<p>I have taken 5 BB tests now and have not made too much improvement as I progress. My scores for math and cr consistently fall into the 690- low 700s range, I'm estimating by adding the two numbers given for a range and dividing by two, since I heard this was accurate. My writing raw score got no higher than 40. What can I do to get up there in the high 700s? How can I analyze and review more effectively?</p>
<p>Why do you keep getting questions wrong?</p>
<p>It really depends on why you’re missing questions. For CR, are there vocab words you don’t know, or are you having trouble understanding the passages? For math, have you forgotten concepts or are you just making silly mistakes? Pinpoint the sources of error, and then attack them.</p>
<p>For CR, I always seem to miss one “hard” difficulty level vocab question. I achieved perfect scores in the actual reading part in some sections, and in others I miss 1-2. Generally when I miss passage reading, I miss the “hard” questions as well. What are some strategies to effectively answering these?</p>
<p>For math, it’s more sporadic. I tend to make careless mistakes constantly, no matter how careful I try to be, the ones I miss don’t have any consistent difficulty level. There are occasionally one to two problems that I cannot understand and cannot figure a method to solve, until I log onto CC and look at the solution, and immediately understand and feel stupid. I also tend to miss the kind of logic based questions, or counting and such; ones that do not really involve so much calculation and algebra, for example, “How many integers in the set of all integers from 1 to 100, inclusive are not the square of an integer” or “The first 5 terms in a sequence are shown above. Each term after the first is found by adding 9 to the term immediately preceding it. Which term in this sequence is equal to 8 + (26-1)9?” I tend to miss questions like these. Are there specific strategies to approaching these questions? Are there any strategies to quickly find an efficient and easy way to solve problems, or does this come with lots of practice? Is there any strategy you use to avoid careless mistakes?</p>
<p>As for writing, I am simply all over the place, missing easy and medium and hard ones all at once, mostly just out of cluelessness, I think. When I review, half the time I’m not even sure why the answer I choose is wrong or why the correct answer is correct. I’m afraid I’m not too knowlegdable in conventional English grammar. I can catch the obvious mistakes; when the conjugations are wrong and don’t match the number, misplaced modifiers, etc. There is always a time during a writing section when I seem to think three sentences in a row have no error, which I know is not correct, but then I can’t tell what is wrong. What kind of strategies are there for more tricky grammar questions without glaring errors?</p>
<p>I suppose I have pinpointed, to an extent, what my problem is, but I’m not sure how to go about attacking and solving my problems. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>What do you define as a “hard” passage question? Some people struggle with inference questions. Others have a hard time with questions with two good answers. Others find big-picture questions the most challenging. There are different modes of attack depending on one’s personal difficulties.</p>
<p>If you’re only missing one vocab question, I don’t studying will help you a ton. Just hope you get lucky.</p>
<p>For math, I like to solve problems with two different methods when possible. When both methods yield the same answer, I can be pretty sure I didn’t make a mistake. Writing out the steps, even if they are intuitive, can help catch subtle errors. Other than that, it’s just about thinking through the problem really carefully and taking into account all the data given. Even though it may seem time-consuming, sequence and counting questions can sometimes just be written out.</p>
<p>I personally found that I missed hard problems way more often than easy problems in the math section, so I work from the end of the section back to the beginning. It works for me; it may or may not work for you.</p>
<p>I didn’t prep much for writing myself, so I’ll let someone with more expertise in that area assist you.</p>
<p>For math, learn to do calculations by calculator and by hand, fast.</p>
<p>How many integers in the set of all integers from 1 to 100, inclusive are not the square of an integer?
don’t: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100
do: 1^2, 2^2, 3^2, 4^2, 5^2, 6^2, 7^2, 8^2, 9^2, 10^2</p>
<p>Does this look familiar? Square the numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 on your calculator</p>
<p>You should know almost instinctively that “inclusive” means the difference of the smallest number (1) and the biggest number (100) plus 1.</p>
<p>If you know exactly what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, you don’t have to check. If you feel like you made a mistake somewhere, start over. Problem solving is a combination of accurate instinct and knowledge. Don’t be too careful. </p>
<p>The first 5 terms in a sequence are shown above. Each term after the first is found by adding 9 to the term immediately preceding it. Which term in this sequence is equal to 8 + (26-1)9?
