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<p>I’m always amused when I hand the cashier a twenty and a one for a $10.75 purchase and have him or her hand me back the one in confusion because the twenty is enough – then proceed to call for more singles because he or she doesn’t have enough left in the tray.</p>
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<p>From what I’ve gathered, any score of 34+ on the ACT or 2250+ on the SAT is pretty much interchangeable. I only wish it was the same with grades…</p>
<p>I can actually notice this change. Lots of peopel in my school are taking the ACT. We’re even having a SAT and ACT dual pratice test session.</p>
<p>Many do better on ACT. ACT gives a chance to slower readers with the very high comprehension to improve a total score by adding high score in science section. Science section has little to do with science. It is more Reading at the slower pace. SAT does not have section like this.</p>
<p>The article seems to imply that the ACT has finally surpassed the SAT in test takers, but this actually happened for the first time in 2010. (By the way, the numbers that the article is comparing are the senior class test takers who took the SAT or ACT at least once, not the total number of students taking each test.)</p>
<p>The ACT has also changed significantly in the last few decades, though perhaps less often than the SAT. Most of the changes occurred in 1989; the four sections of the modern ACT are not the same as they were in the 70s.</p>
<p>The use of the calculator on both tests came about in large part from the influence of the NCTM in the early 90s. The same influence led to much greater use (IMO, overuse) of the calculator in K-12 and de-emphasis of multiplication tables and the standard algorithms for multiplication and division in the 90s and 00s.</p>
<p>A common justification for such use of the calculator is that it allows weaker students to progress further in math than otherwise. Perhaps, especially if tests allow calculators, but IMO we have let these students down because we haven’t taught them how to think.</p>
<p>BTW, even the GRE has started to allow use of a basic calculator as of last year.</p>
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<p>Obviously, you’ve never taken the ACT. :)</p>
<p>The science section is anything but reading at a slower pace. It is the most time-sensitive of all the ACT sections, and speed-reading is a must.</p>
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<p>Why is this hard? Took only a few seconds to figure out that A < B, without using a calculator, nor trying to multiply out any numbers by hand.</p>
<p>LoremIpsum, you have also hit on one of my pet peeves the “lost art of counting back change”. I ran a register at the age of 12 in my parent’s store and we had to count back the money we gave to the customer as change. </p>
<p>Now the register does the calculation and the cashier hands you back a wad of bills and plunks down the change in your cupped hand in one swoop.</p>
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We get it. It’s not hard for you. Congratulations. We’ve already had the discussion on a couple methods to evaluate it. </p>
<p>In the context of the entire post, Xiggi’s implication was that if you couldn’t see the logical estimation techniques it would be more time consuming to multiply out than to use a calculator. But he goes on to post that with logical evaluation the problem is actually trivial and more quickly solved by mere observation (the way you solved it I assume).</p>
<p>My point was that there are obviously some students who will not see the estimation techniques right away and would solve the problem more quickly with a calculator… I guarantee that.</p>
<p>^^^
Ah, I think maybe a portion of my last post was a little snarky. Soirry.</p>
<p>My whole point (on this entire thread) is that I do not believe there is a one-size-fits all approach to this, except in that practice with actual exam questions (or as close as you can get) should help everyone. You can’t always use the same approach for a STEM graduate of Berkeley and some kid trying to get over 400 on Math to meet some threshold.</p>
<p>An example that comes to mind which has nothing to do with the calculator is the SAT “probability” question. Some students just see the answer, some students can set up the “M things taken n at a time” for every problem, some students have other original ways of working these problems. For some students, depending on the sample set, the most effective way is to merely “write out” all the combinations and count. And for some, especially when the problem is closer to the end of the test, the best method is merely to skip the problem entriely, especially if they have a history of answering such problems incorrectly.</p>
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<p>I wouldn’t go that far. I went from my last year of preschool to my first year of high school in the 2000s. Until 6th or 7th grade when we were doing early algebra/late pre-algebra, we were never allowed to use calculators. It wasn’t until high school that they were a must, and even now we can get a lot done without them; they just help us with what graphs should look like and with multi-digit calculations.</p>
<p>That said, I think there’s something to be said for doing the work yourself without any machine aids. As it happens, I did slightly better on a practice math SAT with no calculator and no scratch paper (all in the head) than on my actual one (720 vs. 710). Maybe it was the overconfidence that brought me down, but I like to think it was the over-complication of using the calculator where I didn’t really need to.</p>
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<p>From an individual standpoint, having a calculator available would almost always be a benefit if a calculator is allowed, in the same way as having your textbook present at an open-book final would be advantageous. But in both cases – randomly flipping through your textbook looking for answers or grabbing your calculator without having given the process some thought – the time wasted on the hail-mary-pass might have been better spent on completing and checking the answers on all the other problems.</p>
<p>At its core, both these situations are really time-management optimization issues. I would suggest that it makes more sense to skip problems with no obvious and immediate path to a solution and to only return to them if time permits. Sometimes one can eyeball a problem down to two possible answers and it becomes more efficient to make an educated guess at 3 or 4 such problems than to solve one of them for sure. At other times, it makes sense to attempt to simplify a problem before pulling out the calculator.</p>
