General Guide to Getting 800 on SAT II Math 2C

Test Preparation SAT Subject Test Preparation
1

<p>Seeing as how most (if not all) of the January SAT II testers have received our scores, I was asked by a few people what books I used/how I studied. So, if you're interested in getting an 800 and you'd like to see how I did it, read on! :D
(All books/resources I used/recommend will be listed at the end.)</p>

<p>I should tell you all that this was actually my second time taking this exam; my first time was in December, and I didn't do so well (750). Also, I've never had an official pre-calculus class, so I basically taught myself pre-calculus by preparing for this exam. </p>

<p>BOOKS--
On CC, many will tell you that Barron's is the way to go in terms of SAT II Math 2 prep. There is no denying that Barron's is excellent. Its difficulty relative to the actual exam is what makes it such a good resource; however, the difficulty of Barron's is often over-exaggerated. There are claims that you can add ~100-150 points to your Barron's scores to get your projected score on the "real thing." While this may prove accurate in some cases, those cases are most likely few and far between. My highest Barron's score was a 740; I got a 750 on the actual thing. The thing I found with Barron's is that Barron's will teach you the concepts if you're unfamiliar with them, but it will not help with speed. For that, you need Dr. Chung's.</p>

<p>Dr. Chung's SAT II Math Level 2 is absolutely amazing. I could probably go on for days about how much this book helped me. In this book, Dr. Chung presents "57 perfect tips" to help you ace the exam. These tips pretty much deal with many of the concepts presented in Barron's, but they show you how to apply the concepts to relatively tricky problems which I don't really think Barron's does. These tips can help you snag those few hard questions you may not get, and some of the shortcuts you'll learn as a result of applying these tips will save you a lot of time. Dr. Chung's is amazing at building speed and will help you solidify your SAT II problem solving skills. I HIGHLY recommend this book. I took two/three weeks to go through his 57 perfect tips and take practice exams. I analyzed the questions I missed, learned the mistakes I made, and tried my best to not repeat them. My scores in Chung were usually ~640ish. I got an 800 on the actual exam.</p>

<p>"Official" materials-The CollegeBoard has a book of released exams that contains one official exam for each subject test. If you're planning to take multiple subject tests, you may as well get this book; if not, then I wouldn't waste my money. The CB exams are, from my experiences, easier than their "real" counterparts, and their primary function, in my opinion, is to serve as confidence boosters the night before the exam. I took the official math II practice exam the night before my first attempt; I made an 800 on it but, as I've mentioned above, only a 750 on the real thing.</p>

<p>TIPS--
1. START EARLY. Give yourself at least a month of prep time. If you're relatively good at math and you can dedicate 6-7 hours per week for an entire month going through your prep book, you're pretty much good to go. If you'd like to do both Barron's and Chung's (which is essentially what I did), I'd try to get at least two months of prep time.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES: If you are lacking in a certain mathematical area (I believe my friend @loltired didn't have a complete grasp of algebra II), your prep book (especially if you're using Barron's) should take care of that. If you use Chung's in conjunction with Barron's, Chung will show you how to apply the math you learn in Barron's to complex situations. Even if you think you're strong in a certain area, you should still skim through the relevant section in the book(s) to see if there's any additional material you may not know. </p></li>
<li><p>SPEED. Speed is key on this exam. You have to work both quickly and accurately. In your practice sessions, give yourselves fifty minutes to finish the test instead of the full hour. If you do this for a few tests (4-6), you should build sufficient speed. For me, this wasn't necessary; just going through Chung's normally helped. For you, it may be different, so if you need to speed up, I suggest limiting your time for at least a few practice exams. If you're using both Barron's and Chung's, I'd suggest doing a few of the Barron's untimed so you can learn. Do all of the Chung except one timed; for half of the ones you do timed, cut your time to 50 minutes. For the other half, allow yourself the full hour. Do the 50 minute ones at first, and once you've built up enough speed, allow yourself one hour again.</p></li>
<li><p>CALCULATOR. You are allowed a calculator that does NOT have to have its memory cleared. Use it wisely. If you don't think you'll remember formula x, save formula x in your calculator's memory. If you don't have time to memorize certain things, save them in the calculator. Just know that you should still be familiar with APPLYING the saved formulas so that you can still answer the questions on the actual exam. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>WHAT I DID--
In my initial attempt, I used Barron's for a month to prepare. I finished chapter one first jumped around the book to suit my strengths/weaknesses. For example, I decided to save coordinate geometry until the end because geometry isn't my strongest area of math. I finished up the concepts that were easier for me before tackling the harder ones. As a result, the final two weeks of prep were really intensive. In my practice exams, I scored 640-740 and ended up with a 750 on the actual. I didn't even fully learn probability, actually, due to a combination of laziness and lack of time.</p>

<p>My second attempt was preceded by preparing with Dr. Chung's. Armed with the knowledge I'd gained from Barron's, I went through Dr. Chung's "57 perfect tips." This expanded what I'd learned from Barron's and taught me how to apply the knowledge to tricky problems. I took all the practice exams timed (I think I took maybe one untimed), and consistently scored in the 640s. I ended up with an 800 on the actual. I believe the combination of Barron's and Dr. Chung's is what helped me achieve my perfect score. I HIGHLY recommend, if you have the time and resources, that you get both books and set aside two months to prepare--one month for Barron's, and the second month for Chung. Funnily enough, I STILL didn't finish probability my second time around. (I really hate probability :P)</p>