Instinct again. Problems have equations, you plug in numbers. It’s up to you to decide whether to solve it through reasoning or through numbers. If 8 + (26-1)9 isn’t familiar to you, then you can use reasoning: you add 9 25 times to the first term. So there are 26 terms. If the equation is familiar to you, then you should know instantly that it is the 26th term (which is why it’s written as 26-1 and not 25)</p>
<p>You should know how to do it both ways so that your answer clicks in your mind when it’s right and doesn’t when it’s suspicious</p>
<p>@112358: when I say “hard” I refer to the difficulty level assigned to each question in the BB in the answer key, labeled E, M, H. I always miss an H in CR, and I’m not sure that I see a sort of pattern in the exact type of question, ie inference based etc. </p>
<p>As for math, yes, sequence and counting questions can be written out, and I know on the real SAT if it comes down to that, I will do so, however, I’d like to try to develop a more efficient way to solve as I practice. I suppose I simply lack a sort of mathematical instinct, as crazybandit put it. </p>
<p>I don’t really see any way to attack these kinds of issues that I have in a specifically targeted manner, except to simply do a lot and a lot more practice to get used to questions, since it seems my mistakes just happen to be careless and random, which doesn’t exactly seem to be working though.</p>
<p>Thank you for your help. :]</p>
<p>You might be guessing at too many questions. By guessing I mean you narrowed it down to two answers and by too many I mean maybe 10-15 questions. If you consistently get 60% of your guesses (pretty good, right?) you’ll be missing 4-6 questions right there every time. Take a practice test and write a mark next to each question you are as sure of the answer as you are that your user name is mny. The ones w/o the marks would all be guesses (however educated). You are right. The only thing you can do is practice some more. At least you’ll be more familiar with the test and you’ll be more relaxed. If you end up with more time at the end of the test you can then check your answers.</p>
<p>Hm, that could be a possibility, however I have noticed that usually when I guess, I guess right, but sometimes other questions that I am sure of, I get wrong. This is critical reading I’m referring to. I guess this is because on the ones I guess, I take more time to think it through, maybe? As for math, I don’t make guesses, because I either think I have solved it [and get it wrong] or I have no idea how to solve and skip it.</p>
<p>How do you go about reviewing your CR mistakes? What questions do you ask yourself when you go over your wrong answers? The fact that you haven’t noticed patterns after five tests may indicate that you need to change the way you review. That’s the point, after all – to notice your patterns and find ways to change them.</p>
<p>You may be right there. Since this are practice tests, give yourself a few more seconds before you write down your answer.Even better, give yourself twice the time and see if you can answer all the questions right with more time. If that’s the case it’s not that you don’t know, just that you need more time. Practice will get you the extra time. Anyway, have you looked up the Xiggi Method here on CC?</p>
<p>I use a checklist mentality to avoid stupid mistakes on math questions. Generally, the math problems with the exception of the last 1 or 2 problems use a recycled question format. When you see specific things like (x+y)^2, and the such, think about related concepts, like factoring or how x and y relate. Associate concepts with the information specified because it’s easy to forget important relations under time pressure. If you see something that makes a triangle think about the side length relations, the angle relations, what kind of triangle it is, or even area. This is the “checklist” I mean. The more problems you do the better off you are.</p>
<p>Also, Reading problems more carefully and writing out the algebra helps sometimes, but should only be done for questions from mid to end, etc. Use the increasing difficulty of math problems to judge how much time you should be putting in. For example, you might want to spend more time reading the last question than the first.</p>
<p>Oh and in general, there’s no point of getting questions wrong over and over again. Just say, screw the time limit and make sure you understand the concepts first.</p>