<p>If you have lots of time, then it doesn’t matter so much what the order of difficulty is. And with proofs, the difficulty can be hard to predict because you never know what flash of insight will occur. But even so, I agree with DrSteve. At the high school level, it seems weird and cruel to put the hardest problems first. </p>
<p>But on the SAT, for most test-takers, time is an issue. That’s why they have to arrange the questions in ascending order of difficulty. You wouldn’t get an accurate statistical measurement of a student if the questions were in random order: that particular student might have questions that he could have answered if he had found them before time ran out. (I don’t understand how to explain the places where they deviate from this rule – the ends of the 8 mc questions before the grid-ins and also any group of 2 or 3 questions that are based on the same info. And in fact, it seems weird and cruel to me that the 18-question section does not come with a warning. They should say something like: “Many students find questions 6 - 8 to be more challenging than the gird-ins that follow them. You may want to skip ahead and return to these if time remains.” For students struggling to get into the 600s, this would be helpful information.)</p>
<p>Bottom line: if you are not already a consistent 800 scorer, you should go through the test carefully in the order it is written. And if you are lucky enough to be an 800 scorer who never has trouble with time, then yes, you really can go in any order you like.</p>
<p>This is why every positive preparation should include a “Know where you are” section. The Math test is built on offering increasingly harder questions in each SUB-section. Knowing that the grid-in questions represent a different sub-section is important. </p>
<p>Fwiw, it is a good idea for a tester to review his or her first answers although they are the easiest on the test. Inattention or nervousness might contribute to misreading the question and pick one of the false friends.</p>
<p>Ultimately this discussion will become moot. Sooner or later, the SAT will become a CAT, and the importance of scoring well on the first questions will become more important to earn a high score.</p>
hey just in case anyone’s reading this… i’ve been doing the math section and been making careless mistakes bringing me down to 670-690 range. tried it backwards and just got an 800. Could have been an easy test (it was in the blue book) but yeah, i feel as though doing it that way may work for some people. try it out
One problem I see with working back to front is that it might increase the risk of misbubbling, but I’m a very linear person. Check out some of the threads on that topic for how much grief that can cause.
I think it’s a huge error in strategy for the vast majority of kids.
The SAT is set up so that you accumulate points. It’s like a huge Easter Egg hunt, with much higher stakes. But the intent is the same-- you want to accumulate as many as possible within the time constraints.
So pick up those quick easy points as quickly as you can before you worry about the harder, more time consuming points.
And @AboutTheSame brings up a very strong point about misbubbling.
Would it work for some kids? Probably. But my guess is that it would be a huge tactical error for the vast majority.
