237 is automatic

>>2672586

>who is going to go to harvard...

Hate to be blunt but someone who can't spell "grammar" isn't off to Harvard.

Obviously, if you excel at science/maths then that isn't an issue really. But don't get ahead of yourself - you asked for help and you've recieved it in droves.

>>2672556

No, you weren't a finalist because you're probably a lazy shit and didn't get good grades. Not being a finalist is pretty much inexcusable. Race or gender doesn't even affect your standing in the competition because of the existence of National Achievement and Hispanic Scholarships.

>>2672576
nope i cant interpret graphs for jack shit. i am good at math and fantastic and grammar, but reading is just meh..

Regarding the reading/writing:

Go ask /lit/. I know you guys are mortal enemies, but they really can be quite clever sometimes. They'll have plenty of suggestions.

Being someone who helps with the application stuff at Ivy League schools, we're looking for 2 things this year (not sure if you're graduating this year or not):

1. Community Service (this is priority)
2. Your essay shouldn't have more than 2/3 grammatical errors (otherwise we assume you can't write an essay and ignore the rest of your application completely).

>>2672599
thanks for the tips! I have 100+ community service hours and will have the "Presidential Service Award" on my transcript which is the highest community service award given at my school. I am a very good writer when my essays are not constrained within a time limit and will be sure to not make any mistakes! where do you read admissions btw?

From my understanding of this thread, getting into Harvard is more or less done the same way Asians play their MMOs, right?

Grinding, all day erryday.

This is just sad.

>>2672586

>going to go to harvard.

Presumptuous punk is presumptuous.

Sorry, son, but I've seen plenty of high school kids with perfect SATs and a weighted average over 4.0 get flat out rejected from Harvard. The only sure way to get in is if your parents are important/give a shitton of money to the university/are alumni/cure cancer by yourself/are a jewish black-latino-asian kid whose parents were killed during the Rwandan Genocide and you somehow managed to escape Africa by drifting across the Atlantic ocean in a refrigerator. If you approach Ivy League admissions from any other angle, dumb luck is going to play as much a part of getting in as all your hard work and club presidencies do.

>>2672599
also, since you're here, how good of a shot do you think i have at stanford/harvard if I have gotten several B's in high school? I think i am about 40/450 in my class and have a 4.25 gpa. just wondering since college is right around the corner..

>>2672629

they only look at unweighted gpa

Ivy Leagues aren't colleges, they're day spas for spoiled rich kids with too much money.

pffft
only a 212 PSAT? 219 fag, GTFO

also
>mfw I have no community service time
>mfw I have no face

>>2672615

I got an offer there to do a post grad.

I'm not a particularly brilliant student. I had plenty of skills and experience though, and I was in my mid 20s when I applied.

>>2672629
>>2672607
You'll probably want more than 100. Keep at it, because some schools get stickers for 150 hours and kids stop there, but we see all t he hours you get and if you just stop at 150 we're sort of disappointed because it tells us that you just want it for the nice sticker. Just do whatever you can in your free time.

What's your weighted GPA so I can calculate if 4.25 is high.

Also, we do it via Skype with other reviewers. We do it on our free time as well (but have a deadline to turn in all the applications given to us).

>>2672639

They're colleges in the true sense of the word.

Most people think MIT is just a trade school for Asians not confident enough to do medicine.

Fuck me, guess my post didn't post. Anyway, I guess I'll rewrite some of it.
>>2672586
>going to harvard
>hahahahahahahaa
Getting a perfect on the SATs won't help you get into Harvard, it's a prerequisite for it. Several of my friends go to Harvard and it's no exaggeration when I say that if you go to one of the dorms, every single person in the building got a perfect SAT and they all had 4.whatever GPAs. If you've ever gotten an A-, you aren't getting into Harvard. If you need to study really really hard to get a perfect on the SAT, then it's already obvious you need to lower your estimations of how smart you are and what colleges will think of you.

>>2672650

>If you've ever gotten an A-, you aren't getting into Harvard.

citation needed

>>2672646
3.8ish unweighted.

>>2672599
Another juniorfag here. I got a 231 on the PSAT, 36 on the ACT, and 2400 on the SAT. My weighted gpa's 5.1 and my unweighted is 4.0. However, I only have like 80-90ish service hours. Is it really that big of a deal?

Ask me anything

>>2672649
>Implying half the Asians at MIT aren't bio majors going to med school

>kids talking about how they only have 90 community service hours
>I have 24
>I'm applying for college this fall

Does being foreign help?

>>2672675
>>2672673
If it's 3.8 unweighted, I would definitely work on it a bit. I mean, that's not entirely a great one. If you can get a really good SAT score with some of the ride paid for you in cash (rather than scholarships) and some more hours, you can get in.

To the second Anon, if you're score is THAT good then yes, you'll be okay if you can pay some of it. Although I do recommend increasing your service learning hours.

>>2672675

>>2672681
protips on critical reading?

How is your weighted GPA higher than 5? I thought weighted classes are on a 5 scale...

>>2672692
My HS required 80 CS hours to graduate...

