Day-1-e-course
THE EASIEST, QUICKEST WAY TO IMPROVE YOUR MATH SCORE
Most students’ pacing plan is to go as fast as possible and answer every question on the test. They think speed is more important than accuracy. The truth is they can increase their scores without even learning any new math skills or strategies! If only they would just slow down and realize that for the SAT . . .
Accuracy is more important than speed
The primary concept you must understand to improve your accuracy is order of difficulty. The questions in each group start out easy and get "harder."
Believe it or not, what determines a question’s level of difficulty is not how complicated a solution is or how long it might take to solve. This distinction is based on how many students got it right on past tests. In other words, the "harder" ones are trickier. If they weren’t tricky, more people would have got them right and you’d find them in the easy or medium portions!
SO, how can you use this information to your advantage? Good question. Two ways:
- Once you know your target math score (add 50 points to your most recent score), look at the pacing chart below and decide what fraction of questions you should omit/skip/never look at! If the chart recommends omitting 1/5, that would mean not doing four questions in a 20-question section. It would be wise to omit four "harder" questions (the ones in the last third) to free up time to spend on the less tricky ones.
- Since all of the questions are worth the same one point, you should not spend too much time on individual questions. This is especially true when you are in the "harder," AKA tricky, portion of questions. These questions will suck you in! Circle a question in the booklet if it’s taking too long. Often times coming back to a problem gives you a fresh perspective or you see a quicker approach.
SUMMARY
Unless you are already scoring greater than 700 in each section making your target score 750 or 800, you should not complete every section on the SAT! Accuracy is more important than speed. Use the pacing chart below to help you figure out how many questions you should skip/omit/IGNORE in the math sections! This will free up precious time to improve your accuracy on "doable" problems, which WILL increase your score!
Math Pacing Chart
| Target Score (800 possible) | Attempt this many questions (54 possible) | Accuracy on attempted questions | Omit this fraction of section |
| 350 | 11 | 67 % | 4/5 |
| 400 | 17 | 75 % | 2/3 |
| 450 | 28 | 75 % | 3/5 |
| 500 | 29 | 90 % | 1/2 |
| 500 | 36 | 75 % | 1/3 |
| 550 | 35 | 90 % | 1/3 |
| 600 | 43 | 90 % | 1/5 |
| 650 | 48 | 92 % | 1/10 |
| 700 | 51 | 95 % | 1/20 |
| 750 | 54 | 97 % | 0 |
| 800 | 54 | 100 % | 0 |
YOU MEAN I DON’T HAVE TO FINISH THE TEST?
That’s right. In fact, you should NOT answer all of the questions if you want to maximize your score (assuming you’re not a realistic candidate for 800). If you’re reading the chart carefully, you’ll notice you can skip HALF of the math questions, MISS some of those, and still get a 500 (the average SAT math score)! You can score 550 by never even looking at a third of the problems! You should only feel the need to even glance at the last third of the questions if your target score is above 550.
Of course, this strategy is just a launching place. As you study, you will learn why many of those questions are tricky, and you will make time to answer more and more of them. Before you do though, you have to master the easy and medium ones.
As with each of my suggestions — don’t take my word for it. Try this out on one of the sections in The Official SAT Study Guide. Compare your score to one you took before. If you haven’t taken a single test yet, take one attempting to finish it, and then take one using the above suggestions. Send me an email and let me know how much your score increases!
Look for my email tomorrow titled: An SAT math shortcut so easy, even a sixth-grader can do it.
To your ever expanding abilities,
Jason McDonald
P.S. If you’re anxious to see the rest of this free e-course right now, just replace day-1 with day-2, day-3, etc. in the following link:
http://increaseyoursatscore.com/day-1-e-course/
P.P.S. Feel free to post comments below, however, I am only answering questions via the forum in the member area (premium membership required) at this time. Keep up the studying!
Comments»
Answer more questions. Your accuracy on attempted Q’s is too high meaning you are risking nothing at the expense of omitting too many.
