Hey guys, I’m having trouble timing my math section. I have been doing practice tests from the Kaplan book that has 12 tests, the 2015 version. In the math sections, I have scored 720,740,800,800,800 (of the tests I have taken so far). (btw, really pisses me off that missing one question can bring you down to a 770 or so. However, on each of those math tests I have gone over the allotted time by about 10 minutes.
Usually this occurs because there are about 4-5 problems on each test that I have never seen before (as in same types of the problem), and I have to think about it and try to come up with my own way of solving the problem just by analyzing what is given. I get these problems correct in the end, it just takes too long because they are ‘foreign’ to me. Unfortunately, these problems I take a while on never come up again because they seem to be all different types each time, so I’m not practicing similar problems (not able to find any).
Does anybody have advice on how to speed up my math sections so I can score the 800s within the time frame? I bought the blue book as well and will go through it after I finish the Kaplan book. Are some of the Kaplan questions just unreasonable and will I likely not find those problems on the real test? Thanks everyone!!!
@Runners, CHD2013 is right. Don’t even bother finishing Kaplan. Take the BB ones, and you will be able to work on your timing as you get better at identifying questions as those of a certain type.
Why do you continue answering questions after the time is up? If you forced yourself to stick to the time limit, you would eventually get faster because you would adapt to the time.
But the way you’re doing it now, you’re training your brain to take as much time as possible. And those scores are giving you a false sense of progress.
Like the others said, use the CB blue book and real CB released tests. Stop using fake tests. They’re not accurate. And many fake tests have typos.
I was just using those tests as practice problems to keep my brain active and learn new things before I start taking the BB tests so I won’t go into those being completely clueless, not to gage the score as what I might actually get. I will go through the entire blue book and do force completion for those. I was primarily wondering if anybody had suggestions or tips or strategies on how to go through the sections faster such as a certain training regimen someone did to increase their tempo.
BB tests are what you need. Practice will make you faster. Learn how to do the problems and take your time when you are reviewing your wrong answers until you can do it. Always take your tests with time.
There is no magic bullet to improve your timing. Here are some of my suggestions:
Stick to official SAT tests. Spend your valuable time on stuff that is closer to the real exam.
Practice with official SAT questions, especially the ones you referred to as the “unfamiliar ones”. Getting these right will be key to getting a high score. Many of the harder ones are most of the time repackaged versions of old ones. Get these down.
The harder part will be do deal with the harder/completely new ones, for these you will need to improve your problem solving skills that involves recognizing patterns and being flexible in your approach. A lot of it comes from practice but also from recognizing the mistakes you are making. This means review everything that you miss.
@Runners, honestly, just set yourself a limit - and force your brain to think quickly. If you set the timer at 25 minutes, you will either meet your own expectations - or find the reason that you are thinking slowly (generally, you’re just not “Seeing it”). Once you can only miss 1 or 2 questions per test at exam pace, set the timer to 20 minutes or so and try to finish each section in a reduced amount of time. Eventually, you will (hopefully) be able to speed through, while minimizing stupid mistakes. If you know how to do each question, with a bit of staring at 'em, you will do fine with more practice.
I don’t agree with the 20 minute-practice-going-faster approach. I think the best way to build speed is “organically”" through lots of practice as @SATQuantum describes. Actively trying to think faster leads to goofy mistakes. But tons of experience with real material makes you faster without rushing. I can’t recall ever working with a student who rushed their way to a perfect score. Let thorough practice help you to develop a calm proficiency so that most of the questions fit patterns you have seen before and then toucan patiently engage with the handful that have unique twists.
@SATQuantum and @pckeller - Do you guys think there are enough practice materials out there? I’ve gone through about 8 CB tests and I’ve only streamlined my approach, but I still consistently score around the 740 range…
If anybody wanted to know how it went or wants to see if it is possible to improve timing:
I got the official blue book version 2 and did about 5 practice tests from there before the October test, that I was preparing for in my original post ^^^. I started timing myself and managed to get my times under. In fact, on the day of the test Oct. 3rd the first 25 minute math section I finished in 15 minutes and had time to go back and do every single problem a second time and got the same answers. So practicing from the blue book definitely helped. Just practicing in general primed my brain to think about problems multiple different ways before I solved it, then I wouldn’t have psychology’s ‘fixation’ thing going on. Every problem I got wrong I would redo and see why it was wrong, change it, and then revisit the same problem in 5 days to see if I remembered it and if I didn’t, then by the second time doing it again I did remember it. So overall, the blue book helped bunches and I strongly recommend it for those of you still studying. I believe I scored an 800, if not 800 then I only missed 1 so around 770.
The best way to handle timing on the SAT math section: pick your battles! As you mentioned, it’s not that EVERY problem is slowing you down - it’s just a FEW problems that are derailing your timing. If you have the capacity to routinely score this high, it’s not the material or strategy that’s holding you back - it’s clearly JUST an issue of timing. The best way to solve this: answer the stuff you know how to tackle FIRST, and THEN go back to the ones that’re giving you issues at the end.
Most SAT math problems aren’t hard - it’s knowing WHAT TO DO that’s hard. So if you see a problem, you’ve seen something like it before, and you know how to solve it, dive in. However, if you see a problem and it’s weird or confusing or annoying or seems like it’ll take you forever, circle it and move on to the next problem IMMEDIATELY.
This is the “low hanging fruit” strategy. Work through and solve everything you know how to solve first. THEN, when you’ve scooped all the points possible on those problems, go back and tackle any of the problems that you circled. That way:
They won’t stop you from getting all the extra points you could have later on in the section
You’ll be able to give them the time they deserve without stressing
So if a #13 looks horrible, go through #14 through #20 first. Then, if you have time left, you KNOW that it’s all being spent in the right place, because you only have #13 left. If you don’t finish it, so what? It’s just one problem - at least it didn’t steal #14-20 from you!
