<p>So I am studying for the SAT (giving myself a long time do that that: will take test again in November, I believe) and I have a quandary.</p>
<p>My CR and Writing are pretty good, but my math is atrocious. I mean, I am taking AP Calculus next year...I can do math!! But I am still getting anywhere from 520-580 on SAT practice tests/real thing. What is going on?</p>
<p>Does anyone have any suggestions to bring my math score up?? Any help is deeply appreciated!!</p>
<p>practice practice I would say... it seems to me that you have to just catch the drift and feel of the questions. almost all of the SAT math questions seem to me to be pretty standard to a format or feel.
I did ok on math (690) and am taking calc next year.. problem is my precalc teacher sucked... i'm worried lol</p>
<p>grubers for math.</p>
<p>bump 10 char</p>
<p>ivyleaguewannabe: Even if you don't do well on the SAT math, colleges can tell that you can do math by seeing that you're taking AP Calc next year. Taking AP Calc (and doing well in it) offsets the score to some extent. Why buy Gruber's when you can do the math? I'm assuming that you can do the math. To improve you've got to analyze what your mistakes are. Are you running out of time, making stupid errors, or do you not know how to do the problems?</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm with dchow08. Can you give us more details on what is giving you trouble?</p>
<p>It's between making stupid mistakes and not knowing how to approach the problems that is giving me troubles</p>
<p>That suggests a few things:
- Since you make stupid mistakes, you should read the questions carefully, and solve the problems more slowly, and double-check your work. If you run out of time, don't worry, just give yourself more time at first, and then as you get more practice, work more quickly until you can meet the actual time limit. If you can't do the problems with extra time, you won't be able to do them without the extra time.
- It's harder to fix the problem of not knowing how to approach the problems. You claim that you can do math and that you're going to take AP Calc next year, so I'm sure you know how to approach simple math problems. I guess it takes a lot of practice until you get a feel for how to approach them. The generic process for approaching any type of problem is
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM
First. You have to understand the problem.
What is the unknown? What are the data? What is the condition?
Is it possible to satisfy the condition? Is the condition sufficient to determine the unknown? Or is it insufficient? Or redundant? Or contradictory?
Draw a figure. Introduce suitable notation.
Separate the various parts of the condition. Can you write them down?
DEVISING A PLAN
Second. Find the connection between the data and the unknown. You may be obliged to consider auxiliary problems if an immediate connection cannot be found. You should obtain eventually a plan of the solution.
Have you seen it before? Or have you seen the same problem in a slightly different form?
Do you know a related problem? Do you know a theorem that could be useful?
Look at the unknown! And try to think of a familiar problem having the same or a similar unknown.
Here is a problem related to yours and solved before. Could you use it? Could you use its result? Could you use its method? Should you introduce some auxiliary element in order to make its use possible?
Could you restate the problem? Could you restate it still differently? Go back to definitions.
If you cannot solve the proposed problem try to solve first some related problem. Could you imagine a more accessible related problem? A more general problem? A more special problem? An analogous problem? Could you solve a part of the problem? Keep only a part of the condition, drop the other part; how far is the unknown then determined, how can it vary? Could you derive something useful from the data? Could you think of other data appropriate to determine the unknown? Could you change the unknown or data, or both if necessary, so that the new unknown and the new data are nearer to each other?
Did you use all the data? Did you use the whole condition? Have you taken into account all essential notions involved in the problem?
CARRYING OUT THE PLAN
Third. Carry out your plan.
Carrying out your plan of the solution, check each step. Can you see clearly that the step is correct? Can you prove that it is correct?
Looking Back
Fourth. Examine the solution obtained.
Can you check the result? Can you check the argument?
Can you derive the solution differently? Can you see it at a glance?
Can you use the result, or the method, for some other problem?</p>
<p>Math is my worst section but I had a 660 so I may be able to help a little. </p>
<p>For me, most of the things I missed were careless mistakes or it was that I didn't understand the quesiton. I was also told that the questions at the end are tougher, but they require easy ways to solve them. Try using answers, plugging in, or in extreme cases, algebra. On the grid-in section, do 1-about 6, skip 7 and 8 and do all the grid ins. Then come back and check the multiple choice. Skip if you have to. Seriously, in your range, skipping will help you loads. </p>
<p>Oh yeah, DRAW DIAGRAMS!! They help. :) Sometimes you think you know just what the question is asking, but when you draw it out, you know for sure.</p>
<p>If a quetion takes too long, skip it for now. Also, if you have 5 answer choices and they're from least to gratest or vice versa, plug in the middle number first and work from there. It'll save you time.</p>
<p>The way I see it, there are three primary causes of SAT Math failure:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Not knowing the material. This is good because it's easily rectifiable. Reading through a preparation book (Kaplan, PR, or even College Board) can help remedy most of these weaknesses. This should show a significant improvement. </p></li>
<li><p>Inability to actually do the problems. This is a serious one that is remedied only through obsessive practice. Take every practice test you can and force yourself to understand each problem. Don't look up solutions, and don't ask anyone for help. Figure out each problem no matter how long it takes. This builds up skill in mathematical reasoning. </p></li>
<li><p>Slowness. In this case, you're good at math, but you're just too slow. This isn't too bad...this is also remedied by lots of practice. After a lot of practice, you'll find yourself finishing with time to spare, rather than with problems to spare.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So get the blue book, get Kaplan/Barron's/McGraw Hill workbooks, and practice. That's the only way to do well.</p>