Resources

 

  1. Score Decline: College Board Report on SAT Score Decline, 1977. Think: Mad Men meets the SAT. Fun to read...nostalgia.
  2. Fair Test Rules: The SAT Standard Testing Room Manual published by ETS. READ PAGES 1-11 before taking the SAT (CAPs and BOLD on purpose, for emphasis). Know your rights as a test taker. You deserve a fair test experience. Not knowing your rights could be reflected in your score (said from firsthand experience). Read this post for more details.
  3. Looking for your old SAT Scores?  Click on this College Board link and follow the directions.
  4. 3 FREE Official College Board SATs: Download these three (free) official College Board Practice SATs: 2007-2008 SAT, 2009-1010 SAT, and 2010-2011 SAT.  Now you're up to 13 official tests for study material.
  5. Best SAT Sites: Credible information without having to wade through the College Board's site (overwhelming) or College Confidential (the wild west): Erik the Red, PWNtheSAT, Ultimate SAT Verbal.
  6. OFFICIAL College Board Solutions to the Blue Book. Incidentally, I didn't always find these to be the most helpful.
  7. Additional Blue Book Solutions: The Khan Academy, PWNtheSAT Blue Book Solutions, The Blue Book Blog.
  8. Have an SAT Question?  Thorough, FREE, and prompt responses from a 2400 scoring tutor.
  9. Think your SAT was scored incorrectly?  Here are instructions for Score Verification.  The service doesn't get high marks though. Akil Bello from Bell Curves says, based on firsthand experience, that Score Verification = Not Worth It.
  10. There are mistakes in the early printings of the 1st & 2nd editions of the College Board Blue Book.  Here is the Errata Sheet with correct answers. The new edition should be mistake free, as it says: "Updated!
  11. Blue Book Database by Question Type (all 3 sections): PowerScore SAT Prep has a ton of great resources on their website....for free, including this database of all 3 sections of the Blue Book, categorized by question type.
  12. More Detailed Blue Book Test 1 Math Breakdown: PWNtheSAT has gone even further with the question type breakdown, by adding "technique and concept."  Very helpful.  Hopefully he'll do the same thing for the rest of the Blue Book.
  13. Prepping on a Budget: Here is a surefire SAT Prep plan for under $250. You must be methodical with this recipe.  Veer at your own risk.
  14. Calculator Advice: I spent a month trying to learn the Ti-89 (it does algebra, if you can figure it out, which I couldn't).  Ultimately, I used the Ti-84 and became very comfortable with all the buttons I needed (e.g. Graphing, Math/Frac, etc.).  That said, an expensive calculator is not necessary and the SAT is "calculator optional."  Read this blog post from Bell Curves that says everything you need to know about calculators and the SAT.
  15. 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 SAT books.  I did that; it didn't work.)  But, I'd say that I agree with about 90% of the "Xiggi Method." The method also includes a few interesting and unique pieces of advice, such as taking a few practice tests with the answers in front of you so you can study the correct choices.  Hummmm.....interesting; I wish I'd tried that. Bottom Line: I think the 15 page "Xiggi Method" is well worth taking the time to read.
  16. Can you do Score Choice and Superscore?  Not really.  Read this post for a brief explanation of Score Choice and Superscoring -- and here is a College Board report about the matter which includes the schools that participate (and those that do not) in Score Choice.
  17. International SAT Percentile: The percentile you receive with your SAT score is an international ranking.  Check out this College Board Profile report for the nitty gritty details.  6% of the 2011 SAT test takers were citizens of another country.  Of note: China's rocking the math, and private school kids score about 100 points higher.



Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis