<p>I get this intimidated, overwhelmed feeling when I do practice questions for the math section of the SAT pre book I bought. When it comes to the medium/hard questions I get stumped. I have no idea what the question is even asking sometimes and I get encouraged to look at the answers just so I can feel a somewhat relief from the anxiety its causing me. What SAT prep book should I buy for the math section only to help me improve my score by a 100+ I haven't taken Trigonometry yet so maybe that's the problem but still I want to start to improve on my math section now. HELP HELP HELP</p>
<p>Honestly, in my opinion, do not do any other math questions besides those from the college board book.</p>
<p>From personal experience, I originally used books, such as Princeton Review and McGraw Hill, to prepare for the SAT. However, these non College Board produced questions were FAR different from those on the actual test. If you are using the College Board book already, well, that’s a different story. Perhaps hire a student tutor, they usually are free at highschools or just charge very minimally. </p>
<p>The first time on math I got a 630; no college board book preparation.
2nd time: 750 ← A LOT of college board tests</p>
<p>And stressing out is the worse possible thing to do-- don’t stress and attempt to work, that will only waste your precious time. Take a break, watch some tv, go for a run, call a friend up. When you are not anxious any longer, then resume.</p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>
<p>Just pick up any book that has the list of all Math topics tested on SAT and go through it. For example, McGraw Hill’s SAT preparation book, Gruber’s Complete SAT Math, Nova’s SAT Math Bible. These are the books I used. After you finish reviewing all the Math topics then start practicing on the College Board tests.
When I started I was at 510 and on the real SAT I got 710. My preparation lasted for 6 months. Now I am trying to master the math section and get 800 on the next test.</p>
<p>Trig has nothing to do with this. There is 0 trig on the SAT, unless you call 30-60-90’s trig. Which are a simple matter of memorization anyway.</p>
<p>I’m not sure which books are good, since I’ve always scored 800 (or 1/2 dumb mistakes away) on math, but I recommend that when you miss a problem, LOOK BACK CAREFULLY on that problem. Most mathematics on the SAT are just straight-up definitions (usually the easy ones) or slight algebraic manipulation. Definition problems (e.g. x+y=7, x=12, what is y?) are one-step stuff that you should know well, as in look at problem → immediately know how to do. Manipulation problems give you some info, you do some stuff with that info, get what you want. That comes mostly with practice, looking at exactly what you didn’t realize your first time doing the problem, and REDOING THE PROBLEM like a week later.</p>
<p>Oh and plug answers in. Cross out stuff that doesn’t make sense. Magically the answer is narrowed down to 1/2/3 choices. Oftentimes I see a problem, I never actually calculate anything but get it right because the other 4 choices are obviously wrong. With practice you can identity wrong answers.</p>
<p>tl;dr: practice + REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW</p>
<p>The thing is, SAT math questions are never “hard.” They are designed to look tricky and confuse you, but once you get past that point, and practice, you can score 800’s consistently. Also, trig is never required (although I’ve seen problems where trig leads to an alternate, shorter solution).</p>