<p>I'm planning on taking the SAT Math I and II to see which one I do better on, but I wanted to know, does anyone have any tips on how to do well on the math section? SAT math has always been my weak point, and I was wondering if anyone had any pointers. Thanks! :)</p>
<p>Calculator programs. I had all the trig identities on my calc, along with some triangle tests and the Law of Cosines. You should get whatever is helpful to you.</p>
<p>Thanks! Sorry, but i’m not exactly Calculator savvy. Do you know where you can get those programs from?</p>
<p>There aren’t many ‘tricks’ to do well on the Math I & II, unlike the reasoning test. If you haven’t done well in Math classes, you probably won’t do well in these either.</p>
<p>It is fairly easy to teach yourself some basic calculator programming, and like Millancad said it can be very useful. I had several programs on my calculator when taking math 1 and they came in handy on at least 5 problems.</p>
<p>@Gerontius: I never said I did poorly in math, i just don’t excel at SAT Math. That’s not the same thing. </p>
<p>@Romanticism: What specific programs did you have on your calculator?</p>
<p>Out of Curiousity, has anyone used the SAT Operating System program by Cal-Tech? Is it any good/has it actually helped anyone?</p>
<p>^
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that. What I meant was that in the Reasoning test, there are a lot of tricks you can use, so that even when you don’t know the answer you can make a good guess. But the Math I & II are mostly ‘knowledge’ tests - either you know it or you don’t.</p>
<p>It would be a good idea to program law of cosines, quadratic formula, herons formula, and anything else you think might be useful.</p>
<p>I’d also “program” trig identities and any useful formulas (perhaps polar coordinate conversions? I don’t know anything). Pretty much any formula you would need, so you don’t have to memorize it. geometric and arithmitic series formulas perhaps. anything.</p>
<p>Other than that, there aren’t really tricks.</p>
<p>@Gerontius: Nope, I understand. You’re right. When I did the practice tests, it actually seemed easier to me because they had more straightfoward questions. </p>
<p>So I should mostly work with installing programs and see where I can go from there. Okay, I understand. Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>Mare_Crisium, I had many programs. I had everything from simple programs like slope or the Pythagorean Theorem, to more complex programs that could display any given value in every possible trig function in its complex and simplified versions.</p>
<p>I honestly wouldn’t rely too much on programs. The only program I ever thought was worth having might be a quadratic-formula program, only because calculating it by hand was tedious. Relying too much on programs exposes you to the risk where you may not fully understand how to manipulate a certain mathematical concept because you’re too used to plugging variables into something that solves a standard problem for you. Don’t get carried away.</p>
<p>The only “trick” to these tests is to practice and become accustomed to the types of questions you’ll encounter. The same concepts get used from year to year… they can only diversity the problem types so much. Get some good study materials and see for yourself. I recommend the official SAT I practice tests/blue book for SATI, and Sparknotes makes some great books for SAT II Math IIC.</p>