Hey Jason,
I’ve just done my first practice test from blue book 2nd edition and was able to get raw score of 36. I answered 37 questions but 1 grid-in was wrong. The conversion table of book shows that my score is 550-630. How can i get more exact scaled score? I did the test #2 from blue book, and got 36 raw points.
The ones most likely to take too much time that you’d get wrong anyway. Although there may be a few problems toward the end you can do with confidence or some along the way you can’t, you should skip the majority of them toward the end of each section.
HI there,
I did terrible on my SAT’s, i got like a 360 in the math section and i’m terrible at math. I need to get atleast a 420, and i’d be extremely happy. Which questions should i skip?
Hi Karna,
Hate to be the one to say it but a gain of 800 points is not very realistic. I can’t say it’s not possible, however, as I’m often proven wrong by my students
I’m more than happy to discuss with you but just wanted to give you a heads up that 50-200 point gains in each section are more reasonable. Feel free to give me a call to discuss.
hi,
I am currently taking kaplan’s SAT prep class. And my score overall score is (1210) math (480) CR (380) and Writing (350) eassay score 2. I want to get a 2000 SAT score by Dec 3th. Is there any way that you can help me?
Your predicament is not uncommon. I make a living out of helping people get out of that pattern so unfortunately it’s not a quick fix. The simple answer, however, is for every hour you spend taking a test you need to spend 2-3 hours reviewing it and practicing what you missed. It’s not enough to take test after test. Nor is it enough to simply review answers and say “oh, I see why I missed that — won’t do that again” because YOU WILL do that again. Unless you get to the root of the problem and change your ways. That is what a professional helps you do: find the problems in your approach and provide you better ones.
Yes. By skipping the Q’s that will zap your time toward the end and/or you’ll miss anyway you should spend more time focusing on the ones you’re making small mistakes on. Get your accuracy higher on the easier ones. That is precisely the point of my pacing lesson.
No. 99% of what you cover in Alg. 2 will not be on the SAT. 95% of what you cover in geometry will not be on the SAT. I suggest studying SAT math which can only be found in one place: The Official SAT Study Guide. Sure, if you find a weakness (e.g., parallel lines cut by transversal) then you can go review that section in a geometry book but no need to take a semester’s course. More than likely though it is STRATEGY you need to focus on more than math skills.
By the ways, which of these questions to we skip!! I tend to skip questions that i think will take too much time to solve, especially at the end where I try to look a every question and see what I can do. Do you think I should just not look at the one’s at the end and focus on the ones that I might be able to figure out? I also tend to make a lot of small mistakes in the mat sections that easily cost me points. Should I spend more time trying to verify them or leave them be!!
I took an SAT practice test and got a 510. I am aiming for 600+ I have a practice test coming up next week so I shall try your strategy. Math is of of my best score at the moment so i’ll try to improve it as much a possible.
i have been taking an SAT every week for the past 5 weeks and my math score is stuck in the 600-650 range, and i would really like to be in the 700′s. I have been omitting some questions, but that has not helped me. What should i do?
I would like to be able to get a 500, but math is in no way my best subject. I’ve taken the ACT math portion and the SATs once already, and didn’t really get the score I was hoping/wanting. I’m currently taking Algebra 2 and Geometry, would you suggest adding another to help my understanding?
Hi Colin,
You’re right, optimal pacing/omitting will likely get you a ~50-point gain so you need to do more to hit a 660. Glad to hear you’re up for the challenge. It takes approaching the test with new eyes and practicing it daily so it becomes second nature. I have all the strategies you need spelled out in the premium member area along with videos showing the quickest methods to get real SAT Q’s right. Maybe I’ll see you there!
I need to go from a 560 to a 660 to get into the engineering school I want to go to (Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken). I need to work on pacing more, but I also feel like I need to get SAT Math specific studying done in order to see that improvement, since I’m above the national average. Any advice?
Lane,
The tips in this course apply to any test taker. In addition, be sure to try them out on your own before test day. Taking practice tests from The Official SAT Study Guide will lower your anxiety dramatically.
