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Comment by abeinstein | Hacker News Reader

Yeah I meant more than it is very easy to go from the 400-500's range to the 600-700's range with SAT prep. Especially on the writing section -- they only test on 20ish grammar rules, many of which are subtle and wouldn't necessarily be noticed without prep.

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I scored very well on the SAT's back in 2001 or so (better than 700 on each section) with no prep. I dont think anything on there was beyond the reach of a normal HS student. I went to public HS and took no advanced math or english classes prior to the test.

I can see that. I remember quite a bit of the test being formulaic, and preparation for what the formulas are would certainly be worth a few hundred points. I can't speak for the writing section, because it didn't exist in 1997.

Where are you getting this information? I've taught hundreds of kids SAT prep and I can tell you that it is definitely not "very easy" to go from 400-500s to 600-700s.

The writing section is the only one I think test prep would have helped with. Especially with essay structuring. I just wrote a response to a prompt the way I've always written.

For the writing section, you have to follow an exact structure and use the right amount of words. You can also make stuff up to support your arguments.

It's basically "Write a generic 5 paragraph essay using memorized argument flow."

Yea, with no test prep, I just wrote an essay as I always had. It was my weakest section.

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