SAT Math Practice How to Study Smarter and Score Higher

Even though he gets himself into more dangerous situations than he maybe needs to, Harry Potter is actually an awesome role model for your SAT Math practice. In fact, the general Hogwarts system of education is pretty solid in the first place. They dont just send students off to fight Death Eaters on their first day. Nopeit takes years and years of hard work for students to go from levitating feathers to producing patronuses (patroni?). Whats that have to do with SAT Math practice? A whole lot. The good news is that you wont need seven years for your SAT Math practice. But you will need some dedicated practice over a period of time—and the willingness to push yourself. Nobody made Harry take on all of those challenges, you know. (Well, maybe Lord Voldemort.) But other than the Dark Lord, that kid was pretty darn self-motivated. So what other lessons can we glean from Harry to help you with new SAT math practice? Well, quite a few. (Maybe thats not so surprising. Those books get deep!) For example: How long did it take you to read all seven books, again? A couple months? Thats actually, in an ideal world, about how long youd ideally prep for SAT math! What else? Read on†¦ Dont Underestimate Good SAT Math Practice Sure, there are students who can sit down and ace SAT Math on their first try. But thats a really, really rare scenario, involving a combination of luck and previously developed skills. Think about the troll Harry, Hermione, and Ron find in the girls bathroom in the first book. They basically get that thing by accident. Why by accident? Because they havent learned enough to knock the troll out on purpose yet! Translation? If you want to actually know how to master SAT Math, youre going to need to start SAT Math practice. Taking SAT practice tests is a good place to start. Remember that regular practice over a longer period of time is more useful than intense practice over a shorter periodyoure more likely to retain the information in your long-term memory. Not sure how to make this work in your schedule? Here are some awesome SAT study schedules to help you out (as well as some SAT Reading practice and SAT Writing and Language practice to incorporate!). Accept that SAT Math Is Its Own Thing Dont despair if your scores on your first new SAT practice test arent as high as youd like them to be. This is a standardized test, and there is a set of standard material that it tests over†¦and over†¦and over. One reason students dont see this at first is because the SAT likes to bundle simpler concepts together into mega-problems. While a question may actually be testing relatively basic algebra and geometry principles that youve seen a million times, for example, the combination of those principles is what makes these problems into more of a challenge. (Think of Hogwarts classroom practice compared to a wizards duel.) Thats why you should†¦ Practice One Topic at a Time—At First Actually, lets make that learn and practice one topic at a time. While youve probably already seen SAT Math topics in your math classes, it may have been a while since you had to think about algebra (or even pre-algebra!). In fact, be ready to show off your knowledge of: Algebra Averages Combinations and permutations Data interpretation Exponents Functions Geometry Integer properties Probability Percentages Sequences Statistics But for most of us, showing off isnt exactly what comes to mind when reviewing that list of topics. With that in mind, complete lessonsin a book, online, or in personthat emphasize in-depth practice of one mathematical area before moving onto another. This is particularly important in the early days of your SAT Math practice, when blanking on a process you learned three years ago can make you miss valuable points! However, you should also be taking regular SAT practice tests around once a week, because seeing those questions mixed together in all of their glory (or, you know, test-day context) is pretty important. And thats why, a few weeks before test day†¦ Get Ready for the Mental Game Once youve reviewed all of the math areas that the SAT tests, kick your practice into high-gear with sets of SAT Math questions. When Harry Potter gets into trouble, he cant just produce a patronus every time; he has to mix up his skills a little bit. And the same is true for SAT Mathyoull need to be used to changing gears quickly by test day. If moving from averages to functions, or exponents to permutations, throws you off, start your practice by creating sets of problems youve already done, whether in practice sets or on practice tests. These dont have to be long; 10 problems will be enough to start with. Ease yourself into the hodge-podge that is SAT Math by working through these problem sets before practicing with new problems. It can really help to keep a list of the subject areas tested by the problems you get wrong. You may find that its not geometry problems that give you troubleits only geometry problems that involve exponents. Or its not number properties that you need to reviewits number properties as theyre used in probabilities. The more precise you can be, the more targeted you can make your practice. Think Mathematically As you do more and more new SAT Math practice, youll find that the SAT rewards nimble thinking. By that, I mean leaping from one concept to another easily. The above practice strategies will help you do that, but you can also improve these skills in real life by thinking mathematically. Need to calculate a tip? Leave your phone in your pocket. Splitting the bill? See if you can do it mentally before breaking out the calculator. As you start relying on your brain rather than your calculator, more and more, youll see that this will not only make you faster on test day, but it can also help you get through problems more efficiently. Sometimes its really not important that the product of two numbers is , which is one less than 15, and 15 isn’t prime. Shortcut: Since you have to go by process of elimination, there isn’t a faster way to do this, really. Writing out 2k + 1 = prime might help you speed up your math, though. Question #5 Answer If a and b are distinct positive integers and , then what is one possible value of a? Answer: 8, 27, 64, 125, or any other perfect cube. Explanation: No answer choices to work with here†¦ and it’s not immediately obvious if plugging in any old number for the value of a or b will help us. We need to simplify the equation. Get b on only one side. Then get rid of that root 3 by cubing each side. Get the square root of each side to make it simpler. And you’re pretty much done. We know that b is an integer, so plug one in—say, 2—and the value of a is 8. Or whatever else, depending on what you choose for b. Shortcut: Once we get to , we can cancel out the 2s in each exponent to get And since we know b is an integer, a must be a perfect cube; just pick one.