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Ways to improve my math skills for the SAT.
Jast
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I really stink at math, I mean I barely passed Algebra I and am struggling with Geometry. I want to take the SAT and I've got the reading skills area of the test taken care of. I'm good at that part, but I suck at math. Does anyone know any learning centers or sites that can help me improve my SAT math skills. I want to get at least a 600 on the math portion of the test.
Jast on
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How much time do you have? Because if your SAT is in, like, two weeks, you're boned. Also, if you're really just plain bad at math, I'm not sure a 600 is realistic. There's a difference, though, between "I'm bad at math" and "I never bothered paying attention in class and now I know squat."
But if you have several months' time and you're willing to really work at it, you should be able to improve your score.
EDIT: Don't stress out about the Math, you can counter a low math with a high Verbal and Essay portion too don't forget.
Maybe that'll work better for you, because I had a hard time with it. It only helped a tiny bit. I just don't have the capacity for math like a lot of people. I skated out of Geometry by the skin of my teeth with a D+. I'm strickly an Arts and English type. I can't count to save my life. I still count on my fingers, honestly. Other than studying hard and going slowly as you do your problems is the only way I can say will help you most. Also, if you write out every little thing you do off to the side. It's time consuming, but for me (someone who is aweful with numbers), that was the only way I skated by.
Numbers are numbers. One could write the wrong number and you do all of this calculating and can -still- come out with -an- answer. As opposed to writing a sentence. If you put a word in a sentence that is clearly out of context, it'll jack up the whole sentence. At least by the standards of proper grammar.
Hopefully what I've said helps you out a little.
I was in a (relatively) similar situation. I had some family/medical problems that caused me to miss almost all of 10th grade geometry. Ergo on my PSAT I got like 700+ in verbal but under 500 in math. My advice if you're completely ignorant of the theorems and practices is to have it explained. No amount of reading from a book helped me out.
I didn't even get a tutor. One of my Chinese friends and I made an agreement- I'd help him with verbal, he'd help me with math. I went from a 480 in Math to an 800 in math over the summer. It's not that I got smarter or anything- I just had it explained to me by someone I trusted in a way I could understand.
Whether or not you can afford a paid tutor, my advice 100% is to get someone who can explain it to you and not just read it to you, dryly, from a book.
My advice to you is to go to the books and go through the examples and scribble all over them with notes in order to understand what they do step to step.
Then go do the questions and try to apply the example and the theories you have unlocked to the question.
The two important things to do in maths is one, LAY EVERYTHING OUT SO YOU CAN GET PART MARKS.
If you just write the answer and it's wrong you don't get any marks, if you show working you will get part marks.
Break everything down into easily disgestable chunks. If the question is too large see if you can simplify it or break it down into parts. All you need to do is remember how to apply techniques to questions.
Also practice practice practice.
Satans..... hints.....
Sadly this will not work on the SAT because of America's love of multiple choice standardized bullshit. Unless the SAT has changed this since I took it 5 or 6 years ago, there is no partial credit. Though in real math classes, by all means do this. Please, as someone who graded papers for a year, giving people points and pointing out where they went wrong was always better than just looking at the thing, seeing the answer only and not having any reason to award credit, or any idea what the student did wrong so they could learn.
Anyway, the learning part of this post is good if you're someone who can do that kind of thing. It all depends what kind of learner you are. Personally, I like teaching myself so I would sit down with a book and learn it if I didn't have a good teacher. You might need someone to explain it to you to have it click. Presumably you know what works with you, and then go out and do it.
As for the SAT itself: all your usual standardized test rules apply. If you don't know what to do, rule out the ridiculous. With math, it's mostly simpler geometry and algebra questions. Especially in geometry, intuition and common sense is your friend. Don't trust pictures but think about the questions and the answers if you don't know the process their looking for. As was posted above, it's a gameable test. Ideally of course you learn the material, and for that there's going to be some hard work.
Absolute worst case: grab some SAT prep books and work through them, when you don't understand what to do and you don't have anyone to ask, this forum has a bunch of helpful math types who quite possibly spent far too long tutoring people in college (hi!). Just post your question and you'll probably get a bunch of helpful responses.
Most of these practice books will have at least a couple sample tests with fully explained answers, so you will get an idea of why you got certain problems wrong. They also tend to have sections on each type of question that work you through a few problems step by step. Any of the big name brands will have these things, like Kaplan or Princeton Review. Also, there are likely to be practice books exclusively for SAT math. Those books should be all you need. You should probably do at least 20 full practice tests. As other people have mentioned, it's not just about knowledge, but also test-taking skills, so cramming on practice tests will be good, as it addresses both these aspects.
More often than not I suspect that if you're having trouble with a concept, its because you have not taken the time to fully comprehend a simpler concept.
For example, geometry is going to be a real bitch if you don't have your algebra down. Systems of equations are going to be tricky if you can't do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division on a dime. In high school, I struggled for a while in my calculus class because I hadn't taken the time to fully learn my trigonometry.
I would suggest starting with the very basics. Be honest with yourself; how quick are you with +,-,x, and / ? Can you perform those operations in your head if you're dealing with single digits? How about tens or hundreds?
A tutor is a very, very good idea. I would even try out a few different tutors if you can, until you find one that can really explain things in a way that works for you.
If you're having trouble with something specific, most definitely either look into a tutor or talk to a math teacher after school or after class or whatever. I agree with Organichu; in some cases I'll come across a concept in a book that I won't grasp no matter how much I read over it and do practice problems, and in those cases it's always been immensely helpful for me to have someone explain it, if only because in that sort of situation it's easy to have someone reword an explanation if thier initial one doesn't make sense to you.
Additionally, even though as has already been mentioned, you can't get partial credit by showing work, do it anyway. Write out every step you go through, no matter how trivial. My situation was a little different, since I personally have a pretty decent capacity for math, but for me this was the big thing that helped me out. Before doing this, I'd often pick up a wrong answer due to some stupid 'forgot to carry the two'-type error, and writing out even the simple, basic steps does a lot to help mitigate errors in mental arithmetic, as well as helping you keep your problem-solving process straight.
The SAT isn't a measure of how good you are at tests, or how smart you are, it's a measure of how much money you have to spend on prep courses and materials. I'm not joking, I've written papers about this test and it's the most retarded way of measuring 'intelligence' or 'college readiness' that I've ever seen.
Obviously if basic algebra and geometry give you trouble, hire a tutor to help you out. I'm certain that you'd be able to find one in an SAT prep course, actually :P
This, yes this is stupidity. But I won't drag this guy's thread into a discussion about it.
Get some practice SATs and find a tutor to help you go through the problems. Studying math is too broad and you don't have enough time if you are that bad at it. Just go through the problems on past SATs and you will do fine.
B.net: Kusanku