<p>Kid has now taken SAT I w/ score in 2100s ( SAT 1- Math low 700s; SAT II MATH 2 - mid 700s) and ACT w/ 35 Composite (Math 32). She is planning on applying to math/science/eng. schools. Do you worry and retake b/c of lower math score---esp. SAT? She will have taken Calc III, DiffEQ and some other math I've never heard of before completing high school---BUT, it's not translating into top notch math scores. Will they hold her back if she wants to apply beyond state flagship for eng.? Should hire a tutor for math? It seems like the one high score she needs she is not getting.</p>
<p>For most colleges in general, grades and transcripts are much more telling than SAT scores. If she can take the calc AB/BC AP exams, that would be a good indicator of her true potential - or at least, a better one. I am in the same position in that, when I took the SATs for the first time my junior year, it was testing me on math I learned years and years ago and sometimes required me to complete problems in ways which were counter-intuitive to my calculus instincts.</p>
<p>I guess what would be most helpful is to identify why her abilities aren’t translating - is she nervous? Is it because it’s old material for her? Is she rushing? Or maybe pressed for time? Depending, a tutor may help - less with helping her to understand the material, but more to help her understand tactics for solving specifically SAT math questions. But if it turns out that this isn’t what’s the issue, a tutor could be a waste of money/time.</p>
<p>Where will she be taking Calc III and up? My school only offers through AP Calc BC, so if you go beyond that in high school, you have to take your class at the college down the road. If she takes upper level math courses at a college and gets a transcript from that college, that would be awesome.</p>
<p>I know many people who have this problem. Basically, sat math only covers the more basic topics, BUT to solve the questions you use a different method. It’s not much math skill as reading and analyzing. You have to read questions completely and slowly since they like to trick you and if you don’t know how to solve the question, try plugging in answers. Often, I have multiple ways of solving questions and I double check with different methods.
Math is one of the more easier sections to improve on and if your daughter practices a few sections every day, she will learn the tricks in the problems and improve. Basically, it’s testing strategies that boosted my score to 800 fast and I think that’s possible in your case as well.</p>