I’m in the 7th grade, and Duke University is pushing me to take the SAT. I’m extremely nervous about the test, and math is my worst subject. Do you have any tips to help me on the test.
Rounding to 450 you’d omit three out of five per section. So 12 in the 20-Q section, 9/16, etc.
Okay I have a question, I recieved a 390 and my last Math Part, but I need a 460. How many question should I omit?
Yup. Because you would have missed them anyway. So you gain the 1/4 points they would have deducted for wrong answers but more importantly, gain TIME to get easier ones correct that would have fallen under the category of “I shouldn’t have missed those problems!”
You can seriously skip all those questions and your score won’t go down? Why?
Good question, Victoria. Because of order of difficulty, each section (including the fill in blank subsection) should be treated as its own test. So 1/3 in your case for each section.
Bring my math score up 50 points would be great… I now have a 530 but I obviously would like to boost it. I know I can omit a 1/3 of the test but how much would you reccomend in each section?
I have 5 months until I am retaking the SATs, and I want to improve my math score from 640 to at least 700. I omitted 3 out of 54 questions and I got 43 of them right which means I got 8 wrong. What should I do?
A 110 to 160-point gain in math is attainable. Just not in one step. Reread this lesson and go for 50 point gains at a time.
I want to get a 600-650 the last time I got a 490 and a 1760 total. I didn’t even opent the book the last time even though I got it last summer. I want to know if this is too idealistic
That is a very good tip that will help lots of students improve their score
I got a 610 for my very first SAT in may 1, 2010. My Goal is to get to at least 750. I haven’t try your method yet, but I will try it and hopefully it’ll increase 50 or more. I will definetly increase my confidences if this stratagy really works. And then, I will learn new methods for actually increasing my math strategy.
well i used your tactics on a practice math sat test and i increased my score by 60 and got it up to a 730! lets hope i can do it on dec 5th
Alright, thanks. I will get a practice SAT test. I already took the one on collegeboard.com before finding this site so I will put what you say in the tips to use in the practice test. Thanks!
Yes, that gain is realistic, Alec. But be sure to read my last few comments to Hassan.
I got a 670 on my math score before, is it realistically possible with these tips that I can increase my score to a 720?
i dont have one of those i have a cheaper one
Hassan,
Have you ever heard the expression in competitive sports that “we play how we practice?” What I’m saying is you need to put to practice what I’m laying out for you before you “play” on Saturday.
So, yes, if you put to practice what I’m laying out for you here, you can increase your score by the 40 points you’re looking for (I’m sure you can increase it by 100+ if you put to practice what I recommend in the member area). But only if you practice/master it before your test.
Have you taken a practice test section from the OSSG to practice what I laid out here in day 1 lesson on pacing?
ok so dont go in wanting 40 points…just take it fully with ur tips and i should be fine?
That depends entirely on your putting what I recommend to practice, Hassan. If I were in your shoes, I would not want to go into next Saturday with a maybe.
Try what I suggest each day on a real practice test section from the OSSG. You will know each day by your score if you are putting it to practice.
i got a 560 on math last time and im retaking my sat this saturday..all I need is a 600 and the school im applying too picks and chooses the best scores from all your sat’s and i did fine on the reading and writing section….so will i be prepared by the end of this week to get 40 points?
Yes, Valerie. Don’t believe me though — prove it to yourself. Hopefully you own the big blue book. Try it out on a timed math section or two.
i got a 540 the first time taking sat on math. is this really gonna help me i take it in a week again.
Pacing ALONE can take you from 600 to 650 overnight. To go from 650 to 750 will take learning new strategies and possibly reviewing SAT-specific math.
i want to get a 750, my last score was 600, will this help
Yup, it applies to PSAT as well. Same order of difficulty and penalties for wrong answers. Only difference on the PSAT is no essay writing or Algebra II concepts.
does this strategy apply to the PSAT as well
What was your most recent practice (or real) math score? And how many did you leave blank out of 54 questions total?
I want to get a 600 but I’m too nervous to just skip one out of every 5 questions because what if my accuracy is less that 90%? then i will be deducted and i need that score