<p>Ok. So I'm rising senior and have hand to start thinking seriously about what i want to do wiht my life. I think I'm gonna end up majoring in econ and math, both subjects for which I feel a very deep passion. My only doubt is regarding math, I'm sure I'm gonna love it but I'm afraid that I will preform badly. I've always been a good student in math, and this year I've done wonderfully in IB math higher level, and I've really grown to love the subject. My only doubt surged when I got my SAT scores, math= 740. I've become seriously paranoid about my future in math after talking with my mom who said I shouldn't major in math if I hadn't been able to get an 800 in the sat ( she's really perfectionist). I'm just worried that perhaps math isn't the right thing for me. Are there any math majors out there that are doing well in college, managing the workload, understanding etc, with a score similar to mine?</p>
<p>lol are u serious a 740? whats that like the 95th percentile. Dude thats still an amazing score. I mean you are human and getting 4 wrong on the math section of the SAT doesn't mean you dont have a future in math. I mean if you like the subject from that score id say you have a pretty good future.</p>
<p>thanks. The thing is I'm so sorround by people who score 800, and are overachievers at everything ( my parents are that kind of people), that sometimes they get to me to the point where I feel I'm just not that good. But thanks, that really gets me happy because I love math.</p>
<p>I really wouldn't be too worried about your SAT I math score if I were you. All it really tells you is that you're not amazing at rushing through a bunch of mostly easy questions in a short amount of time without making small errors. That skill is not likely to matter in an actual math or econ career. Much more important would be your AMC or AIME scores, and even those can change dramatically with some work.</p>
<p>740 on the math section is REALLY good, i don't know what exactly you're worried about and why your parents seem so dissatisfied with your score. i'm so glad i don't have parents who force me to do well in school or think that i'll be a failure if i don't get into a top university... thats another topic though</p>
<p>anyways SAT scores don't mean much when it comes to the real world anyways. people with perfect scores aren't going to be the only successful group of people out there. but regardless anything above a 700 is an excellent score, you should be happy...</p>
<p>whoa, that is good. I think if you like math, major in it. although what would you do with that degree? plus, i like the idea of messing with your parents. they will love you no matter what you decide to do.</p>
<p>740 is great!</p>
<p>Lol. ^^^</p>
<p>Not if you're asian =P
By any asian parent's measure, if you get a 740 you might as well never come home again until you get that 800.</p>
<p>hehe^
But I'm not asian. I'm actually a latinamerican, I live in costa rica.</p>
<p>" think if you like math, major in it. although what would you do with that degree?"
Hahah, that also sounds like my mom. "Whydon't you do engineering instead? Dear, engineers do tons of math , wouldn't you like that? cuchi cuchi coo" HAHAH. sorry, that just reminded me of my mom. I'm really not so sure what I'd do with a math degree haha. I actually wanna double major in math and econ. I guess I wanna do math more as a personal challenge, just to satisfy my love for problems and numbers in general.</p>
<p>its simple. keep taking mathematics courses until you find yourself in over your head. if it never happens youll end up with a degree in mathematics. if it does, well, you can decide then whether its worth it to keep going.</p>
<p>and what to do with a mathematics degree? well, you know those jobs on wall street over which half this board salivates endlessly? yeah. youll get hired over them (and their 'finance' degrees) almost every time.</p>
<p>I'm finishing my 3rd year at UCLA, and I'm an applied math major. Would have done pure math, but I started as physics and wanted at least some of the coursework to be salvaged.</p>
<p>Here's the bad news: Math isn't easy. Plently of people who got 4s and 5s on AP calc and 700+s on SAT flounder when they start college-style and college-level classes. Why? Because a lot of them had enough math talent to fake their way through HS, but quickly realized they can't fake college math. Some students who are very bright can fake their way through lower-division classes, but upper-division classes are a whole new ballgame. Typical weekly hw in my real analysis and/or linear alegra courses this year: 6-10 problems, all of which require rigorous formal proofs. I typically just do one problem per page and still sometimes have to squeeze it in. I have a bio major friend who got 1500+ SAT, a 5 on AP Calc and AP Physics C both in his junior year, and took beginning college math at a CC his senior year. He took the linear algebra course with me but had to make the grading pass/no pass because he was getting a C and didn't want to ruin his GPA for med school.</p>
<p>Here's the good news: I currently have a 3.98 overall at UCLA (all A's and A+'s except for 2 A-'s in GEs, blast!), and a 4.0 in math, and I only got a 730 on my SAT I math section. Like others have been saying, test scores are often a very vague indicator and can either under- or over-respresent a student's ability. If you really like math, then there is no better way to feed that interest than to study it under the guidance of experts. I switched from physics to math when I realized physics was losing its charm the further I went with it. So far, math has become more and more fascinating the further I go with it.</p>
<p>So, in a nutshell, you are kidding yourself if you think it will be easy or that a person with merely avereage or even good math talent will succeed in a math major, but if you are really willing to put in the hours and aren't afraid of taking some hits to the ego the times when you don't get it (happens to all of us), then it can be fabulously rewarding.</p>
<p>Lastly, I'm graduating next year and STILL have no clue what I'm gonna do with my life. By no means do you, a HS senior, need to have ANY direction whatsoever at this point, so don't worry about that. :)</p>
<p>Oh yea, btw, I'm a 3rd-generation math major. (Grandma, Dad, Me) I've seen it first hand, you can do ANYTHING with a math major. Dad went to UC Berekeley Law School right out of undergrad, then became an FBI agent for 25 years, now works as a lawyer. I did a high-paid summer internship at a company that makes flash memory chips one summer, HATED IT, worked construction the following summer, liked it MUCH better, and this summer I'm working as an orientation counselor back at school, which I am very excited about. Math lets you do pretty much anything.</p>
<p>awesome guys. thanks for the advice. I know that math is gonna be terribly tough, I have no doubt about it. I know I'm gonna have to sit down and study and do my homework repsonsibily, and in general make a great effort, but I'm sure I wanna really do wanna persue math. I can't wait until I get to college, I was looking at some of the course listings for a math major at different universities and I just couldn't avoid salivating hhahaha. Thanks again guys.</p>
<p>My friend took sat twice to improve her english score. She got 800 on the first math in May and 740 on her second math in october. She was disapointed but it did not change her confidence in math. She also has 790 in sat 2 math.</p>
<p>One score should not shatter your confidence unless there are other issues.</p>
<p>I also know a girl who got 730 in sat 1 math who does not know any math and hates math. She simply worked very hard to memorize different types of questions and methods of solving them.</p>
<p>Sometimes scores are misleading and only you know truly how competent you are and how much you love a subject.</p>