Tips on improving math score? 580 math vs 740 R&W

Hey there! I’ve just finished taking my third practice test on Khan Academy (side note - do you trust the rigor of their tests? do you think they’re equivalent to practice tests from say, Barron’s SAT prep or the Princeton Review?), and was quite happy to see my score - 1320! My first test score was 1220, and the second (about a week and a half later) was 1210: R&W rose by 20 to 690 points, but math fell by 30. In this most recent test - as the title indicates - I improved both scores. I had been plowing through the tests with time to spare on the R&W sections, and can see utilizing every minute has been quite useful, though I took too much time on those “to make this paragraph most logical, sentence x should be placed…” and ran out of time - if not for that, I probably could’ve hit 750-760 on R&W.

However, I attribute the increase in my math scores to good luck, as I don’t feel I really understand it any better than I did last month. I’m aiming for a 1500 on the SAT to be competitive with other Princeton applicants, so I really have to up my score.
I was out of school for years, so I didn’t have math drilled in to me like the average student. I’m twenty years old, so my brain doesn’t catch on quite as fast as it would if I were younger. I’m eager - no, desperate - to know if anyone has any advice regarding how to learn the requisite math skills in a month’s time. The videos on Khan Academy are topical, but I haven’t been grasping them.

Thanks so much for any and all help!

My kids did practice tests, then carefully reviewed the problems they got wrong and made flash cards of them that they studied from. You need to find someone to help explain the problems you don’t understand, too. They also worked a lot of problems to get faster.

Make sure to practice the different kinds of problems individually! Focus more on the math that you don’t know. However, the only program that I know of that lets you do that is UWorld. Luckily, you can use it free for a month. Symbolad is a good website to show how to work problems out, too. Other website also have topical videos, like Math Playground. You can also search videos up on YouTube! The reliable ones are the teachers, so pay attention to the uploader. Just be sure to study, study, study and use all the tools available to you!

@intparent Good advice, I don’t tend to dwell on the mistakes I’ve made in the SAT - for the math, it’s because I rarely know what I’m doing in the first place haha, and for the R&W, I’m generally just too sloppy and have to take it more seriously (e.g, inferring something I ought not), but I’ll definitely implement your suggestions.

@emmapratt Thank you so very much! I hadn’t heard of UWorld before - one month free is all I need, because I only have a little over a month. Symbolad looks like an invaluable tool as well, I appreciate the tip. Best of luck to you and your effort to conquer the SAT!

That is not a thing.

But not having done structured math since early primary school is a thing. If you were a gymnast you would not expect to be able to show up at the national championships with just natural athletic ability: you would have built up the elements of the routine piece-by-piece, along with both the muscles and muscle memory to execute them, over time. What you are trying to do is just hard- but it’s not b/c your brain is too old!

If you don’t dwell in the mistakes, you won’t get better. Now my kid did have a flash card that said, “Don’t be stupid!” – she’d put a hash mark on it when she made a simple calculation error. But similar problems show up again and again on the SAT – learning to do more types of them increases your score.

I normally believe that doing a lot of practice tests (whole and by section) along with using resources like Khan Academy and prep books (start with the College Board one) is sufficient. But here, since you have been out of school and you seem to be lost on certain types of math problems, you should consider a tutor if you can afford one (perhaps a local high school math teacher who is willing to help you at a reasonable hourly rate). A good tutor should be able to spot the types of problems and concepts that you are having difficulty with and address those with you specifically. If you want to increase your math score by 100-200 points, you have to be familiar with all concepts that will be tested. As @intparent points out, there are repeating types of problems (format and/or concept) and one of the keys to high scores is immediately identifying the “type” and then solving for the answer through the process you have developed for it. If you are consistently baffled by certain types of questions or concepts, you will not be able to raise your score to your targeted level.

To be fair, some students also never develop the speed to get a really high score. I tutored one of my kids who struggles in math, and she topped out at 670 – after flash cards, review if what she was missing, etc. I don’t think she has a higher score in her. But her first score was lower than the OP’s, so you can gain ground by studying.

Erica Meltzer’s books are the gold standard for improving SAT English sections. I don’t consider any of the SAT math books to be “gold standard.” But, the College Panda SAT math book is straightforward and a good mix of teaching math and teaching strategy.

Echoing that you have to focus on mistakes.

My D has a spread like yours and getting a tutor for just a few sessions helped with the math when Khan wasn’t enough.

Thanks for the information guys & gals! You’ve given me invaluable advice.
A good friend of mine is a math enthusiast, and he’s generously agreed to help me work on math till my test date - the private tutoring is definitely something I need.
I’ll look into Erica Meltzer’s books (egad, separate books on grammar and critical reading? a pity the used books cost more than the new ones… maybe I can find them in the local library catalog), even if I only have ~60 points to gain, it may be worth it. I’ve heard good things about College Panda’s SAT, nice to see it recommended again, it makes me think it’d be a good buy.