<p>Hi everyone, I'm looking to improve my SAT math section score from 750 to 800. Does anyone with a perfect score want to share how they studied or also how they improved their scores? I know it's a little bit unnecessary to /have/ to get a perfect score but I really want to get the highest SAT score I can, since my GPA's not that great and I want to get into Berkeley :) So any tips would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>For me, what kept me from getting 800’s on practice tests was always the one or two stupid mistakes.</p>
<p>Ah yeah, stupid mistakes are always my concern as well…I hope the score report comes out soon, so I can what questions I got wrong (like the easy or hard ones).</p>
<p>When you are getting hit by stupid mistakes in Math and got upper 700s, take SAT2 Math2 and score 800. It allows more stupid mistake and yet give you full score. It is not worth to retake SAT1 if you get 780 or 790 in SAT1 Math.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks for the advice! The thing is, I never took pre-calc, and I missed a lot of the concepts for Math II in my non-honors sophomore math class. Wish I just took pre-calc in soph. year instead of the easy class…argh. Do you think I can self-study the concepts? I heard there was plane geometry/vectors and stuff, and I learned a little bit of that in 8th grade geometry but it’s not sufficient enough I think…</p>
<p>I always believe in order to ace math at one level (e.g. perfect score) you have to perform at the next level already. Otherwise, there will always be some “stupid” mistakes. Don’t blame on the mistakes. Blame your math skill instead.</p>
<p>
Everyone makes stupid mistakes. You can be in Calc BC and still make a simple arithmetic mistake, while someone in Algebra I could do that same simple question and easily get it correct.</p>
<p>So if are scoring between 760-800 without omitting anything or running out of time, getting a perfect score is simply a matter of being careful – it doesn’t matter what level of math you are.</p>
<p>@Lipp7260, well, i heard this kind of argument too often. always blame on “stupid mistakes”. but often it’s a matter of lack of skill. would you add 1+1 = 3? no way. you can do in your sleep right? if you are really good in math, you do seemingly difficult problems (to someone at least) easily and it’s like adding 1+1 = 2. You can do it in sleep and won’t make any mistake. this is what i am talking about.</p>
<p>Don’t listen to tigerdad, he doesn’t know what he is talking about. My math teacher (who has a PHD in maths) makes simple mistakes all the time, and he has also done original research in topology, which is like 6 years ahead of my calc 1 class.</p>
<p>Avoiding stupid mistakes was what I practiced the most and I got a 800 on a practice test before the June SAT. The biggest thing I had to practice was reading and rereading the questions to make sure I understood what they were asking. If you can get a 750 then you obviously have the skills to get an 800, you just need to practice and get better at quickly getting the “gist,” of what the SAT is asking.</p>
<p>Difference between perfect and not-perfect score comes down to silly mistakes in most cases. During the real exam I made sure to re-check every question and actually caught one or two mistakes. Make sure to time yourself such that you are able to either go back and check or do each problem with insane attention to detail (e.g. write down every step you do, avoid mental math.)</p>
<p>Thank you for the help everyone! I’m probably going to study the Barron’s book over the summer just to brush up on my geometry again (I forgot a lot of it in high school unfortunately…I didn’t really pay attention to it in middle school because I thought it was hard >.<) I’ll definitely try to check over my answers - sometimes it’s hard though, since there’s not a lot of time. And thank you tigerdad for your er…interesting opinion.</p>
<p>yaa, on my SAT, the only thing that kept me from getting an 800 both times (got 1 wrong on each one!) was that one little stupid mistake, or question misread. Just make sure that you’re very careful with everything you do, even if you have to work fast, and don’t make any mistakes. What makes it even worse for me, was the one wrong brought me to a 760, so, I have to retake to get that higher, and hopefully I’ll even get an 800!</p>
<p>@NWskier, don’t take it personal, man. It was my observation that many times people blame it on “stupid mistakes”, but not their lack of math skills. Maybe 20% of which are stupid mistakes or not so stupid mistakes but 80% of which are indeed due to not familiar with one subject or the intricacies of subtle differences between calculations or concepts. My argument is really about improving your math skills on a very very solid foundation. If you can do that, perfect scores come naturally, especially once you perform at the next level. </p>
<p>Peace!</p>
