I am going over the Khan Academy material. It is divided into 41 sections. Some of the sections seems very straight forward, and easy to study for. For example, the complex number problems are all evaluating complex expressions. Studying for it seems really valuable, as there are not so many tricks to worry about. I think a student should be able to get decent preparation by going through the Khan material. It should be fairly easy to write prep books expanding on each of the 41 sections.
Probability and counting problems seem to be gone. Made up operations also seems to be gone. There is less geometry. More advanced algebra and data analysis.
I kind of expected made-up symbols to go. And I can see why, though I liked them. They are more fitting on a test that thinks of itself as an aptitude test and less fitting with the common core SAT rebrand.
But I will be really sad if probability and counting go… they are among the most interesting topics on the old SAT. And you could make a case that they are also among the more “relevant”. Alas…
I think probability and counting are among the coolest parts, but I can’t find them in the Khan Academy material.
The problems in that material seem real straight forward, like school problems where you just have to memorize how to do them. They seem to involve less reasoning than ACT problems. With ACT math, if you miss a problem, there is something really basic you don’t know or understand. They were losing tons of business to the ACT from good students who did things by the book and were confused by the old SAT.
It seems like it is pretty easy to tutor or write prep material for, but you need to use a different approach.
The algebra and data analysis is important for college, as designed.
IMO the SAT is losing relevancy, and this is not going to help. I think the ACT will became the main exam and SAT IIs and AP exams will continue to become more important.
I looked at writing and reading and the changes seem good, pretty much copying the ACT English and Science sections.
My main problem with math is they seem to have gone to the opposite extreme, making the problems extremely straight forward. One of the 41 sections in Khan is right triangle word problems. These are almost all the same. You just have to apply the Pythagorean Theorem. In the past, for example with counting problems, there would be a number of different types of problems all with variations on them. It looks like 1/41st of the test is just being able to apply the Pythagorean Theorem in obvious word problems.
@mathplustutornj Are you implying that the math tests are, in effect, just changing the numbers from test to test? For example, I saw one complex numbers problem, not a difficult one, that required multiplying through the complex conjugate. Your claim is that will be tested on every test.
At the same time, there is a substantial share of Algebra 2 and Pre-Calculus questions, at least difficult ones.
It seems like the share of questions requiring more advanced concepts to be taught will be larger on the new SAT than it is on the ACT
I was just looking at the Khan Academy stuff. They have 5 problems for each section. Some are close to the same problem. I mentioned the examples of the complex numbers problems, which were all evaluating expressions or multiplying and evaluating. No problems like what is i^57 or (2+i)/(3+i), where you have to multiply by the conjugate: those are on the ACT. They also seem very non tricky, less tricky than the ACT.
@mathplustutornj In the past 10 years of ACT tests, I have never seen a problem on the ACT that required simplifying a complex fraction by multiplying by the complex conjugate. If one did, the graphing calculator can help.
On one of the SATs released by the College Board as practice for the Redesign, one of the medium-level multiple choice questions in the non-calculator section required simplifying a fraction by multiplying by a complex conjugate. I could see no other method of solving the problem without multiplying through by the complex conjugate.
Perhaps the Khan Academy is not sufficiently thorough?
Yeh, maybe it’s the Khan Academy. Check out right triangle word problems. They are all basic Pythagorean problems. I assumed because they are official they are accurate, but maybe they are sloppy like some other prep material.
I wondered about that too. They call it something like “official material developed with our partner” or some phrase like that that set off alarm bells for me.
Amazon says that the new blue book will come at the end of this month. That should get us a much clearer view. And yet it may be that we don’t get the full picture until a QAS comes out.
While Khan Academy is great at TEACHING stuff, like said earlier, their problems are reallyyyy repetitive. If the SAT prep is the same, then don’t expect the practice questions to be too accurate. But I think there are actual practice tests on their - so I’m not so sure about those. We’ll see.
Yeh, I was taking the Khan material as official, meaning that it was questions put out by College Board, rather than just really sloppy free test prep material.
My other comments stand. It should be easy to prepare for and important to prepare for. Since the math isn’t so tricky, and is more advanced, but not super advanced; it should be relatively easy to study all the typical problems.
Also, you could make prep material in a similar format to Pwn the Math SAT or Barrons Math SAT Workbook, showing how to do problems of each of the 41 types.
The whole test is actually very similar to the ACT, which in general is probably an improvement IMO. It was also have twice the math of the ACT.
Number theory math problems are also gone. I think that is a cool area, but some topics like that and made up operations were probably influenced by “new math”, a 1960s fad started by theoretical mathematicians to teach elementary and high school students concepts from theoretical mathematics. This was presented as a way to defeat the Russians who had put up the first satellite. I think they also took out problems about properties of numbers, and other stuff influenced by theoretical mathematics.
The percent problems in Khan are all very basic, but I assume they are retaining, the 12 is 15% of what and percentage increase/decrease type problems.
@mathplustutornj It may be more in the spirit of the ACT, but it definitely looks harder. For students who haven’t taken Algebra 2 until junior year, there will be more advanced material for the SAT.
For example, synthetic division and rationalizing complex number fractions are not considered advanced topics on the new SAT. These are also topics in which a calculator cannot be used. On the ACT, in contrast, these topics never come up. If they did, a calculator could be used.
You seem to have deduced that there are exactly 41 types of math problems that can appear on the new SAT? Is that again something coming from Khan? Given that there are more than 41 math questions per test, the number 41 already surprises me. Suppose it is true, you are saying that radians, for example, will be on every test and tested the same way every time?
For very advanced students, the new SAT math has the advantage of being 50% of the test, whereas on the ACT is only 25%. Very advanced students may likely see no difference between the two. Those who don’t like geometry may prefer the new SAT, but advanced students will probably find all the various maths comparable somewhat.
For less advanced math students, the new SAT seems like it’ll be greater leap than what they’ve already seen in school than either the ACT or the current SAT math
Yeh, the Khan Academy had it divided into 41 topics, and that might be useful for prep material. However, as you may be implying their categorization may not be accurate either.
I am not sure if the math on the new SAT is more advanced than that on the ACT. You definitely need Algebra 2 for both and precalc might be helpful.