Awful at SAT Math

<p>Hey everyone, I'm new here and this is my first post!</p>

<p>I'm soooo bat a SAT math and it frustrates me to no end. I don't do preAP/AP/honors math classes, although I am a year ahead. It's not my best subject, and I would say I'm about average in my math skills compared to normal students, which means I'm below average here on CC. For some reason my brain just doesn't get the type of logic that the SAT math requires. On my most recent PSAT I got a 58 on math.
My point is, what's the best way to improve my score? I've heard good things about the Dr. Chung book, but would it be too hard for someone trying to figure it out? </p>

<p>Thanks! :)</p>

<p>Just buy the SAT math bible. It is filled with difficult questions and thorough explanations to all of them. You should improve if you read the book through and through and understand the questions and how to do them. Good luck!</p>

<p>Also remember that they repeat certain types of questions on nearly every test. So if you can understand how to do one of them, you can easily conquer the rest</p>

<p>SAT math is probably the easiest section to improve imo. All the best :)</p>

<p>Buck up, Buttercup! I used to think I was bad at math and performed accordingly. You will perform at the level you expect of yourself, so you need to start thinking positively.</p>

<p>I am still not great at math in general, but I rock at SAT math. I had to learn there was a difference, and that SAT math is basic math that tests critical thinking, not complex concepts. You only need average math skills to do well!</p>

<p>Buy the books suggested above (I think Chung’s is more for the student who has a good grasp of the concepts) or start to categorize questions yourself. Find all the cylinder questions in the Blue Book and see what they test. You’ll find patterns that are repeated over and over. You’re either 1) given the volume and the height and have to find the radius to find the area/circumference of the base 2) given the volume and the area/circumference of the base and have to find the height 3) given the volume, height, and circumference/area of the base and have to find the hypotenuse of the right triangle contained within. Once you learn these few things, you can easily master even the hardest cylinder questions.</p>

<p>You can do this!</p>

<p>The questions in the Math section deal with easy topics but the way the problem is presented makes it look difficult. The basic math fundamentals you learn in school are enough as for as knowing the fundamentals is concerned. What matters most is practice. You don’t have to do entire SAT tests, just the math sections. Princeton Review seemed to have the most realistic tests, but in all the 3 SATs I took till now, some questions seemed to be really twisted and PR didn’t cover many such questions.
But again, your preparation depends on what score you aim to get. Getting 800 will require testing yourself a lot. You could try Barrons but it will probably just make you hate Math more :P</p>

<p>You might want to try taking the ACT. D found that for her, the math on the ACT was much more clear than on the SAT.</p>