>>2672692
Foreign helps with scholarships. If you were like the other Anons with 2400's and all that good stuff, THEN being foreign would help a lot (schools also look for diversity, but they put it second to scores).

Also, get a good score on the SAT but it's only 20% of the application. The other large part is your essay and your grades.

>>2672681
>mfw I got a 420 on the math section

>>2672692

>Does being foreign help?

Yes. Colleges and universities love diversity like a druggie loves crack. Your being foreign is a more important thing than any amount of service you could do.

>>2672708
Some schools do 5.0 weighted GPA, some do 4.5, some do 4.25 and the only way to get higher than that is to take Seminary (which is just going to a nearby church) and this usually bumps it up for most schools.

I think it's a joke (seriously, just because you take a religious off-hour you get an extra 0.1 to your weighted GPA?).

>>2672667
Obviously not a real statistic, I was being a bit facetious. I don't know what grade you're in but I'm assuming you are underage. When kids start applying to colleges/getting accepted, watch the top class ranked kids in your class. Most of them won't get into Harvard or Stanford or whatever other ivys. They have amazing ass grades and yet they got declined. If these kids can get all As and get rejected, why should a kid with an A- or B get in?

>>2672703

Critical reading is all about vocab.
You gotta learn every word in the book if you don't want to make mistakes.

I had a computer program at my SAT prep place that kept track of how many minutes of vocab lab I did. Total was over 1600 minutes of vocab and I still missed 4 questions. You really need vocab for Critical Reading. Let me say that again, vocabulary.

>>2672696
Why would I lie about my scores? It's not like I have anything to prove to random strangers on the internet.
>>2672708
At my school, AP classes give 6.0 credit, Honors give 5.0, and regulars give 4.0. I just stacked a fuckton of AP classes.

>>2672735
In all my applications I've done I've never heard about 6.0 AP classes...that's just ridiculous. Thank goodness we focus more on your unweighted GPA.

>>2672726
yep. vocab will probably be my most difficult section to study....gah

>>2672735
>AP classes give 6.0 credit, Honors give 5.0, and regulars give 4.0. I just stacked a fuckton of AP classes.

Wow, inflation really is exponential...

>>2672735

>AP classes give 6.0 credit.

>>2672712
And mine required 48, and since I switched schools a lot, I only ended up doing 24 of them

>>2672745

let me make this clearer. I clocked 27 hours of vocab and still missed 4 questions. They throw in just a few really obscure words that cost you a couple of questions if you don't know what they mean.

SAT reading protip:

If you actually read books all your life, you tend to do well.

>>2672766
Anon speaks the truth.

I would recommend reading a highly valued newspaper (i.e. Wall Street Journal) and whenever you come upon a word you don't know, look it up.

Is 6.0 for AP classes really that uncommon? I go to a chicago public school and every school in CPS uses that gpa system. Wow, I thought every school worked like that...

Seniorfag here, no college will ever want me because of my shitty writing scores. English isn't even my first language ffs.

>>2672713
And what if I do lots of volunteer service this summer? I don't plan to go to an Ivy, btw, but will a decent college call me out on my community service cramming bullshit?

>>2672770
Correlation is there, but no proof of causation because there are some who are I guess you could say "naturally brilliant."

>>2672766
hm. thanks for the feedback. i will probably get a thick SAT vocab book and study 20 minutes each day or so for solely vocab. if i recall correctly, the pick from the same pool of 500(?) or so words

>>2672681
Dog, how exactly did you get a 790? I also only missed one there but I got 760.

>>2672793
Shitty grading scale, man
shit happens

>>2672793
i got 79/80 on the psat english missing 1 question. tests are weighted differently. the easier they are the more points you lose from one incorrect

>>2672787

they always add a new word or two into the mix and if you want to be in the 700's, every question counts.

>>2672793
Not always the same number of questions. Check yours again to see if you had the same number of questions (total number).

>>2672783

Forgot my scores. Never took ACT, despite living in IL.

Anyways, my school doesn't have AP or IB classes, but last year a kid got into Harvard, and 7 kids got into MIT. A shitton got into the lesser Ivies such as Brown and UPenn.

>>2672776

My high school was 4.0 for everything, with advanced and AP courses given a grade boost at the end of the semester/year (so, if you got a B- in the course, a B goes on your transcript).

A 6.0 grade cap is fucking ridiculous.

>>2672793

I missed one of the fill in the blank math problems which don't count against you if you miss them.

I'm thinking of taking the SAT just for shits and giggles.

>>2672805
...
writing
doesn't matter

you sir... are a god

>>2672805
:O

!!!

damn, son. if only i could get those two 800's. the writing section is easy for me...

>>2672816
>>2672821

Hue, these don't mean shit. There are plenty of people at my school who get <2300. I am low tier.

in conclusion:

-practice math
-practice writing
-practice reading book and challenging texts for CR
-study the fuck out of vocabulary
-take practice tests


anything to add?

>>2672840

>>2672829 here.

