<p>Hello everyone, I am newcomer here. I am from Viet Nam and have been in United States for 6 months and first took the SAT October. Unfortunately the grade is terribly dissapointed and accursed. I have nearly troubles with all parts: Writing, Reading, Math. I really have a feeling I am stuck already. The Math section is like a matrix, the reading passage is sort of confusion and the writing section is futile since my college does not look at it.</p>
<p>I study very hard and shall take the exam next December. However, I am still very uncertain and have a sort of premonition of an impending failure. Do you have any advices?</p>
<p>I just draw many precious conclusions while am practising Math with my brilliant Math instructor. That shall I never use excessive arithmetic, that evaluation of function is just a plug-in game. Yet my rate of getting correct questions in this section is only about 6-8 questions in a 20 questions Math section. Do you know how to pace myself?</p>
<p>Don’t think to yourself that you won’t succeed. Such a self fulfilling prophecy will not yield good results. Don’t study hard, study intelligently. Make the most of your time by take practicing exams over and over and ALWAYS review every question.</p>
<p>For math, you just have to learn some simple concepts and know how to apply them. The same things are always tested, all that’s needed is practice.</p>
<p>@ Duper : What would you suggest on reading passages? I really have a difficulty reading them. Sometimes I barely understand them. LOL too bad!!!</p>
<p>Cuong, are you good at math and reading in your own language? If you were good at math and reading in your school in Vietnam, then try taking the TOEFL instead of the SAT.</p>
<p>For reading passages, it’s also practice. For reading passages, my method of attack is to keep asking myself as I read “What is the author getting at? What is he trying to tell me?” If you don’t understand something as you’re reading, reread the line before it and move on. When I get to the questions, I always eliminate the bad choices first instead of finding the best among the good choices first. Once you have 2-3 choices gone because of reasons such as direct contradiction, extra info, extreme language, then you make your selection.</p>
<p>You need to practice doing reading sections in order to get better. The same format of questions always show up. My score went up 150 points using this method, so good luck guys.</p>
<p>Math should not be a “plug in game”, it should be one of understanding and logic. The section tests not how fast one can chug and glug numbers, but use basic algebra to determine the correct answer. Hence beyond practice I would suggest that you reintroduce yourself to the basics - that’s what the SAT math is all about!</p>
<p>As for the reading, Duper has good advice, but personally I wouldn’t go for the “elimination” method 100% of the time. I suppose for some people it works well, but personally, I think that deeply reading the passage and understanding it is more important than playing a game with the answers.
I like the “what is the author” getting at part, because that’s what works - if you understand the passage, you understand it. For this, simply practice more, time yourself, and do tons of questions.</p>
<p>Well, I’ve found that some passages are just unbearable for me (I remember reading about the design of fences in suburbs on one of my CB practice tests, FENCES), so the elimination approach works well for that. For passages you are actually interested in (I always ace science passages), you should be able to do well without any specific plan. But ultimately, the test is about how well you can take the test.</p>
<p>Avid readers do well because they are so used to reading things of all subjects. As an immigrant, you are at an unfortunate disadvantage; especially on the sentence completions. If I were in your position (and I once was), I suggest you make improvements on your math first because math is so much easier to learn. Even CC members debate over reading questions, but math is either right or wrong. At your level, you want to pace yourself such that you won’t miss any easy math questions and omit harder questions if you have to.</p>
<p>I know this sounds a bit silly, but I have researched carefully my performance in Reading Passage, it could be said that Passages upon Novel, Biography is usually BAD, while if the passages belong to Social Study, History then I can do well upon that. Generally, it seems that my performance is very unstable, but maximum is only 65% the total score.</p>
<p>If I do not know certainly what is the answer, I usually leave it blank, wihtout filling it with guess, I scare to death a minus 0.25</p>
<p>I think plug in in Math is just lame. It takes more time and perhaps my eventual strategy. I already try to do this strategy in a Math, the result is 3 correct, but it takes 1m20 for each question, thanks, but I agree Math is logic, not a game.</p>
<p>Read a simple lit book ig Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, then think about the the plot, the characters, analyze thn compare ur ideas with Spark notes online. Then, try out the method of analyzing on CR passages.</p>
<p>One of the most difficult feature of a Critical Reading Passage is any part which describe characters’ shape, emotion.</p>
<p>I have a question, besides having new books for SAT. Some old SAT books contain very good practise tests. Shall I skim through them and try several questions. I think over years the Reading Passage does not actually change that much.</p>