Hello,
I took SAT exam only once. And my scores were: 800 Math, 490 Reading, 480 Writing.
I really need to get 600 from both reading and writing. I realized there were a lot of fancy words I didn’t know, and I relate my reading weakness to my poor formal vocabulary knowledge and English being my 2nd language.
Do you think is there any chance for me to improve my reading score by memorizing fancy and formal words?
I would suggest improving your reading score by reading – challenging books, but ones you find interesting, and a lot of them. Look up the words you don’t know, by all means, but don’t focus your energy on memorizing lists of words out of context; what you want is a feel for language and a good sense of how these words are actually used, which is much harder to learn from memorization alone.
And get the Princeton Review book, Cracking the SAT – it’s a useful behind-the-scenes look at how the test is designed and how to game it.
Native English speaker here.
Read books. Lots of books. Read Victorian novels, Elizabethan plays, and other older works to pick up archaic vocabulary.
Quick, if a Victorian heroine comes down with the disease of “consumption”, what is the modern term for her medical condition?
A good tutor can also help immensely, by showing you strategies and working with you one on one to develop your skills.
What’s your time frame? Do you need to make a 600 on the October SAT, or on the June one? It really will affect your best plan here.
Congrats on the 800. If you have some other scores to show that English is the problem–like good AP scores in science and social studies, or good SAT II scores in those same subjects–that would be good. Then it’s not “I am great at math” it’s “I am highly intelligent, but weak in English because of ESL issues.”
And you will want to address this in your essay. A native speaker with your scores isn’t going to get any better through college. But if you’ve only been speaking English since 8th grade or something, they have every reason to believe you will continue to improve.
Do they really not offer the SAT in any other language? Isn’t it an aptitude, not a skills-based test?
You learn something new every day.
What I did to prep for the GRE and the TOEFL was read books I normally wouldn’t have: a bodice ripper, a political essay… On the vocabulary part I had the advantage that my first language is a Romance one and many of those words that EFL speakers would find strange are twins to the words we’d use in Romance languages; there was one in the exam I hadn’t encountered before, but again my Romance-language background came useful, as I was able to figure it out from its roots. Are those “fancy words” related to “fancy words” from your primary language? If they are, reading more widely in your own language can also come in handy.
And nope, none of those exams are offered in anything other than English.
I have to get 600 by June. While considered I’ll take some prep course, I can accomplish what is needed.
I would take a good prep course and I would do it soon. But with that much time, I would also recommend doing some of the reading people are mentioning. You have fluency issues, and immersing yourself in English prose is the best way to deal with that.
It is not just a matter of memorizing “fancy” words: you need a feel for English. Reading and participating on English speaking forums (like this one) is also a good idea.
And don’t just read archaic stuff. College Board is very good at finding surprisingly dense contemporary passages, and if all you have read is pre-19th C, you will be at a disadvantage. Read things like Annie Dillard, Stephen Jay Gould, Joyce Carol Oates–rich contemporary writers.
ETA: I think 480 to a 600 by June is do-able. That’s a huge leap for a native speaker, but you have an advantage, in a way: it’s a language issue, not an ability one.