<p>Hi, I'm prepping myself for the math 2 subject test and I have run into a problem while taking practice tests. I have heard that one should always skip the hard questions and come back to them. I usually skip questions that look hard and try to come back to them but only end up getting to a couple. THEN I realize that half of the questions that looked hard were actually easy. How many questions do you guys usually skip on the first time around? How many times do you go over the test? Any advice on how to figure out if a problem is going to be hard? Should I start to play around with the ones that look hard, or is that a waste of time? BTW, I'm shooting for over a 700, so I would especially appreciate advice from people who did well on this test.</p>
<p>bumppppppp</p>
<p>SAT math problems never require long or overly tedious solutions. Usually there’s a long solution, but after a little thought, there is an easier and more elegant solution. An easy example:</p>
<p>How many two-digit positive integers are there such that the sum of the digits is a multiple of 3?</p>
<p>This is probably a mid-level question but you get the point. I suggest you start playing around with the harder math problems, even if you do so untimed. When I took the SAT, I had previous AMC/AIME experience, so I was usually able to knock off every question on the first try (although I went back to check for careless errors).</p>
<p>Would you solve the problem like this? The smallest 2 digit multiple of 3 is 3x4=12 and the largest is 3x33=99, so you subtract 4 from 33 and then add 1 to get 30 2-digit multiples. So you’re suggesting just going through the test once and then checking for errors? Or is that something that is specific to each person?</p>
<p>Basically, yes. Some might just try brute-forcing 12, 15, 18, before realizing that only multiples of 3 work.</p>
<p>The optimal strategy really depends on the person. You could try that. Or you could try just the harder questions (e.g. last half of the test) and see how you do (just try to solve all of them, don’t worry about time constraints).</p>
<p>You said that the best strategy depends on the person. If I gave you a little more information about my math ability could you provide some suggestions for study methods/materials?</p>
<p>Since you seem to be skipping many of the harder questions, I suggest working through them (untimed). If you don’t see the solution, try another method. If you still don’t see a solution, then you can check the answer/solution manual.</p>
<p>Later you can start trying the hard problems, timed.</p>
<p>Thanks so much rspence, I feel more confident already!</p>