From Quora: My answer to "I just finished taking a practice SAT, and I feel stupid and worthless. I got a 1070, how bad is my score?"

Don’t panic. First, the “bad” news. According to this SAT score percentile chart, SAT Score Percentiles (High-Precision Version) , you scored in the 47th percentile, which means a little more than 1/2 of SAT takers did better than you. The good news is, who knows if the practice SAT you took is actually like a real SAT. If you took a College Board practice test, it’s probably close, but others may not be. The best news is you CAN improve your score greatly by practicing.


The whole point of taking practice SATs is to improve your score. I am an SAT tutor, and I helped one student raise her score by 360 points. Whether you hire a tutor or not, you should use an SAT review book such as Barron’s SAT (28th, 29th, or 30th edition - the 28th & 29th editions are cheap and just as good as the latest, 30th, edition), any Kaplan or Princeton Review SAT book, or Gruber’s SAT book. I normally use the Barron’s SAT, but any of those are okay. I don’t recommend the official pres guide from the College Board, since they generally don’t cover the “tricks” you can use to do their math problems more quickly and how to avoid the little “tricks” or “traps” in their questions (think about it - that would be like the police telling you where the speed traps are located on the highways).


The idea is to learn the SAT tips and tricks as well as the relevant subject material (high school math, reading, grammar, and essay writing), which you can learn from any test prep course, book, or tutor. Here’s my YouTube channel John Linneball Tutoring - it has many free videos that may help you improve your score, including many keyed to the Barron’s SAT book. Hope this helps!