Read the NYTimes. You highlight a word, and a little "?" bubble comes up. Click on the bubble, and it will open a dictionary with the definition of the word.

>>2672840

Get a ti-89. it makes the math section super ez.
I repeat, buy a ti-89 if you want to do well.
also, get this program for your TI-89 (it does all the triangle problems in seconds):

http://www.ticalc.org/pub/89/basic/math/trigonometry/atrigga.zip

>>2672855
I got a TI-89 for College, it does have a lot of functions which can help.

Also, if you're in Calculus, some problems can be solved faster.

>>2672855
much appreciated

>>2672850
ti89 is not allowed

>>2672860
>>2672855

Yeah, TI-89=god tier. But know how to use it.

It can graph, solve equations, differentiate, integrate, do limits, kick ass.

>>2672874

is allowed for SAT, you noob.

Know english, algebra, and geometry. None of the subject matter on the SAT is difficult or high-level.

Specifically studying vocabulary with flash cards or other things is utterly useless.

It's also useful to know how to use your graphing calculator well. Using it to find the prime factorization of a number can be useful on some problems.

Honestly, if you understand (not just 'know') the material and don't get nervous with tests, you will do fine. I got a 2370 on the SAT without any studying beyond checking the SAT study guide to see that I knew all of the math terms and concepts that they test. 800 reading, 800 math, 770 writing, and the only reason why my writing wasn't an 800 was because I only got an 8/12 on my essay.

>>2672874

The following are not allowed:

* Calculators with QWERTY (typewriter-like) keypads
* Calculators that contain electronic dictionaries
* Calculators with paper tape or printers
* Calculators that "talk" or make noise
* Calculators that require an electrical outlet
* Cell phone calculators
* Pocket organizers or personal digital assistants
* Hand-held minicomputers, PowerBooks, or laptop computers
* Electronic writing pads or pen-input and stylus-driven devices (the Sharp 9600-EL can be used without the stylus)

You can use ti-89

Hey OP, college guy here:

I got an
800 critical reading
710 writing
710 math


Let's be honest, unless you have been reading all your life and already have an awesome vocabulary and analytical skills, you're pretty much fucked on the critical reading portion. If you want to study, just read a shit-ton of books with complex words in them ( I suggest Fantasy books, lols).

Writing is also hard to study for.

Judging by your 69/80, the most efficient use of your time would be to study math...

The math on the SAT is predictable (same questions every year) and you WILL be able to memorize every possible problem they could throw at you by the time test time comes around.

What I suggest you do (something I wish I had done more of) is buy a Princeton Review book for the SAT which has tons of SAT-tests in it for practice, and do the math over and over and over. If you do that I fucking guarantee you will get an 800 in math.

Good luck with writing and reading. I got lucky with the 800.


If I had to do it over again, I would definitely have put all my energy into math, because that's where you can get the easiest gains and the greatest chances of an 800.

>>2672735

6.0 for an A. My god you go to a retard factory. They are obviously inflating the GPAs to keep their average up to keep funding.

The standard is 5.0 for an A in an AP class.

>>2672902

Where did you end up going?

>>2672902
yep math can be learned and writing can with some practice. i will be sure to do all 14 practice tests at my disposal

>mfw when i didn't study at and got 800 on math, 770 on reading and 730 on writing

Real advice for OP: get smarter.

jelly?

>>2672926
>yfw SAT doesn't come close to measuring actual intelligence?

>>2672928

Nope. Beat you by 30 points on critical reading, got the same on the other two sections.

>>2672909

Free ride to state school.

I didn't make it into the ivy league (maximum chip on shoulder).

My tips:
-Ace the SAT/Subject Tests
-Leadership (Be class president/ varsity sport captain)
-Community Service (lots of it)
-Great GPA (like 3.9-4.0 unweighted)

You'd then probably have a good shot at an ivy. Any way it's still a crapshoot because lots of the applicants are nationally/internationally recognized in some field (olympians/artists,etc.) which you can't really compete with.

Just work hard. I'm just trying to give you advice, so you don't make the same mistakes I did.

I fucked off for the first 3 years of high school, and even though I did community service, was class president, I wasn't well rounded enough and my GPA was shitty enough to just keep me from the level I needed to be at to get an acceptance (that or affirmative action).

Anyways. good luck to you.

>>2672933

Not denying this, but if you get less than 800 on the math section then you are confirmed for stupid.

>>2672945
ha. like on the psat
when i fucking reduced -5/-7 to -5/7
i have never looked at my wrong answers since

College acceptance bro:

Should I do some sorely needed community service this summer (my final summer of high school) or should I get involved in summer research?

>>2672956

Be a champ and do both.
Admissions committees are looking for commitment over the long term. I'm sure it would be possible for you to do your research while at the same time donating 4-5 hours (or whatever you can) per week to your community service.

Do the research, do the community service.
When school starts, continue doing the community service every week all the way up until you are done applying to college, after that it doesn't matter. It'll really show you are a good citizen, and you will have something to talk about in an interview (if the school does interviews).

Community service is good in itself also, you may learn things about others/yourself.

Good luck OP!