How to Set a (Realistic) Target SAT Score

When you’re preparing to take the SAT for the first—or maybe second or third—time, it can be difficult to know where to start. Before you even start studying, it’s important to set a goal for your SAT scores—while staying realistic, of course. Not sure where to begin? Here’s your guide to setting a (realistic) target SAT score. While you want to aim as high as possible, it’s important to keep yourself in check . Understand where you’re starting in order to figure out how much you can improve. Take a formative assessment to gauge your starting point. This type of practice test will give you a read on what skills you have now and which ones you still need to learn and practice. Learn more about the importance of this test in What Is a Formative Assessment and Why Should I Use One to Study? . Remember that your initial score is likely to go up as you study and prepare for the SAT. Use the formative assessment to consider which studying strategies are best for you. For instance, if you’re strong in reading but weaker in geometry problems and formulas, you may want to implement a â€Å"formula of the day† to memorize. First and foremost, you should be looking for colleges that are the right fit —not just in terms of rankings, prestige, and difficulty of admission, but those that align with your values and interests. While you’re reviewing colleges , make note of the average test scores at the schools that interest you. You can usually find the middle 50% SAT score range, meaning the range from the 25th percentile and to the 75th percentile of the most recent freshman class. You should aim to fall at least in the middle of this range. If you’re closer to the 25th percentile, it’s not a deal breaker, but it does make the school more of a reach. Our students see an average increase of 250 points on their SAT scores. Many scholarships base awards on SAT scores among other factors. Identify these scholarships early on, so you know what you need to do and what scores you need to earn to achieve them. Winning these scholarships can help you with college costs. Learn more in How Your SAT Scores Can Help You Earn Scholarships and Getting a Head Start on Your Scholarship Search . Use your PSAT score as a starting point, as well as previous SAT scores. While you will improve with studying, as well as simply learning more information in school, your PSAT can give you a rough starting pointing. Learn more about interpreting your PSAT scores in What Does My PSAT Score Mean? . Use information such as practice tests, your PSAT, and the average scores of the colleges on your list to set a realistic target score for the SAT. You should also factor in and consider how much time you’ll have for prepping and studying. Make a plan and stick to it. Then you can start working on achieving your goals. For more advice on preparing for the SAT, read: Looking for some more help for acing the SAT? The SAT Tutoring Program will help you achieve top scores on your test. We’ll pair you with two private tutors, one for English and writing, and one for math and science. All of our tutors have scored in the 99th percentile on the section they are teaching and are chosen based on teaching skills and ability to relate to their students. How to Write the University of Pittsburgh Essays 2018-2019 The University of Pittsburgh (colloquially known as Pitt) is a large research university established in 1787. Located in the industrial city of Pittsburgh, Pitt is home to 17 schools and over 19,000 undergraduate students. With an acceptance rate of 60%, Pitt was ranked 26th out of all public universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report in 2018. The university has a thriving academic community, over 350 student clubs and organizations, and is known for its positive campus atmosphere; in 2010, it was rated as having one of the top 10 happiest student bodies in the country. The University of Pittsburgh strongly encourages applicants to write three short essays, granting potential students a great opportunity to showcase multiple facets of their personality, experiences, and interests. Read on for tips to help you master these essays and boost your chances of acceptance into one of the happiest and highest-ranking public schools in the country! This prompt provides you the space to demonstrate your   passions ,   initiative , and   desire to help others . Whether the impact you have made is large or small, the essay should show how you possess each of these qualities. Some good example topics for this essay: While the first example is on a â€Å"macro† scale, the second, more â€Å"micro† example can be equally as powerful if told well. If you decide to go with a smaller-scale impact, make sure it is written as a   story ; use descriptive details that really make the reader feel as though they were also there. While you should be descriptive and   show instead of tell   no matter what you are writing about (see guide to the prompt below for more details on showing vs. telling), it is especially important when writing about an experience that could seem trivial if it is not well-described. Be sure to also illustrate the impact; for instance, for the second example above, the writer could incorporate dialogue between herself and the student when he expresses his gratitude for her reaching out to him. Submit your essay and we’ll get back to you with helpful edits. As briefly discussed in our guide   How to Write the Common Application Essays 2018-2019 , the best response to this question should demonstrate how the intersection of your personality, interests, skills, and analytical-thinking abilities creates a distinctive combination — one that would allow you to contribute in an idiosyncratic way to the college to which you are applying. Taking it one step farther, UPitt is also looking for your ability to reflect. What evidence do you have of your uniqueness? What experiences can you point to that showcase your individuality? You will likely be doing some storytelling here, so it’s extremely important to   show and not tell. Here’s an example of the difference between the two: Note that the â€Å"showing† example also   avoids using any overused adages or clichà ©s , as such sayings can diminish the strength of the experience or emotion you are trying to convey. For example, when explaining the difficulties that come with growing up, writing â€Å"the inevitable blemishes of adolescence† is more distinct and illustrative than saying something like â€Å"the rollercoaster that is high school.† For some of you, this essay will be easy to start – maybe you’ve got an odd family tradition, an uncommon identity, a niche hobby, or even a peculiar birthmark that you could write about. In that case, be sure to point to specific experiences; you could focus on just one moment and tell the story with rich detail, or skillfully connect a few experiences together into one cohesive narrative. The key is to demonstrate your uniqueness through real-life examples and show how this uniqueness will translate into helping you excel at UPitt. But what if you don’t have some extraordinarily special aspect of life to point to? Don’t worry – most of the world doesn’t. The key is to remember that you are still unique! Your specific life experiences, background, personality, interests, and a million other things form a special combination that really cannot be found in anyone else. Try writing out all of your interests, skills, and passions, and then lift out a few from the list. Next, think about how these things come together and make you special. Are there any experiences that show how you, having your distinctive mixture of these separate identities or interests or abilities, were able to meet a challenge, relate to a stranger, help a peer, or learn something new about yourself? Really dig deeply into what you believe is truly unique about you, weave a story that features an experience or two demonstrating that uniqueness, and then show how this will help you contribute something distinctive to UPitt that nobody else can. With this prompt, UPitt wants to see your creativity and problem-solving skills. In other words, you should show the admissions office how you think . The key is to think small when answering this question: what’s a problem you see, and how would you fix it? We suggest you stay away from big national or global issues like â€Å"zero hunger† or â€Å"world poverty.† However, you may be able to concentrate on smaller, more specific issues within these broad zones, and most likely, the problem you’re interested in solving will be somehow related to family or interests or specific life experiences. (Bonus points if you can combine multiple areas of specialty together, drawing on your skills and experiences from two or more different academic or extracurricular areas!) The key takeaway here is that this prompt does not require a well-tested research project that’s been presented at multiple conferences — just pick any problem you see in your daily life and come up with a creative solution for it! As a word of caution, the only constraint is the word limit. While you have 750 words, the UPitt admissions office likely prefers the 200 to 300 range that they’ve suggested. In your answer, you should aim to have a brief background of what inspired your idea, an explanation of your idea, and the potential impact you’d like to see it cause. If you present something that requires a great deal of highly technical explanations, try your best to simplify it down so that any person walking down the street can understand your proposal. And worse comes to worst, pick something else! Remember: your actual product, process, business, or organization doesn’t matter so much as your inspiration and process – the story of your creativity, problem-solving, and compassion. Want help on your Pitt application or essays? Learn about our   College Apps Program. Want us to quickly edit your college essay? Submit it to our   Rapid Review program , and we’ll get it back to you quickly with comments from our expert team.