<p>@rk33 - by reverse work do you mean plugging all of the choices in and find the one that works? If so, yea. It works for those ‘hard’ level questions as well as those graphing/function questions.</p>
<p>Like everyone said here, the key is to know the concepts extremely well and know when to apply them. Because, simply put, you don’t have time to look up a formula, copy it down, plug in the values (and hope you plugged in the right ones at that), then finally solve. </p>
<p>I know it’s beginning to sound redundant, but practicing truly works. So don’t give up =]</p>
<p>during my practice tests , i was getting around 640-700 in math, and then on the real test, i got a 790 (1 wrong) , but then again i think it might have been because i never took the practice tests too seriously</p>
<p>oh my god, I’m so mad, got 1 wrong in math both times it took it (brought it down to a 770 one time, and a 760 the other… wth, that’s not fair</p>
<p>but really, to get 800 in math, you just have to know the concepts… you can’t really practice them, you just have to be able to understand them. Like for me, I didn’t study at all for math, and I made errors on stupid questions (urgh!).</p>
<p>My personal technique for 800s on math is to do all the problems that you can do (usually 18/20) within a short of amount time like 8 minutes. Then take the rest of the time to do the 1 or 2 more tricky problems. The technique does take practice though, you have to get incredibly use to doing math under time constraints. Spending an equal amount of time on checking as on doing the questions is essential.</p>
<p>Agree that the SAT math is a different animal… which can be encouraging if you look at it the right way. You do not have to be a math genius (I’m certainly not) to score very high on the math section. Some practical tips:</p>
<p>-- Get one or two good prep books (do some research); some popular ones are Barron’s or Gruber’s. Add the Blue Book if you do not have it already.</p>
<p>-- If you are having difficulty with the math itself, brush up. Identify your trouble spots (for instance, properties of triangles) and study them with special care.</p>
<p>-- Learn specific problem-solving strategies. These come in especially handy with math. I remember that Barron’s PSAT guide had a particularly helpful list of techniques that I found very handy; their SAT guide may have something similar.</p>
<p>-- Do LOTS of practice problems. No way around this one; just do it.</p>
<p>Simple… Understand math. I only got one question wrong. You say that you don’t remember such elementary math, but I don’t buy that argument. How are you doing higher level of math if you can’t remember how to calculate the circumference of a circle?</p>
<p>People who say “be realistic” couldn’t be more wrong. There’s nothing unrealistic about going from 600 to 800 and by asking people such as the OP, to be “realistic” you are doing them as well as the rest of the community here a great disservice. As many of the posters before me have indicated, all you need is practice. You need to know the game before you play the game. </p>
<p>DS used Dr. Chung’s SAT Math over the summer. He reviewed all 50 tips but never got around to doing the practice exams at the back of the book. He just took this year’s official practice PSAT out of the booklet and got all of the math questions right. So, I guess I’d recommend that book, even though there are some typos and mistakes (It’s pretty frustrating to work on a problem for a long time, and when you look up the answer you realize that the question was missing important info).</p>