<p>Hello everyone - </p>
<p>When I work on practice SAT tests, I usually get around 1-2 math questions wrong due to silly careless errors, NOT because I do not understand the material. Unfortunately, these 1-2 questions can cost up to as much as 50 points on the math section...and they make me mad because I KNOW the material.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any tips or strategies on how to prevent careless errors? Currently I am recording all my careless mistakes into a notebook, but I was wondering if anyone else had any other suggestions. </p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>Another thing to do is, right before you bubble in the answer to a problem, RE-READ the last line or two of the problem so that you can be sure you did what was asked. It takes a teeny bit of extra time, but it definitely beats losing tons of points because of careless mistakes!</p>
<p>I suggest doing what you are already doing in addition to practicing under timed conditions less than the regular 25 minutes. 22 would be a good number, so you have 3 minutes to check your work towards the end. Good luck!</p>
<p>Maybe chew on some minty gum or eat a mint before taking a practice test or the real SAT to focus more? Usually works for me.</p>
<p>I like to chew gum as well during tests.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice everybody! </p>
<p>I’ll be sure to keep the gum-chewing/mint eating and rereading in mind next time I work on a section. :)</p>
<p>Perhaps plug in your answer to see if it works/makes sense? For example, if you know your answer must be a multiple of 3, but you obtained an answer of 65, something’s wrong.</p>
<p>What I’ve always done is to go over each question a few times (2-3) right after I finish it. I found that I usually finished a 25 minute math section in about 10-15 minutes but I’d make 2-3 careless mistakes overall, which landed me a 730 on my first test. Going over a question right away lets you do it again while the question is still fresh. I still made one dumb error on my second one, but you could try this method and see if it helps you.</p>