Studying for the SAT exam by MYSELF?

[The Economist]

Well it's been a long time since I last posted a thread so bear with me!

*I wasn't even an IB student yet --> irrelevant to my question

So I'm not really thinking of going to the US for an undergraduate degree, I'm really not, but as I was going through some SAT questions I thought "this is not that tough!"

Thus I wanted to know if it is possible to study for the SATs by myself and get a pretty good mark.

What do you think?

Has anyone done it??

I have Maths HL, so this pretty much covers the math part of the SAT but I still want to know if I'll manage to go through the preparation process all alone

**The reason why I know started thinking of the US is because I intend to study computer science and the UK is a bit "behind" on the job opportunities compared to the US

[1-2-3]

Yes, you can definately study for the SATs yourself.

You can study from the Priceton Review books. If you don't want to spend money on books, I think that the sparknotes SAT online-book is also really good.

Just make sure that you know what topics they test and study them in appropriate depth (especially for the subject tests).

I have friends who studied for the SATs by themselves and did well.

[CocoPop]

I studied for the SAT myself and ended up with 2240 (760M, 720CR, 760W with 12 essay). However, remember that one of the key parts of the SAT is timing, so finding the questions easy enough is only one part of the equation. Anyhow, I found that the SAT helped with critical thinking and fast reading, which had a knock on effect on some of my academic subjects.

I recommend you get Direct Hits for vocabulary, RocketReview as a study guide and the Official Study Guide for practice papers.

Good luck!

Edited January 20, 2010 by CocoPop

[The Economist]

Can I also use my SAT scores for British universities?

And what if I don't do well?? Can I not include them in my "file"?

*Thanks both of you!

I'll probably get the books mentioned

Edited January 21, 2010 by Watermelon =3

[sweetnsimple786]

I was under the impression SATs don't mean anything to British universities, but you can use them in Canada [and Australia? maybe...]

Some US unis require you to submit all of your scores while others don't. Have you heard of ScoreChoice? It's a new thing for the SAT where you can take the SAT multiple times and choose to only send one score to a particular university. Most colleges accept ScoreChoice, while a few want to see all of your scores. Colleges usually try to take the highest score you've made and use that, though, so you're not penalized for taking the SAT more than once, in a normal situation.

[CocoPop]

I know that Oxford can technically give unconditional offers if you have a 2100+ SAT with 700+ on each section, plus 3 APs at 5 or 3 SAT Subject Tests at 700+.

However, at the time when I applied I had ~2200 SAT and 800 in Maths 2 and Physics, but they didn't really take notice and based my conditions on my IB score.

[powa2]

Well, ScoreChoice is not applicable to every U.S. university, most selective institution like Stanford or Yale require all your SAT scores. SAT scores could help with British and Canadian universities and it is very possible to study by yourself like I did.