<p>I am a junior in Canada, and I have raised my PSAT math from 68 to ~710 on the SAT math. I know how to do all the q's (sometimes I won't know how to do 1 or 2), but I always make careless, dumb mistakes. I am not showing any improvement over the course of 4 practice, college board SAT tests in math. What is going on? </p>
<p>I KNOW I have 800 potential (i know how to do the q;s and finish 25 min. sections in 15-20 minutes often. Today I even finished a section, went to the washroom and still had ~3minutes left over. So, time is not an issue. I tried checking the section over, but I make dumb mistakes. </p>
<p>Either I:
a) over think a problem and don't know what do do (I don't see the easy way to do it or the way its meant to be done. I just get confused)
b) make a dumb arithmetic error
c) solve for the wrong thing/make an error </p>
<p>For example, today I messed up on a question that said a triangle (right angled) has 3 sides with consecutive even digit lengths. Solve for the smallest side. I finished in like 20 seconds...BUT i forgot about the consecutive EVEN digit part and just did 3 consecutive integers. </p>
<p>So, any suggestions? I NEED to get >=770 in MATH. My CR scores suck and Writing is about 700 on a good day. I'm really stressed out. I'm an international student, and I will have no chance at some schools without a great SAT score. Math is the one section that will make or break my score. And people have told me that I have already reached my max. potential, but I feel like I can get close to 800, but I've seen no improvement in my math scores over 4-5 practice tests. My scores are as such from my college board tests:
1. 730
2. 700
3. 730
4. 660-720 (the book gives me a range for this test. i don't know why i does this all of a sudden).</p>
<p>Even when I go slow I make these errors. Is there any foolproof way to not make silly errors?</p>
<p>What I’ve done is just continually practice and get faster, so I have time to check every answer. It’s been working, as I went from 690 to 760 on my most recent practice.</p>
<p>Stop finishing in 15-20 minutes.
You need to finish a problem, then check it over, then continue.
This may take longer, but it is a foolproof way to score an 800. (I did this and it worked)</p>
<p>You need to find the right rhythm so you finish in 25 minutes and have checked the ones that you need to check. (Example: Do 1, Do 2… Do 10, Check 10, Do 11, Check 11, … Do 20, Check 20)
Since the questions go in order of difficulty, you shouldnt be finding yourself making errors(even careless) in 1-10. Based on the time you have, adjust the 10 baseline above or below.</p>
<p>ok. I am writing the May SAT. Do I have enough time to improve? I can barely find time in my busy schedule to prep at all. I don’t know if I have time to raise my scores.</p>
<p>have u gotten an 800 on a practice test since a week ago? And is there a comprehensive list of things you need to know to get 800 on SAT math section?</p>
<p>Well, Gruber’s has a good diagnostic and list of skills. You can also glance through the BB.</p>
<p>Honestly, at this point you should have all the requisite <em>knowledge</em> so it’s just a matter of increasing your familiarity and speed. Gruber’s also has some good math techniques to power through certain template problems.</p>
<p>is Barrons 2400 good for math? Do you think this book will help me get my score up to high 700s? I ordered it like a week ago, it should be here soon.</p>
<p>EDIT: Why do the BB tests have ranges for some tests? Weren’t these tests previously administered? So, why is there a range?</p>
<p>I think that the most important thing about an 800 is re-reading what the question wants you to do. If it says find 4x instead of x, then you have to do that, etc.</p>
<p>Just be aware. Circle important parts of the question (this is what I do). “careless errors” CAN be avoided. It’s simply a matter of working thoroughly, and answering the question correctly, given the math is manageable.</p>
<p>Ok. so when a test gives you a range, the ranges vary by so much! What should I doo to get a ballpark figure? Take the average of the given range or something?</p>
<p>Well, usually you can just get the average. However… if you want you can do this: </p>
<p>If you felt the test was easy, do the right thing and take the lower score (b/c harsh curve). If you felt the test was hard, I would guess that you would gladly take the upper score ^^.</p>
<p>but Kameron, how would that link help me? These tests haven’t been administered and there are no dates for them. And this is kinda off topic, but for the writing section, I always get perfect of 1 wrong in the last section (the 16 sentence correction in 10 min.) and i do well on the editing the paragraph (usually none wrong) and i do well on the first sentence corrections too (maybe 1 wrong). BUT, I always mess up on the identifying sentence errors.</p>
<p>I know the errors to look for (subject verb, idioms, and such) but I still make errors. What are some things I can do to improve? Is it just practice for this section too? Or is there some way to prepare more efficiently?</p>
<p>Mistakes are kinda hard to catch, b/c often times even when you check,you’ll read the same ting and just waste more time. Idk, I got a 750 and my only two wrong were both the EASY questions. You should probably check over the E or Mor H only depending on which ones you typically get wrong. Say you always get the Mediums wrong. Double check all the Qs in the middle. If you are scoring low 700s, chances are you’re not getting many wrong, but te one’s you’re getting wrong probably ten to fall in the same area…then again, could just be me</p>
<p>My raw score for the test I just wrote was 64-74. So, ~69 I guess. Like, I got 5 wrong on identifying sentence errors! I only got 2 others wrong in paragraph editing, and sentence correction combined (both the sentence correction parts).</p>
<p>So, thats a major problem. If I got that down to say, 2 errors in identifying sentence errors I;d be in the 69-79 raw score range. Huge difference. It’s not really hard, but sometimes I try to force finding an error, or i;ll do the opposite and circle no error while there’s and error in the sentence.</p>
<p>Of the sentence corrections I got wrong:
2 M</p>
<p>Of the identifying sentence errors:
2 E
2 M
1 H</p>
<p>And this is messed, there were only 3 H q’s in the entire writing section! WOuld this be a super strict curve then?</p>
<p>EDIT: And the math section I wrote had 8 hard q’s in the 3 sections. How would this curve look?</p>