<p>RESOURCES--
-Barron's SAT II Math Level 2 by Richard Ku: <a href="http://goo.gl/sxaj7O"&gt;http://goo.gl/sxaj7O&lt;/a>
-Dr. Chung's SAT II Math Level 2 by Dr.John Chung: <a href="http://goo.gl/BHPCTu"&gt;http://goo.gl/BHPCTu&lt;/a>
Prep books can be fairly expensive, so I suggest looking on half.ebay.com as well. They usually have the same books at much better prices. </p>

<p>-If you're having trouble with a particular area of maths (trigonometry, for example), I highly suggest you visit The Math Page (<a href="http://www.themathpage.com/"&gt;http://www.themathpage.com/&lt;/a&gt;) or Khan Academy (<a href="https://khanacademy.org"&gt;https://khanacademy.org&lt;/a&gt;). The Math Page is excellent for trigonometry, in particular, and you can find a variety of mathematics videos on Khan Academy. </p>

<p>Please keep in mind that the experience detailed above is my personal experience; as such, it may not be the same for you. Also, I am typing this at 3 in the morning, so there may be a few typos. I've tried my best to ensure that the number of typos/mistakes is kept to a minimum.</p>

<p>If you have any suggestions/questions/etc., feel free to voice them, and I'll try my best to address you. </p>

<p>If there are any fellow 800ers who'd like to share some advice, please feel free to do so :D</p>

<p>Good luck, guys, and happy testing!</p>

2

<p>Remember every person is different. Some people can easily knock off an 800 on Math II with no prep, for others it will take time. <em>Before</em> you buy preparation books for Math II (or any subject test, for that matter), I suggest taking a diagnostic test (or at least looking at some of the harder problems) to see where your level’s at. If you’re already scoring really well, probably don’t need a book.</p>

<p>I do agree that speed is key (as long as you don’t sacrifice accuracy and make silly mistakes).</p>

3

<p>Also, if you have limited time, go with Barron’s. I know that TeamRocketGrunt says that Barron’s does not help you with speed as Dr. Chung’s does but Barron will lay down the strong foundation that you need for the test. I only had 2 weeks to study due to midterms and other events. In those 2 weeks, I sat down and went through Barron’s. You should also take as many practice tests as you can. I took around 5~6 and I got a 780. Although it’s not a 800 ( :frowning: ), it’s still pretty good. </p>

4

<p>I agree with @MITer94. You should take a look at some problems before taking the exam to see if you’ll be able to handle it without prep. </p>

<p>@Hawkace, Barron’s is good for a conceptual base, but if you happen to take the exam on a test date on which a harder variant of it is given, you’re probably going to be screwed. That’s what happened with me and the December exam.</p>

5

<p>The test is greatly affected by the level of math you’re currently in. For me, the topics covered on the test were things I learned freshman year. The only prep I really did was reviewing some tricky formulas I had forgotten.</p>

<p>Plan to take it right after you’ve finished Pre-Calculus, because the material will still be fresh in your mind</p>

6

<p>bumping up </p>

7

<p>Very good guide TeamRocket. I think that people who are taking math lvl 2 should definitely read this. I specially agree with how you said that CB releases the easier exams to build confidence for the students. I have had this proven to me on three different subject tests (bio, chem and math lvl2) to the point in which I went to my GC and told him not to recommend the blue book to anyone who is looking for practice tests. Ahhh Collegeboard… </p>

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<p>I definitely agree with @MITer94. Before you go spending any money on prep books, get the official collegeboard book for subject tests from your library or something and do a practice test. If you do well on that, you may not even need to prep. Like me :slight_smile: 800 ftw!</p>

9

<p>Man, I feel so discouraged. I was so close to the 800 that retaking it will be a waste of my time yet so far. I got a 780. =(( </p>

10

<p>@Hawkace: eh, I wouldn’t retake. The only reason I retook was because 750 put me in the 60th percentile or something; I told myself if I got a 790 or above, I wouldn’t retake. I’d have been fine with a 780. Imagine my surprise when I opened my score report. </p>

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<p>@TeamRocketGrunt I’m probably not gonna retake even though I was in the 78th percentile with a 780. </p>

12

<p>Hey I am only going to have 1 month to study for this. Do I get all 3 books? </p>

13

<p>Hello everyone !
I prepped physics from Barron’s for about 2 weeks and got 720 and 730 on the practice test …
My question is that will my score be near to that on the actual college board test ??</p>

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<p>Bumping up for the people who study over the summer</p>

15

<p>ya make sure you finish it well within time b/c speed is very important</p>

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<p>A 730 on Barron’s should bring you very close to 800 on the real test.</p>

17

<p>@exeover‌ </p>

<p>It depends on which practice test you got a 730 on as well as the difficulty of the test administered on the day you take it. I do not recommend falling into the “X score on Barron’s will get me Y score on the actual” mindset; I did, and it ended up screwing me over in my initial attempt. </p>

18

<p>bumping</p>

19

Got 710 and 720 on my last 2 Barron’s practice tests, however I’m worried because I always get the same types of questions wrong. It’s always on the concepts i have forgotten or am weak at like Matrices, Conic Sections, Vectors, Parametric functions and hard probability. Barrons’ vector section barely helps you relearn the material, and like many other chapters, they give you all these practice questions (which is good), but sometimes they don’t teach you how to do them/the concepts you need to know to solve them (i’m not talking about the answer explanation, im talking about the chapter material itself). I’m pretty frustrated how reading through the Barrons chapters doesn’t really help me so I have to resort to like youtube and spending even more time trying to teach myself the material.

20

Got 660 on my 1st chung’s test. Does this mean I’m at an 800 level or very close? I’m think I can pretty easily bring this score up to 720 on my 2nd chungs test.