Help with raising SAT math score?
December 13th, 2009 | 
Author: 
Hi and welcome to my blog,
I opened this blog to help anyone who is preparing for his SAT.
I remember myself when I started - I was so lost and in such a panic.
Luckily I got this great SAT guide that helped me a lot . So study hard and good luck!
I recently got back the scores for my first SAT:
Reading: 770
Writing: 680
Math: 560
I’m happy with all except math, which isn’t really good enough for the schools I’m considering. I’m not a bad math student (straight A’s), but English is more my strength and the hard math problems on the test were a little overwhelming, especially due to the time constraints. I took about 10 practice tests from Princeton Review and College Board and I had an SAT tutor as well, which was helpful. Besides those things, what else should I do to raise my math score? 100 points would be ideal, but I don’t know if that’s realistic before the next SAT. Also, I don’t want to jeopardize my reading and writing scores by taking the general again unless I have to because I don’t want them to be any lower. Would a higher score on an SAT II math level test suffice, or do I need to retake the reasoning test?
Posted in sat prep | 
Tags: college board, level test, math level, math problems, math score, math student, practice tests, princeton review, reading and writing, reasoning test, time constraints, tutor
Hello!
First of all, fantastic job on Critical Reading. That’s super!
I’m not sure what schools are you considering, but it is highly recommended that you do well on SAT Reasoning Math. If you found that the hard math problems were overwhelming, you will not find SAT Math II any easier unless you are one of those students who love Calculus and hates algebra.
Basically, this is what I heard from someone who knew about college admissions in CA long time ago, and the unofficial consensus was that you want to aim for at least 600′s for most colleges. For Ivy, you definitely want to have scores around 700′s.
I’m glad to hear that you had a tutor, but frankly, if you took 10 practice tests and SAT tutor, and your score was only 560 meant that your tutor and practice tests did not prepare you well. Math is a section that you can improve really easily if it is taught the RIGHT way. That’s right, the RIGHT way. You could give students a thousand of problems, and they would still do bad. Why? A lot of factors: carelessness, time condition, stress, calculation error, or just observing new problems that were not tested before in the practices.
Then how can one master math section to 100%? You have to learn to think like a mathematician. I’m an online SAT tutor and a college student. I received 700′s in SAT I Math without essentially any studying (except when I had to take full practice tests) and got 800 on SAT II MathC. I have also an extensive background in math competitions. Basically, all these mean that I know how to penetrate math problems. When I see a math problem, I usually know at least two ways to solve them, and being able to do that will prepare for ANY math problem.
The ability to "think like a mathematician" is difficult to explain in this reply, but I can assure you that even though you are afraid about your scores going down, you should consider re-taking it. And I mean, come on… You HAVE to be a stellar student if you scored 770 on CR. That is a very impressive, as I mentioned in my first reply.
Good luck!
That is definitely realistic! I raised my math score from a 590 to a 700 from the March to the May SATs. I’m assuming you’re going to take the October SAT…you have plenty of time to raise your score. I’d recommend using the tutor again, this time specifically for math. You can also get review books that are SAT I Math specific (like the Barrons: http://www.amazon.com/Math-Workbook-New-SAT-Barrons/dp/0764123653).
Also, you won’t jeopardize your other grades because colleges will give you the benefit of the doubt and always look at your best scores in each section regardless of the date of the test. Perhaps you can use the summer to refresh a bit for the reading and writing sections. Couldn’t hurt…
And no, getting a higher score on the SAT II math test wouldn’t suffice. You have to retake the actual reasoning test in order to increase your math score. One does not replace the other.