SAT Math: Advice

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Hey everyone. With the October SAT just a week away, I thought that I'd try a little bit of prep work and bought the Blue Book. </p>

<p>I took my first (and only) SAT last year cold and got a 2090 -- 760 CR, 660 Math and 670 Writing. Honestly, I was pretty happy with the results having taken it with no prep or experience, but I wondered about my math section as I'm a straight-A student who has always done extremely well in math. I mean, it's one of my favorite subjects, soo...</p>

<p>I've now done a couple BB tests, doing the math section and nothing else, and got a "610-670" and a 680. The worst part is that I'm pretty sure that I KNOW all of the answers -- even to the ones I get wrong! In my second test, literally every question that I got wrong (4 in total) was an error in calculation or reading the question wrong, and was an "easy" question; in the other, I only got one "hard" question wrong (as in I had no idea what kind of geometric thingy I was staring at), and the other five were stupid errors on "easy" questions.</p>

<p>For example:
3x^2 < (3x)^2
For what value of x is the statement above FALSE?
a) -3
b) 0
c) (1/3)
d) 1
e) for no value of x
I put E, thinking that the question said "less than or equal to"...</p>

<p>........................./.............</p>

<h2>....35................/..45.........</h2>

<p>..................../.................
...............w./...................
................\/.....................
What is the value of w in the figure above?
b) 100
c) 110
Clearly it's 100, but I somehow did the math for 180 - (35+45) and got 110...</p>

<p>If 3a +4b = b, which of the following must equal 6a + 6b?
a) 0
c) 2b
I said C, doing all the right math, but miscalculating the first step and saying that 3a+4b=b --> 3a=-2b .... clearly I can't subtract.</p>

<p>Nearly all of my mistakes are like this, and I'm starting to worry that I won't be able to catch these mistakes even if I have time to go back and check my answers.</p>

<p>Does anyone out there have any suggestions on what to do? Is there some strategy to avoid these stupid mistakes??</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>I would like to know as well…
Math is the hardest section for me (well not really hard…) because I always miss some things.
It used to be my best section, but now I score better on CR/W many times.</p>

<p>For the OP, one thing that helped me was using the calculator for EVERY calculations. Even for problems like 180-(35+45)=100, use your calculator… It really minimizes the careless mistakes. Pretend you can’t do mental math.</p>

3

<p>When you’re doing the ‘easy’ questions, take ample time to solve them. Remember that each correct answer grants you only one point, regardless of the difficulty. At the same time however, don’t get bogged down on one question.</p>

<p>Basically, what I’m saying is, do every question twice as you’re solving the section, and in addition, read the final sentence of the question because that’s usually where most people **** up. It’s because they get so caught up with getting the value of x, that they don’t answer what the question asks which is the value of 5+x for example.</p>

<p>To summarize:

  1. Do each question twice.
  2. Read the final phrase of each question.
  3. Don’t rush through the first few questions, but don’t waste so much time.</p>