<p>One doesn’t have to be a genius to realize that the SAT and ACT are more of a game than an IQ test and the goal of the test designers is to waste as much time as possible in a majority of the test takers to get a nice bell-shaped distribution of scores. So when a problem far from the end of the test looks hard, the first impulse should be to stop and ask, “What am I missing?” rather than to attempt to solve the problem with brute force.</p>
<p>I didn’t study for them back in the day and got roughly the same score, 35 and 1530 (or 2330 including writing). I think they’re equivalent exams.</p>
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Once again, although I pretty much agree with your post, I’m curious as to what experience you have with students scoring below average on the exam. Because IME for some of these students, the best path to the answer for them and *for certain types of questions * involves using their calculator. Almost right off the bat. In fact
can involve significant use of the calculator for these students.</p>
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This of course is a common strategy on many multiple choice exams. Presuming you are certain you have eliminated the incorrect answers, because I believe on the SAT they subtract 1/4 point for an incorrect answer (at least they used to).</p>
<p>IMO, most kids scoring above maybe 650 on the math exam probably don’t need to have any tutoring, or have any of these obvious suggestions pointed out to them. They really just need practice with the exams. And kids scoring above 750 (maybe even lower) probably just need a little luck to get a perfect score or improve their score. I’m talking about strategies to get a few more points for kids scoring below 500.</p>
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<p>That kind of restriction is not typical (IMO I don’t think calculators should be used in K-8 math at all.) Here in NJ calculators are used starting in second grade. The fourth grade state math exam required calculators until two years ago, when it started including a non-calculator section.</p>
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<p>I would certainly agree that for some weaker students it might be wiser for them to have an immediate and consistent plan of attack, lest they lose confidence and freeze up. Doing something, even inefficiently, is better for those inclined to panic, rather than reflect.</p>
<p>I confess I have not worked with any students with below-median scores. My sample size is much more limited than yours, and I don’t even recall there being demand from such students – such students, if they plan to attend college, are likely to attend the local community college or state school, with open admissions (assuming you have an HS diploma or GED).</p>
<p>However, taking a student from the 80th percentile to the mid-to-high-90th has its own challenges. The main one is often helping them unlearn the plug-and-chug way they have been taught to approach problem-solving in school. One method I’ve had success with (that is not commonly mentioned) is to get the student to go over the answers they got right on practice tests to see if there is a more efficient way to tackle such problems in the future. Given that they clearly understand the principles behind such problems and that time saved anywhere is beneficial in getting a higher score, this can yield significant improvements. It becomes a virtuous cycle, as students with more perceived time relax and get “in the zone” where they can focus so much better.</p>
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<p>I can’t agree with this, or many of those in the top 2% would retake the test several times to get a score that less than one in 2500 ever achieves, even after repeated attempts. A few natural tippy-top scorers will have bad luck on their first try, but the reverse is not necessarily true. There’s a strong ceiling effect at the very top: the test could be harder or have more questions – a redesigned SAT 2700 or ACT 40 – and still you would get a cluster of perfect scores. Those with perfect scores are maybe a little lucky on a given day (will it be the ACT 36 or the 35?) but generally they have enough time left over to check their work to correct sloppy mistakes or to focus on a lone vexing problem that the vast majority get wrong.</p>
<p>Lots of kids at or slightly below median seek tutoring. Where I tutored whether a student prepped was more a matter.of parental ability to pay than student aptitude.</p>
<p>Many in the top 2 percent probably do retake the test (they sure talk about it on here), or consider retaking the test. But they often decide against it after a point because they figure the possible cost benefit analysis convinces them their time is better spent elsewhere. One incorrect answer can drop your score to 770 in some cases, I suspect mistakes are at least equally split between stupid mistakes and vexing problems. For students at this level I just don’t believe there are that many vexing problems. But that’s just a guess.</p>
<p>I think I will modify my theory a bit. If you just missed one math question I think it is just as likely you made a dumb mistake as that you didn’t understand the problem. More than one question and the chances for a perfect score probably drop off considerably. Again just a modified guess.</p>
<p>I like ACT better - far more objective</p>
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<p>I am happy to see this mentioned. At the risk of quoting myself, this is what I wrote this in 2005 and probably repeated it several hundred of times! Fwiw, for a different platform, I have written a lot about virtuous and vicious circles in preparing for standardized tests. The biggest problems seem to come from an incomplete basic knowledge and a reliance on lucky guesses. In this regard, understanding the “why is this correct” is essential in developing positive building blocks. I agree that this is rarely stressed and accounts for the many failed attempts in preparing adequately. </p>
<p>From Post 16 here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggis-sat-prep-advice.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggis-sat-prep-advice.html</a></p>
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<p>From post 107 in the same thread.
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