How to Get a Perfect Score on the SAT
So you’re in high school and everything’s going great (hopefully), except for this thing that’s been looming over your head for the past few years. Even hearing it sends a shiver down your spine. The SAT.
Well, I’m here to tell you that there’s nothing to fear. The SAT may seem daunting, but it is possible for anyone to improve, no matter if you’re currently making a 1400 or a 2350. All it takes is great study tools and the right work ethic. I hope that I will be able to provide to you the former.
Before we start, let me just tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Jessica and I’m currently a junior in high school. Just a year ago, I was in the same boat as most of you. I had barely even touched SAT prep material and my PSAT scores were average, but nothing extraordinary. Even more alarming was the fact that many of my classmates had already enrolled in prep courses. I felt like I was falling behind.
But then, three months ago, I embarked on a journey to prove to myself that I could become successful, even without taking expensive SAT classes four years before the actual test. After two months of studying, I signed myself up for the December SAT, finished the test, and waited anxiously for the results. I fervently hoped for at least a 2100. Imagine my surprise when I woke up on the morning of December 22 and saw this:
I couldn’t believe my eyes. Somehow, I had managed to get not a 2100, but the highest possible score. A couple of weeks later, it happened again. I received a 1520 on the redesigned PSAT, also the highest score possible.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to brag. In fact, I truly believe that anyone has the potential get a 2400. You just need to study in the right way.
When people ask me how I prepared for the test, they usually assume that I have taken hundreds of practice tests and read dozens of prep books. The truth is, I have done neither. I believe I’ve taken no more than six practice tests and have never actually gone through an entire SAT prep book.
So how did I do it? Simple: quality over quantity. For every practice test that I took, I singled out the questions that I got wrong, wrote a couple sentences on why my answer was wrong, identified the key concepts behind the questions, and found similar questions with the same key concepts. Then, I did these kinds of questions over and over again until I was getting them right every single time. For example, I found myself often struggling on purpose questions, so I would flip through the SAT blue book and answer as many purpose questions as I could. Eventually, I became more familiar with purpose questions and began to develop an intuition for how the right answers sounded.
As for the essay and vocabulary questions, I will come up with separate guides for those in the future. I also hope to post videos that will guide you guys through some example questions.
The SAT is by no means easy. In fact, at the beginning of junior year, I was so stressed out over the SAT that I almost succeeded in persuading my parents to spend $3000 to enroll me in a SAT class. Only after getting a perfect score have I realized that improvement is highly attainable. Set short-term goals. Aim to improve by a question on every practice test. Identify exactly what you are getting incorrect and fix your mistakes.
I’m sure that, with these strategies and the right mindset, you will have no trouble bringing your score up at least 200 points or even attaining that elusive perfect score.
