Hi I am an international student from India in 10th grade and plan on majoring in economics at Harvard do you suggest I go for math level 1 or 2. I have only taken pre calculus classes till now and got an average score of 80/100.
If you have completed precalc, take M2. Othetwise, M1
That’s a nice plan, but hopefully you have alternatives.
And yes, if you’ve taken pre-Calc, Math 2 would be expected.
Thanks a lot I will mostly take math 2.
@Arnavbajaj My son found it was easier to get a higher score in the math 2 than the math 1. He later wished he had only taken the math 2. Be sure to buy a practice book and take practice tests to get your speed up.
@BunnyBlue Thanks a lot the advice. Do you recommended the Barron’s sat math level 2 and dr John Chungs math 2 books along with the official college board guide and a pre calculus intro book? also which calculator do you suggest buying.
The Math Level 1 isn’t much taken, and isn’t much submitted to schools like Harvard.
Harvard takes about 7 students a year from India. A high percentage of students accepted to schools like that in general have hooks, like large contributions, or major family or political connections. So there might be 3 slots available from India based on academics. It is fine to apply to top US schools and see what happens, but I wouldn’t focus to much on Harvard. Most students in India qualify for financial aid, but that probably makes it harder to get in. Otherwise, it will cost at least $200K total.
The material at the beginning of Barons by topic is really good. If you are looking for a top score, the new book “Ultimate Advanced Guide to the SAT Math 2 Subject Test” is much more advanced than Barrons and Dr. Chungs.
Another vote for Math Level 2. While the test content is harder than Math Level 1 due to the inclusion of pre-calculus concepts (if you’ve taken/studying for the ACT, there are similar concepts tested,) you’re also able to miss more questions to get a high test score.
As @sattut recommends, I found Barrons extremely helpful while preparing for the test. Keep in mind that Barrons tends to over-prepare you for the exam and it’s extremely common to score in the high 600s, low 700s on the practice exams and score in the high 700s on test day.
The College Board has an official SAT Subject Test guide for Math Level 2 with multiple exams in it. Personally, I’d recommend taking them closer to test day in-order to lessen your anxiety come test day, given that Barrons tests can be a bit difficult compared to the real deal.
My D used the Barron’s book for her 800. It’s not in-depth material but discusses all of the topics that might be covered, gives overviews of the material and, importantly, has many practice tests. Kahn has good video coverage if you need in depth review material.
The consensus I’ve found on CC over several years, plus my D’s experience, is that the Barron’s tests are quite a bit more difficult than the actual Subject Test.
Barron’s covers every possible topic, meaning you’ll review 3-4 topics that might have a total of one question among them. And there are probably a couple of topics a typical pre-Calc sequence hasn’t covered.
I spend about 30 minutes explaining topics like matrix math and vector manipulation for my D to prep. I don’t think either was on the test. The only question she thinks she missed was converting a number of standard deviations to a percentile - she hadn’t covered that anywhere.
@Arnavbajaj Both of my sons used Barron’s Math Level 2 with great results. They liked the fact that the practice tests were slightly harder than the real test.
I agree Barrons is really good. However, Barrons is only somewhat harder than the real test, where the Ultimate Advanced Guide is full of hard practice similar to the most difficult problems on the exam. It is good to work through if you are going for a top score.
I would not be surprised if many students score 800 on the math level 2 subject test with no preparation other than doing well in their math courses up to precalculus.
But you may want to try the sample questions on the College Board web site to familiarize yourself with the test.
You can, but I would at least do the real tests in the Official Guide. You will be at a big disadvantage not doing any preparation.