6 Tips for Conquering SAT Math
by Vickie Barone and guest blogger Spencer Pevsner
SAT math can be intimidating for students who have never taken the exam, because it’s a bit different than a math test you take in school. Though the SAT doesn’t include advanced concepts — there's nothing beyond Algebra II and Geometry — the questions may seem harder at first because they are designed to assess your problem-solving skills in a different way. The way SAT math questions are phrased can confuse and slow down inexperienced students. However, if you understand a few essential points, SAT math is much more manageable. The keys are to understand how to navigate the SAT and to know what the test is looking for.
Our top 6 tips for conquering SAT math.
1. Practice, Practice, Practice!
The most important thing to do when preparing for the SAT math section is to practice — a lot. There are ten official practice tests you can get for free, so use them!
Be sure to take at least one practice test under conditions that closely mimic the experience of the real test:
Print a paper copy of the test
Get up early on a Saturday or Sunday and take the whole thing at once (or just the two math sections if you are focusing only on math for now)
Time yourself
Score the test according to the College Board and review your errors
Once you've finished the practice test, use the results to get some insight about how to proceed. Go back over the questions you got wrong or didn’t finish to identify the areas you need to work on. Did you run out of time? Did a certain type of question (calculator vs. non-calculator, multiple choice vs. grid-in) or a particular topic (algebra, geometry, word problems, etc.) trip you up? These will be your focus areas to work on before the real test.
Our favorite book for extra math practice is The College Panda's SAT Math: Advanced Guide and Workbook for the New SAT. It’s organized by topic and features detailed lessons with solved examples, plus lots of practice questions with solutions in the back of the book. You can flip through and focus on topics you know you need to brush up on, or you can do the whole book and really get to know all of the questions.
Remember, extra practice will help you to get more questions right on the real test, and it will help you go faster too! Being familiar with the questions means you have to spend less time trying to figure out what they are asking.
2. Understand Question Patterns and Strategize Your Approach
On the SAT, there are two math sections, one where you are allowed to use a calculator, and one where you can't. In each section, the questions vary in level of difficulty. Generally, the sections start with the easiest questions and end with the hardest ones.
However, each of the two SAT math sections (non-calculator and calculator) is also broken up into two groups: multiple choice and grid-ins. The pattern repeats within each subsection: the multiple choice will go from easy to hard, and then the grid-ins will go from easy to hard. Since each question is worth the same amount of points, answering a difficult question correctly does not earn you more points than answering an easy question correctly.
To maximize your limited time: skip over any question that seems too difficult, especially if it comes at the end of a subsection — those are meant to be difficult! You don’t want to get bogged down on a hard question only to run out of time before getting to the easy questions in the next group.
Your action plan: Mark the questions you skip by circling them, and if you have time at the end you can go back and spend some more time trying to get the answer then — only after you've completed all the easy ones.
One more note about timing: If you tend to run out of time and your test is coming up soon, consider working on the grid-in questions first, even though they are at the end of each section. It is almost impossible to guess the right answer on those questions without doing some work. If you’re going to run out of time, and will have to guess on a few questions, it’s better to guess on some multiple choice questions, where it’s at least possible to guess correctly.
3. Use Your Calculator When You Can
This sounds obvious, but this is advice worth repeating: Use your calculator!
Many math teachers discourage or don’t allow use of a calculator, especially on tests, so you might not be used to having this advantage at your fingertips. There are only 20 questions in the non-calculator section, but 38 in the calculator section.
Trying to visualize a graph in your head? Use your graphing calculator to draw it out! Even struggling with simple arithmetic is common with the pressure of the SAT, so don’t be shy about using your calculator to save you from making a silly mistake. Get comfortable with using your calculator when taking practice tests so you don’t hesitate to use it on the real exam. The top-scoring students certainly will!
4. Know Your Formulas
Did you know the SAT provides you with a whole slew of formulas on the first page of each math section? This list will be available for you to reference during the test:
Use this reference page as you practice for the SAT, and with enough practice you may not need to look back at it at all when taking the real test. Even if you do, you'll know exactly where to look for the formula you nee to save time. And it's definitely comforting to know all of that information is there.
There are also some things students should memorize that the SAT doesn’t provide:
How to find the slope and distance between two points on the coordinate plane
The y-intercept for a linear equation
Percent change
The equation of a circle (x2 + y2 = r2)
The quadratic formula
As you go through practice questions, keep a running list of any formulas you come across that you didn’t remember right away. Remember to look at these as you practice and get to know them better before you take your official SAT.
5. Write Down the Work You Need — and Nothing More
When you take math tests in school, you're often instructed to “show your work.” To do this, your teachers often expect to see a step-by-step process that illustrates the rationale behind each step. It may take a long time to work out the answer that way, but your teacher wants to see each step, and sometimes you will get partial credit even if you don’t get the correct answer in the end.
That process might be appropriate for math class, but on the SAT, no one is checking your work, and time is of the essence! You only need to “show your work” if it helps you to get the correct answer, or if it prevents you from making a careless error, such as mixing up units or positive/negative signs. There are some questions on the SAT that won’t require you to write anything; you may see the answer immediately, without writing anything down. However, many questions will be easier if you write some work in your booklet. If you find yourself working on a question and are trying to keep track of multiple steps in your head, it's a sign you should start writing! Don’t rely on your memory when it takes a split-second to write intermediate steps that will save you from making a simple error.
6. Draw It Out
Many SAT questions will come with a picture for reference, but for some questions it will be very important for you to draw your own picture. You might need to graph some equations, draw some shapes to go with a geometry problem, or draw a representation of a situation described in a word problem. Your drawings do not need to be perfect, but they should give you a rough idea of what the situation looks like. Your sketches will often illuminate aspects of the problem that aren’t immediately clear in the wording. Drawing it out should take just a couple seconds, and it can save you a lot of time in the long run if it helps you get to the answer faster.
Conclusion
These six tips should help with your overall understanding of the SAT math exam, and help you prepare to take the test. But remember: tips and tricks are no substitute for real practice! The simple reality is that more practice problems and full practice tests will help you get a better score on the SAT.
If you're feeling stuck on an aspect of your math SAT, we can help. From building a solid skill foundation to helping you pick apart your specific weaknesses on the exam, we're here for you. Get in touch here today.
Spencer Pevsner is a paleontology graduate student currently pursuing his Master's at the University of Bristol. As an undergraduate, he earned dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Biological and Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago.