By Mihir Kale The SAT Math Section is divided into two major sections, NO CALCULATOR and CALCULATOR OK, which have a combined total of 58 questions, 13 of which are Free Response and 45 multiple choice. For SAT Math, the questions are organized from easiest to hardest. You’ll notice that the last couple of questions are the free response questions, which are a bit easier to make up for the change from multiple choice. Because these SAT Questions are organized based on difficulty, achieving certain scores can be measured by how comfortable you feel when answering the parts of each section. In general, students who score above a 1400 can answer the first half of each section efficiently, and use around a quarter of the time given for that section. This sounds a little complicated, but the process is really simple! While taking a practice test, keep in mind the time you take to complete half the section: which is 10 questions for No Calculator, and 19 Questions for Calculator OK. The first thing to do when studying for the SAT is to take a practice test, which is the most important tool for measuring your score and progress. For your first Practice Test, I recommend using Khan Academy, which gives a really concise and thorough breakdown of which questions you missed and how to solve them. This information is crucial because you need to identify the topics you’re struggling in to get better at them. However, note that Khan Academy only includes some of the official College Board Practice Tests, specifically: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Meaning that Tests 2 and 4 are NOT INCLUDED, this is great because you can use it to your advantage. Let me explain. On test day, you’ll be taking a test on paper, while all of Khan Academy’s tests are online, which seems unimportant, but it can make a difference if you aren't used to paper tests. So: Download Tests 2 and 4 and print them from the College Board website, use these as the last tests you’ll take before the big day, which will give you an opportunity to get acclimatized to the actual SAT format on paper. Now, depending on how much time you have left to study, you should aim at taking as many practice tests as possible, set aside a specific day where you take a Practice SAT every week, or even twice a week. For a standard 3 month schedule, take Khan Academy Tests once a week for 8 weeks, and then College Board paper tests twice a week -whichever ones you did at the very beginning on Khan Academy- for the remaining 4 weeks. By the end of 8 weeks, it is unlikely that you might remember the answers to the repeated tests. Nevertheless, make sure that Tests 2 and 4 are saved for the very, very end, as they are the closest you can get to the actual SAT experience as long as you haven't seen them before. I’ve taken a practice test...now what? Once you’ve taken a practice test, the next big step is compiling an error summary, basically an analysis of every question you missed. A good error summary will include:
The key thing about your error summary, is that it allows you to understand which topics you need to work on. Khan Academy selects these topics for you automatically, and it’s a great resource for solving multiple practice questions. However, it’s important to make sure that Khan Academy isn’t your only source of practice, get as many different sources of practice problems as possible!
The 100% Absolute Best Resource would be the official College Board study guide, which will allow you to work through any topic in the simplest way possible, with detailed instructions. While Khan Academy will give you a lot of Practice Problems, it’s not entirely helpful when it comes to learning new topics from scratch. You can also find tons of resources for free, for example, Acing The New SAT Math Section, by Alex Hyun, is a PDF on the internet and covers all 20 “sub-topics”.
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