How to Get a Perfect 2400 Score on the SAT
The perfect SAT score it’s one of those holy-grail type goals that many strive for, but few achieve. In reality, it isn’t so difficult to accomplish as long as you know what to focus on (and manage to stay focused).
The first thing to know if you want a 2400 on the SAT (and, for that matter, if you want even a decent score on the SAT) is that you must practice exclusively with real SAT questions. The SAT is a highly standardized test, and that applies not just to the logistics of taking the test, or the material on the test, but to the specific ways that questions can and can’t be asked, the types of wrong answer choices that can and can’t appear, and so on. The College Board (the people who makes the SAT) are the only people in the universe who actually know what all of these standards are, so they are the only people who actually know how to create real SAT questions.
So do not go elsewhere for practice questions! If you do, you will certainly spend some amount of time learning skills that are not actually tested by the SAT, and you will not learn some of the skills that the SAT does test. All of that leaves you less prepared come test day.
The second step to a perfect SAT score is simple and essential don’t just practice, REVIEW your SAT practice. Taking all the real SAT practice tests in the world doesn’t mean anything if you don’t go back and review your incorrect answers to make sure you understand them.
So many times I’ve had mystified students tell me they took two or three or four practice tests in a row and never went back to review what they got wrong, and they couldn’t figure out why the scores didn’t improve from one test to another. Preparing for the SAT is not about how much mind-numbing time you put in, it’s about practicing intelligently and learning from your mistakes so you don’t make them anymore.
Here’s the intelligent way to practice: take either a section of a test or an entire test, depending on the time you have and what you’re focusing on. Take it in real conditions, that is, time yourself and take it in a quiet environment. As you go over your answers, think about every single one, whether you got it right or wrong. If you got it right, quickly look over the questions and remind yourself specifically how you knew to answer it, take a look at the wrong answers and think about how you knew they were wrong, and what mistakes you would have had to make to choose them.
Spend some more time on the ones you got wrong. Try to understand what made you pick the answer choice you chose. Figure out what mistake you made that got you there, and why you made it. See what you failed to understand or realize about the questions that threw you off.
This kind of diligent review will rapidly increase your scores and will not take as long as you think.
There are a few alternative ways to prepare for the SAT that don’t involve SAT questions at all. For example, getting into crossword puzzles of moderate difficulty can really help you when it comes to SAT vocabulary, because it forces you to understand parts of words, which is a very valuable skill on the SAT.
Another possibility is the website FreeRice.com. This is a very simple website which offers the definition of a word and four possible choices. If you get it right, the owner of the site donates some rice to feed starving people, which of course is good too:)
Anyway, this site is great not because it teaches you to memorize definitions of words (which I DON’T recommend) but because of the types of unusual words it tests. This forces you to try to analyze any piece of the word that you might now for a clue about which word is the right answer, which is a very helpful skill on the SAT. Also, there is no pressure, which helps a lot.
So we’ve already talked about the importance of using real test questions, reviewing your mistakes, and a couple of non-boring ways to learn to look at words on the SAT. These things are somewhat obvious, but very few people actually do them correctly and thoroughly, which is a shame because it would help their scores tremendously if they did.
Here’s something a little more subtle that will be very important as you get better at taking the test, and I call it reading the SAT’s signals.
First of all, all of the questions on the SAT are very, very standardized, which means they are almost stupidly repetitive. That’s why getting a perfect SAT score is not so hard, because once you master a question type, there is really little chance of you ever missing one of them again because they are always basically the same.
But there will be a point while you take the test when things just don’t seem right. Either you think more than one answer could be right, or none of them could be right, or something just seems out of the ordinary. When this happens, you must remember that the SAT is always the same, and this question, in all of the ways that matter, is just like all the other questions you’ve ever answered of this type. That means all you have to do is clear your head and take a second look maybe even finish the section and come back. The problem is almost definitely that you missed or misread a word at some point, and that’s why you’re confused.
It’s very important to develop this skill, because it will stop you from making those two or three mistakes that would otherwise stand between you and a perfect score. A 2400 on the SAT isn’t out of reach for anyone who is willing to put in just a little intelligent practice. All it takes is knowing the right techniques and applying them consistently.
Tags: SAT prep perfect score 2400 high College Board Official Study Guide real practice questions | SAT prep perfect score 2400 high College Board Official Study Guide real practice questions
August 21st, 2009 at 8:32 am
Our two teenagers (son and daughter) earned 2400’s on the SAT the first time they each took the exam. They were raised without television and with unlimited books. They were read to incessantly. We started every morning when they were younger with mental math and counting games. That said, they also took as many practice tests as we could find. Repetition was the key, combined with a long history of reading and math for fun.
June 16th, 2010 at 11:49 am
Great Post! I think too many students limit themselves mentally as to what score they can get. It students break that mental barrier that they think they cant get a 2,400 then you will se a lot more students get that score.
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