SAT Hustle by Lucas

SAT Hustle by Lucas - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

Approximately one year ago, I was relaxing on a Saturday when my mom asks me "Did you hear that they're changing the SAT?" I had no idea. I didn't give her much attention and went on with my day. That night, I looked it up. The last iteration of the SAT would be in January, in about a month. I wondered if I should take it. The next day I went to my guidance counselor's office and asked her. She told me I should take it in case the new one is much more challenging and because no one knew what the new test would be like. That meant I had to rush to sign up and then begin to study. Where do I even start? I had never even thought about the SAT let alone study for it. I then proceeded to do what every teenager does: Freak out, then contemplate it. The first week I did nothing. The second week I began searching for a book. I was recommended a book by a close friend of mine. 7 Steps to a 2400. I started to read the book, and in one of the first pages I found a pleasant surprise: “The minimum amount of time you could successfully achieve the steps in the book is four months.” After this, I thought I was done for. I decided that I would hustle for the next 2-3 weeks to learn the most I possibly could before the SAT. I had a lot of pressure on me because this would be my only attempt. No super score, no redo, no nothing.

I made a SAT Notebook and brought the book to school every day. From there I would study every second I had. Before class, after class, during lunch, on the toilet, etc. I mainly studied the reading strategies because I am already very advanced in math and did not need much help there. Now when it came to vocabulary, there were hundreds of words to study and a pacing guide I could not follow because I did not have enough time. I knew I had to do something out of the ordinary if I wanted an out of the ordinary score. I decided that if I wanted to memorize the most vocabulary possible I would have to listen to the words. I found an online text to speech file creator, and I wrote the words and definitions and then downloaded them as a mp3 file. I would listen to vocabulary all day long and even while I slept. This way I went through about half of all the words in the book in 2 weeks instead of 2 months. I finished the entire reading section and even was able to start some of the math even though I did not need it.

On the last day before the SAT, I was still studying like crazy and taking a bunch of practice exams. I went to sleep relatively late and didn't eat breakfast that morning because I didn’t feel like it. I took the SAT and applied all the strategies I had learned. I saw dozens of vocab words that I had memorized that I otherwise wouldn't have known. After the test, I noted that it was not impossible, but it was a harsh and respectable test. About a month or two later the results came in. I scored a 2210 out of 2400 which is top 0.1% I received a perfect 800 in reading. I was very proud of this accomplishment, and it will help me get accepted to some of the schools I am looking into applying for. I worked very hard, and I was forced to innovate to succeed. I believe this moral is a paramount one to learn as a person and as an American, where hard work and innovation will lead you to success. My SAT score is my proudest accomplishment not only because of the score itself but because of the moral that came with it.