SAT’s are scored in the range from 200-800. The national average math score is approximately 500. Many students enrolled in SAT prep classes are seeking to improve to a score over 500. Some students are unaware of the fact that a score of 500 is achieved by getting about ½, 50%, of the questions right. If a student scores 50% on a classroom math test, that’s an “F” (and trouble with parents at home). Half right on the SAT is 500, the national average, and quite respectable. SAT math sections are arranged with the questions almost in perfect order of increasing difficulty. Approximately the first 1/3 are easy, the next 1/3 medium difficulty, and the last bunch are downright difficult. Consider the 20-question, 25-minute section. If a student is seeking a 500, s/he would want 10 points out of this section (each correct answer is worth one point). Where will these points come from? A conscientious SAT prep company has to be blunt here – these points are not coming from that last group of hard questions. These are just too hard for the average student. Therefore, your best strategy is to take your time and plan to spend your 25 minutes on the first 15 questions. It is out of this group of easy and medium level questions that you will find the 10 points you are seeking. Rushing to get through all 20 is silly for the average student because those last 5 are guaranteed to be hard every time. Incidentally, you would need about 2/3 of the questions correct to score 600. Even then, all you would need is to get all the easy and medium ones right. To get 700, you need to attack all the questions (about 48 of the 54 points on the full math test is needed for a 700).
Archive for February, 2010
Time Versus Score – Strategy on SAT Math Sections
February 28th, 2010 by Marty Rafson
Marty Rafson wrote the ESC math curriculum and has been an SAT math teacher, tutor, and curriculum developer for 30 years. He has been a high school math teacher for 36 years and a math department chairman for 25 years. He was also an adjunct professor at City College of New York School of Education.
SAT Math Prep
February 26th, 2010 by Marty RafsonWhat do the letters SAT stand for? Right now they are just three letters. However, they used to represent the “Scholastic Aptitude Test.” Why isn’t this used as the present-day name of this test? There’s a sensitivity to using the word “aptitude.” An aptitude test is a test of your intelligence, your basic ability. After working hard to compile a solid high school transcript, this single four-hour test helps tell a college what capabilities you have. The Educational Testing Service used to say that you can’t possibly increase your aptitude. This has been dramatically proven wrong. A well-planned program of practice will increase your SAT score. Educational Services Center can help you maximize your score on the reading, writing, and math sections of the SAT. There’s a strategy to approaching the math questions. We’ll review your arithmetic, algebra and geometry. We’ll also show you how to employ other approaches when you don’t see a “pure” mathematical solution to a problem. With dedicated practice, you can definitely improve your SAT score.
Marty Rafson wrote the ESC math curriculum and has been an SAT math teacher, tutor, and curriculum developer for 30 years. He has been a high school math teacher for 36 years and a math department chairman for 25 years. He was also an adjunct professor at City College of New York School of Education.
Small SAT Score Gains Mean Big College Admissions Gains
February 24th, 2010 by Kate HedmanWhether or not you think your admission to college should be governed by your SAT score, there is evidence that it is, and that a mere 30 point jump in your Critical Reading score can get you into college. For more information, take a look at this USA Today article from May 2009. What do you think? Are colleges relying too much on SAT scores?
Share your comments below.
Kate Hedman, MSEd, has been helping students succeed on the SAT for seven years. She has been a verbal teacher with ESC for six years, and taught high school English for three years. She loves reading about new advances in brain research that she can use in the classroom to help her students learn how to achieve higher scores on the SAT.
Want a High Score on the SAT Essay? Write at Length!
February 17th, 2010 by Kate HedmanGuess what? As I tell my students in class, it doesn’t matter if your facts are accurate, as long as your writing is on topic and you include detailed examples to back up your position. Not too long ago, a researcher at MIT showed that you should also be prepared to write a lot. So make up facts if you have to! Just write well, technically, and at length.
And check out this article on the scoring system, from the early days of the SAT Essay.
Kate Hedman, MSEd, has been helping students succeed on the SAT for seven years. She has been a verbal teacher with ESC for six years, and taught high school English for three years. She loves reading about new advances in brain research that she can use in the classroom to help her students learn how to achieve higher scores on the SAT.
New April SAT Exam for Palm Beach County
February 17th, 2010 by Kate HedmanESC has changed its class schedule in Palm Beach County so that all of our students will be prepared for the new April 14 SAT test date. If you are a Palm Beach County student, please check the SAT Class Schedule & Registration page for new SAT class schedule information.
Kate Hedman, MSEd, has been helping students succeed on the SAT for seven years. She has been a verbal teacher with ESC for six years, and taught high school English for three years. She loves reading about new advances in brain research that she can use in the classroom to help her students learn how to achieve higher scores on the SAT.
SAT Practice Feeds Your Brain
February 8th, 2010 by Kate HedmanPracticing taking the SAT makes you better at it. That’s no surprise, but exactly why we get better just may be. According to recent research, your improvement is all in your head . . . literally. Recent brain research has shown that as you practice an activity, your brain produces new neurons and connections that make it, and by extension you, more skilled. It does this whether you like it or not. Evidence for the effects of practice and repetition on skills exists everywhere. For example, how easy is brushing your teeth? Not that it takes much practice to get good at that, but if you’ve ever watched a little kid concentrate on making the toothbrush do what he wants before he’s had much practice, then you’ve seen the difference between a person who has grown neurons and connections for a particular skill and one who hasn’t.
Granted, the tooth-brushing example is overly simple. But the growth of neural connections helps us in our abilities from the simplest to the most complicated: everything from brushing our teeth to solving complex mathematical equations.
Why does this matter to your SAT score? The answer is simple – practice taking the SAT. And practice doing the sorts of activities that the SAT demands – everything from reading complex and unfamiliar pieces of writing, to solving quadratic equations, to writing essays that contain your opinion about some obscure topic, to sitting in an exam room taking long tests and filling in scantron sheets until your eyes water. You will get better at all of it.
Does familiarity breed contempt? Maybe, but it also breeds excellence. Keep up that practice, and your score will go up, whether you want it to or not.
This concept is called neuroplasticity. For a bit more information, check out this Wikipedia article, or read one of the many new books on the subject.
Kate Hedman, MSEd, has been helping students succeed on the SAT for seven years. She has been a verbal teacher with ESC for six years, and taught high school English for three years. She loves reading about new advances in brain research that she can use in the classroom to help her students learn how to achieve higher scores on the SAT.
Welcome to the ESC SAT Prep Blog!
February 2nd, 2010 by adminCheck back here for updates on all things SAT Prep related, written by our SAT Prep Teachers. The ESC Blog will cover such topics as ways to prepare for the test, what SAT scores mean, SAT news around the web, and various and sundry SAT prep and college admissions related topics. Stay tuned!