<p>I went 690 -> 740 -> 800. Tigerdad is somewhat right IMO. Really, really brilliant math people often take the SAT and score an 800 in math without studying for it. If you are super brilliant at math, I agree that you are not likely to make “stupid mistakes”. But for the rest of us, who aren’t math geniuses, there is certainly still hope. And that lies in practice. Take practice tests, identify the stupid mistakes that you make, and make a list. Take more practice tests and tally every stupid mistake you make. All you have to do is make yourself aware of the types of stupid mistakes that you make, and as you continue, you will find that since you are aware of your bad habits, you will fall into them less often, and hopefully after a while, virtually never. That is how I went from 4 stupid mistakes on my first SAT to 2 on my next to 0 on my third.</p>
<p>Yikes, don’t listen to the negative comments–you don’t have to be a math genius to get a perfect score! not even close, lol. math has been my worst subject since the 5th grade and i still pulled off 800’s on both the math portion of the reasoning test and the math sat 2. on the flip side, i have some friends in advanced calculus who couldn’t get above a 770 on the math SAT reasoning (granted, it was because they made some really stupid mistakes…but see? no one is immune to carelessness) </p>
<p>like others have said, you just need to practice, a LOT. whether it means self-studying like crazy or going the tutoring route, you should definitely be working on a lot of practice tests just to get the feel of the format and recognize the types of questions they ask. for the most part, it’s mostly just geometry and algebra 2, simple stuff. near the end of each section there’ll be some functions and graphs (this was the stuff i struggled with initially) so whatever your weak point is, identify it and work on it. also, be sure to read each question CAREFULLY. i’m not quite sure how, but CB can somehow make pie chart analysis confusing with their weirdly-worded questions, so watch out for those and make sure you know what they’re looking for.</p>
<p>While what tigerdad says makes sense to me, I don’t think that it is necessarily NECESSARY to be good at the next level or whatever, although I believe it certainly would help. I think simple practice at the level at which you are testing would suffice. The more you practice, the more familiar you become with the math and the faster you can do the problems, which would allow you more time to check over you work, preventing “stupid mistakes.”</p>
<p>Practice is the key. Here is why. Some careless mistakes are in fact errors. What this means is that some students make the same ‘careless’ error repeatedly. For example, they may multiply 7x8 and get 54. So in fact they are weak on the times tables. Further, SAT math questions are worded strangely. Particularly non-native speakers have to pay particular attention to the wording.</p>
<p>The second problem is you may not know the material sufficiently well. Some problems are difficult. For example, a probability question can seem easy or hard depending upon how well you know the material. A clever student may get a question right that he only knows marginally well, but he or she is more likely to mess it up and it will take longer to do.</p>
<p>So I do not think it is necessary practice beyond the scope of the test, but it is necessary to know the material very well. This can be a bit boring. The student with a 780 might be better off moving on to another test or perhaps a hobby.</p>
<p>I’m inclined to agree with tigerdad, for the most part.</p>
<p>Any missed questions, including silly errors, are legitimate mistakes. They aren’t unavoidable, especially when it isn’t a difficult feat to finish each section with 5+ minutes left. This leaves time to check and double check every solution. If you make a silly error and don’t have time to check your work, you weren’t strong enough in maths to finish the section quickly. If you have time to check your work and don’t catch your silly error, I think that “silliness” turns into a legitimate mistake at that point. In other words, if you do a problem incorrectly twice, it isn’t a silly error. You just missed it.</p>
<p>Those of you making “careless errors” should read my article “Stop Making Careless Errors In SAT Math.” You can find it on this forum if you do a search.</p>
<p>I’m going to disagree here. Yes, some people say “careless mistakes” when it means slightly shaky fundamentals, but I’ve also worked with legitimately brilliant kids who did miss one or two because they were sloppy. At an extreme, some kids have attention issues. Some get over-confident. Some mis-transcribe things. Some misread the question because they’re rushing (not everyone who is strong in math is also a fast processor). No, they’re not unavoidable mistakes, but nor do they indicate someone doesn’t know the math or understand the concept. </p>