The best way to improve your math score is to keep practicing the questions. The SAT ask for a very specific range of math topics and ways of answering questions, so it’s about knowing the right KIND of math—I loved Calculus, but I always hated Geometry and wasn’t any good at it, so math was my lowest score on the SAT. Get a good review book, and go over the math material in it. Use the practice tests to tell you what you specifically need help on, then go looking for information on those specific areas. Keep practicing—more than anything else on standardized tests, math is something you can definitely get better at with practice! For general strategies: if you can’t quickly work through a problem, plug in the answer choices to see which one works. If you’ve absolutely no idea, first plug in the middle answer—on many problems, that will help tell you if the answer you’re looking for is lower or higher, so you can know which one to plug in next. Remember that there’s a box in the instructions with basic area and volume formulas, as well as how to find the lengths of sides for right triangles—so, don’t waste time trying to remember what you can just look at!

Verbal—which is actually called “critical reading” now—is all about reading comprehension and vocabulary. Usually I say that the best way to improve verbal scores is to READ, but you’ve clearly got the grammar down with your higher writing score. I still suggest you read some higher-level material, they type of novels you would read for school or some scientific articles, anything that’s going to require more thinking to read will improve your comprehension. For the reading comprehension on the test, really, it’s a matter of speed! I suggest reading the questions before you read the passages. That way, you can know what to look for as you read and you don’t waste as much time re-reading to find answers. For the vocabulary, you can get books or lists specifically for the SAT vocabulary, and make flashcards. It’s better if you write out the flashcards yourself, because sometimes just the act of writing down the words with their definitions can do a lot for memorization! I also recommend that you at least get familiar with some basic Latin roots—I attribute my high reading score largely to the four years of Latin I had in high school, because the SAT seems to specifically like words with clear Latin roots! Wikipedia has some good lists of prefixes and suffixes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affixes , and this website has some good lists of derivatives: http://www.geocities.com/gene_moutoux/latinderivatives.htm . The more basic Latin roots you know (mittere, facere, venire, etc.) the better you’ll be able to both memorize new words and figure out the meaning of words you’ve never seen before!

Good luck!

There are special classes you can take. Some high schools offer a course for free. Taking practice tests is good. Pay attention to the type of questions you have the most trouble with. Do you have trouble with vocabulary? Study roots for words. Do you have trouble answering the reading comprehension section in time? Try reading the questions before you read the article. Look for keywords and answer questions without reading the whole article in many cases. Math giving you trouble? Practice figuring out formulas for area, volume, mass, etc. if they are giving you trouble. Get plenty of sleep the night before. Eat a good breakfast, but not enough to make you sluggish. Basically, study what you know you’re weak in. You’ll do your best if you feel confident. If you can master some formulas or types of questions before the test, you’ll have an extra boost of confidence that should help you think more clearly.

Well, for the critical reading section, I have a strategy that might work for you on the reading passages. Critical reading was my worst section, but this strategy helped me improve from a 610 to a 680.

Here’s the strategy: Answer most of the questions WHILE you are reading the passage (I mean the ones that ask you specific questions about what happens at certain points in the passage–some of these will point you to specific line numbers, others will just include words that denote that you need to go to a certain place in the passage to look for the answers). You’ll need to read the questions (but not the answers) before you start reading the passage so that you will know which ones to answer while you are reading the passage, as well as what to look for in the passage. After you finish reading the passage, write down the author’s main point as well as writing down a couple of words to denote tone, mood, etc. After you have done this, answer any of the questions that involve your knowledge of the passage as a whole, using any notes you wrote down and the passage. Also, make sure you keep track of time while you are working on the passages–you don’t want to get in a pickle because you spent all your time on the first passage and couldn’t get to the second one.

Vocabulary is not nearly the most important factor in the critical reading section. However, if you have time left to deal with studying vocabulary, do it. You might want to buy a book that tells you a lot of Latin and Greek roots. If you memorize a lot fo these roots, you might be able to figure out the meanings of words you have never seen before. Also, it would be a good idea to memorize any common SAT word lists (use flash cards for this). You should find one in any good SAT review book, like the Princeton Review or Kaplan. Always answer vocabulary questions first, because those are the least time-consuming. One strategy that helps is, before looking at the answers to a question, write an word that seems to fit in the blank in terms of its meaning (this may be difficult to apply if there are two blanks). This could help you find the correct answer, or at least eliminate wrong answers.

As far as the math section goes, there are a lot of strategies that work if you cannot figure out how to do the problem, like plugging in teh answers. I won’t be able to write about all of them here, but if you check out a book like the Princeton Review book, you will find details on what the strategies are and how to use them.

In general, reading a lot will help raise your verbal score and maybe your writing score. Writing a lot using proper English will help with your writing score too. Practicing math also helps, such as taking higher math courses.

To sum it up, “practice makes perfect.”

Take tons of train assessments, in a identical atmosphere because the experiment website online. At the equal time, as good. Stick to the prescribed breaks. You do that sufficient, and the experiment-taking may not be as nerve-wracking. Oh, and do not drink espresso or tea that day, until your frame is used to the caffeine on an day-to-day foundation.