So I have taken all 4 practice SAT test online, and my score has progressively increased (1830 to 1950 to 1990 to 2060). However, typically when I get an answer wrong, ESPECIALLY on math, its not that I don’t know the material, but I just make stupid, careless mistakes (misread a chart or use a negative sign instead of positives). Typically when I’m reviewing, I beat myself up because I could have EASILY made an 800; I’m a strong math student, but I keep scoring around the 700 range.
Practice a lot. Practice concentrating. Focus, if it doesn’t come naturally, must be developed. Kids who reliably get 800 in M have often developed the habit of extreme attention to detail and consistent, focused double (and triple!) checking.
My daughter took the ACT, but made the same type of errors that you describe. Lots of practice definitely helped. She saw improvements when she paced herself to have 10-15 minutes extra time. That gave her time to go back through her solutions and double check the math. Make sure you write out your solutions so you can look at your problem setup and make sure you didn’t drop a sign. Sounds like you’ve made some big improvements. Keep it up!
@2stemgirls @marvin100 Thanks for the advice. I’m taking the SAT this Saturday, but unless I get a 2250+ I do plan on taking it again in March. However I know I have the potential to reach my goal, its just a matter of being discipline.
I have the same problem with writing, but instead of Math equations its sentence structure and parallelism. I’m a pretty good essay writer, so that helps a bit.
Reading, on the other hand, is just an overall weak point of minds. I have yet to get over 700 on reading in any of my practice test.
Also, the SAT Math scoring is a little harsh. You miss 2 questions & you drop 40 points. Dang.
@IsaacTheFuture Sometimes it’s skip 1 and miss 50.
Dang. That’s always made me wonder: I know there’s a big difference between a 700 & 800 (about 5 questions sometimes), but the difference between a 750 & 800 might be the matter of missing or omitting 1 or 2 questions. For some test takers, that might be simply running out of time.
Read the question. Answer the question. Read the question again.