so i just took my first SAT math practice test

i'm not happy with the practice test "score" i got which was 630. the good thing is that the questions i missed or skipped because i had trouble with were pretty much all in geometry, so i know now what i need to work on this week.

it is weird, i was going over it with my mom and i missed pretty much all the same questions(and by same i mean similar or type of questions) that she missed on her SAT when she took it. she still got accepted to columbia(she didn't get to go.. single mom of two kids and couldn't afford it), so maybe i won't be so bad off. :rofl:

i'm going to work my butt off the rest of this week to raise the math score up, and i think that as long as i focus on strengthening my geometry i'll do better.

from practice scores. it is just good to take the practice test so that i know what i need to work on.

:hi:

i'm going to pull out my old geometry book and work on it all day tomorrow and thursday :hi:

:hi:

There are some good SAT study guides you can find on Amazon. I bought my kid one and it really improved his score. :thumbsup:

So I commiserate with you.

I was always better at geometry than algebra. Do you find that often students that are good in one are not good in the other? Thats been an observation of mine....

The skills and thinking involved are different enough that there could be lots of people who are significantly better in one than the other.
What I always find interesting is the difference in how students view Calc 2 (integration techniques and sequences and series) versus Calc 3 (three-dimensional calculus, multivariable integration). The math majors tend to love Calc 2 and not care much for 3, while the engineer/physicist types are the exact opposite.

and think "Is this in English?" (I truly have no idea what my HS calculus teacher said on any day of class.)

I took consumer math and accountancy in college to fill my math req.

*shiver* I had the damndest time with the two semesters of calc (business calc) that I had to take....:scared:

I can do geometry and trig in my head including the more complex functions, I was okay in algebra (I had to self-teach it though over the summer because class made zero sense and I passed on effort.) but I still can't do most of it without a graphing calculator with all the formulas filled in: one where you enter the equation and it spits out the variables for you.

I hit a wall in calculus though...I've tried 100s of times to learn calculus with no success or progress whatsoever. It may as well be in some alien language.

Still do.

i much prefer history and literature

i love biology and anatomy... i actually enjoy dissecting things, lol.

:rofl:

but some of it.. i loved making a mock-universe out of styrofoam balls and string though! ;)

We went out to the hills for an overnight telescope-thingie.

we have a pretty powerful telescope though, and it is nice to take it out on clear nights and look around. one good thing about living in a small town is that there isn't too might "light pollution" in the skies at night.

you are not tested for knowledge but more for test taking abilities.

Knowing to take the test effectively is quite important.

However, knowledge of subject matter still is essential. Prepping for the SAT may or may not increase individual scores significantly, but certainly will not hurt. Not everyone is able to afford the cost of for-profit study programs.

I wish Ava well.

it has several real practice tests in it.. i'm going to take another today.

:hug:

:hug:

i know i'll get a score that is above average because i've made straight a's throughout my schooling, but i don't know *how* above average my score will be.

i think i'm most stressing for a high score because a harvard recruiter spoke to me recently after a speech i gave and said "harvad would love to have you" and that would be a dream to go there, but i know my SAT's have to be high.

But, their acceptance rate was 9% last year. However, if that recruiter wants you, get back in touch with him/her, maybe get a little note of recommendation, and you will be rungs above the other applicants, no matter whether you get high 600s, 700s, or the perfect 8. You are a person they will want, my dear, no question about it. Also, get recs from some of the other "important" people you have impressed along the way, and you will be a shoe-in. (This from a homeschool mom of another highly intelligent kid, now age 18 and beginning his senior year in college.)

and how awesome, i rarely see other homeschoolers here on DU :hi:

You might not need to score super-high on the SAT to get into a top-notch college. But, it might also depend on what you want to major in when you're in college: Rocket Science might still require a high score, especially on math.

Where are you ranked in your class? If you're at, or near, the top, where have recent top students in your school gone on to college? If top students are going off to top 10 colleges like Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, Duke, etc, then you also have a better shot.

so yeah, i'm the top of my class :rofl:

i'm hoping to double major in political science and journalism

for the next Democratic president?

;)

First off good luck!

If you think you need to spend any time at all on a question in the first pass just skip and go to the next one. You want to answer all of the easy questions quickly and efficiently. This will maximize the amount of time you have to spend on difficult questions. If you get stuck at all just move on.

ALWAYS guess if you can eliminate at least one of the answers. The penalty for answering incorrectly is outweighed by the chance of hitting the right answer as long as you can eliminate at least one answer.

The test is usually structured as follows (this is true for the verbal section as well). 15 questions in any given section. The first 5 are the easy ones, the second 5 are the medium difficulty and the last 5 the hardest. So going back to my point about quickly answering questions, I hit the first 5 in each section first, then the next 5 in each section, then the last 5 in each section. For the difficult questions do the areas you are strongest in first. For you, leave the last 5 geometry questions for after hitting everything else.

Finally, try not to stress too much about the test. It's not as important these days to most top universities.

Hope this helps!

On Edit: In 1990 the top score was 1600 (800 Math, 800 Verbal). I scored 730 Verbal, 740 Math.

:hi:

what i learned after going over the questions i missed last time is that many of the tougher questions i got wrong weren't as tough as they seemed at the time and were more about logic than about memorizing formulas. if i keep this up maybe i can raise it up into the 700's before i test. ;)

Ya know, the best I ever did with the Math SAT was 550...and that was on the PSAT...I would have been thrilled with a 600--you go girl!!!

the list of schools i'm applying to:

1. Harvard
2. Georgetown
3. UCLA
4. UT Austin
5. Alabama

i may do a sixth, but i'm not sure which school it would be. i've already starting saving up the money for the application fees.

I had the same difficulty you had raising my SAT math score -- took the test 3 times and never got above 650. Sooo frustrating, especially since I got straight A's in (and loved) calculus. It wasn't until I was preparing for the GRE a few years later that I realized that if you've got the baseline math skills down, the SAT/GRE math section isn't so much a *math* test as it is a *thinking* test. Once I had that epiphany, I just brushed up on my skills (hadn't taken any math other than stats since high school), and ended up getting a 740 on the math GRE, despite the long lay-off from math classes.

And I'm sure it doesn't hurt that you know what needs work now. :)

i'll keep this up and hopefully before test time i can get a score in the 700's

First, do the easy questions.

Next, go to the slightly tricky questions, work on the problems a little, and if they're not easy, plug the given answer choices back into the problem.

Finally, do the same thing with the hard questions.

I got 680 even though I was only in remedial geometry at the time. I did better than half my friends who were in calculus. ;)