SAT Math Tips
One of the best SAT Math Tips is to wait to take until one’s junior year to take the SAT because the SAT tests on algebra, geometry, and algebra II concepts which you will probably have finished learning before your junior year. You can register to take the SAT on the College Board website. If you don’t do well on the SAT the first time, know that you can retake it as many times as you want, and many students do retake the SAT the summer between their junior and senior year or in their senior year. Most colleges have the option to send your highest SAT score out of all the SATs you’ve taken.
Preface: I scored a 1480 on my SAT after taking 50 plus practice tests. It’s safe to say I know my stuff!
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General Tips
When you’re taking the SAT, your proctor will tell you to do a Section 5. Section 5 is an experimental section that College Board uses to collect data about test questions. It has no impact on your score and you don’t have to do it. For both math and reading, the SAT likes to trick you so they tend to put the wrong answers higher on the A, B, C, D multiple choice scale, like wrong answers tend to be A. To combat this, look at the answers from bottom to up, from D to A. This also means that if you need to guess an answer, your answer will most likely be D or something lower at the bottom. For the math section, underlining parts of the question will help you combat making silly mistakes. Also, read the whole question and look at all of the answer choices. This applies for every section of the SAT. You’re also allowed to use a calculator for the math section so don’t forget yours.
The best way for how to score well on the SAT is to practice taking and study from real past SAT tests that you find on Reddit here. You’re better off studying from real past SAT tests than using Khanacademy because even though Khan has some real practice problems and real tests, they also give you practice questions that weren’t actually real test questions. You also see some concepts on Khan that aren’t tested on the real SAT.
SAT math tips
You definitely want to try to improve your math section. You can jump a lot of points fast by trying to improve your math because all you have to do is memorize how to do certain types of problems! The SAT writing and language section is also easy to improve quickly because you just have to memorize some grammar rules for that section, but the math section in my opinion is the easiest to improve. The SAT reading section (not including the writing and language) is probably the hardest to improve.
The SAT math has patterns and it tests on the same type of math questions. These patterns mean that if you have practice with a lot of real past SATs you should not walk into the SAT math section and see something you don’t expect. I took 50 plus practice math sections when studying for the SAT and I compiled the math formulas you need to know and the types of questions you will see. This math cheat sheet is one of the rewards that can be found on this website’s Rewards System page, but I also decided to give it to you here. Note that this cheat sheet assumes that you have basic knowledge of math and that you don’t need need to be taught how to factor, work with fractions, and do systems of equations (which are 3 things you need to know how to do for the SAT).
Note: You can read my post about SAT reading tips!
