<p>My SAT score was 2240 so my friend asked me to tutor her. She has never taken the SAT before, but her PSAT score was 1490 (all 3 sections). Math is her worst section. She is taking the May SAT so we only have one week to do this, and I'm starting tomorrow.</p>
<p>How should I go about tutoring? We have the Blue Book and I was planning on just going through math problems and possibly some writing problems, and developing a strategy on which ones to answer, etc. But does anyone have any suggestions that would enable us to get the best possible results?</p>
<p>Oh, and she attempted studying by herself, but the CollegeBoard online explanations for the math problems “didn’t make sense” to her. I’m quite good at explaining concepts (if I do say so myself :P) so hopefully I will help.</p>
<p>However, she is quite intelligent and does well in school (especially in history, psychology, etc.) I guess she’s just a bad test taker.</p>
<p>I have never tutored for the SAT, but I have tutored in just about every other subject. I suggest having a few of each type of problem set out to work at first. Make sure you go over these problems yourself beforehand. Guide her through them, then give her some other sample problems to work. When she stumbles make reference to the ones you did together. One more thing, since I go to an all-guy’s school, I have a question for you: What’s a girl?</p>
<p>You should select particular problems that test certain math concepts so you can pinpoint her weaknesses.
You’ll know how much you can really accomplish in a few sessions.
Be positive, even you think she’s hopeless.
She will need a good frame of mind when she takes the test.
If you’re a guy, ask her to prom while you have her in a vulnerable position, jkg.</p>
<p>Ima- Sorry for assuming you were a boy. Don’t be surprised if she cries. Probably out of frustration and stress. You can only do what you can do in a short time.</p>
<p>I’m assuming she scored well below 500 in math? For the math, given only a week, she may be helped by a few basic strategies: 1) set a reasonable goal and figure out how many questions correct are needed to get it. If 500 is the goal, that means about half of the questions right, the last third of the questions (at least) in each math section should just be skipped or glanced over. 2) When possible, if unsure of an MC question, she should try plugging in answers (look over some blue book questions for good examples of these, e.g., pg. 397 #3, pg. 414 #3, pg. 454 #9 in 2nd edition). 3) Some questions require algebra but can be made much easier by using numbers instead of letters. Examples: pg. 399 #11, pg. 422 #10, pg. 454 #7). These things should help her without a lot of math study…</p>
<p>Usually people who score below 500 answer too many questions. Like the previous poster says its really important to understand the scale, and figure out how many correct questions it takes to reach a target score. For example a raw score of 25 (which is fewer than half of the total math questions) on test #1 in the blue book translates to 500. That’s less than half of all the math questions (there are 54 total).</p>
<p>People tend to be surprised by the scale, and once they fully understand it, helps to feel a bit less pressure. The hard math questions have a way of intimidating and discouraging, but knowing how the scoring system works makes it easier to leave more questions blank.</p>
<p>Like, if you look at a math section as all the questions 1 to 25, well finishing all that and getting most of them right is really hard. For most people its impossible. So for someone like your friend who I’m guessing would do well to get any score over 500 in math, she can think of her math section as consisting of questions 1 to 15, while the rest are extra credit basically. If you can get a few right here or there its great but if not you just skip them and dont even sweat it.</p>
<p>Beyond that, I would have your friend practice the variable plug-in technique quite a bit. Also, a week is enough time to master circles and triangles, and that’s definitely worth doing.</p>
<p>For the writing the most important strategy IMO is to prepare one’s self to answer the essay question. Think up examples and stuff beforehand.</p>