<p>Aren’t math and writing questions all “plug and chug” on the SAT? You just have to memorize some math forumlas and have gone through pre-calc, and for writing you just have to memorize all the grammar rules. I haven’t taken an SAT before, but I don’t see why these two sections pose any sort of problems?</p>
<p>P.S. I can understand CR because the answers may be a little subjective, but for M and W, the answers ARE the answers, you can’t have an argument about what 2 + 2 =</p>
<p>
Nice thread.</p>
<p>
The answer to a CR question in SAT is not supposed to be subjective.</p>
<p>Critical Reading is OBJECTIVE. You can’t find the answer in the passage, it is WRONG.
Even if you know that humans don’t come from kittens, if the passage says so, it is so.</p>
<p>And 1500, Math + Writing is very possible if you learn the rules and are able to manipulate them.</p>
<p>Latency and ccprofile, i don’t know why you guys are flaming me, i made a comment and i thought CC’ers were smart enough to take other opinions into consideration. And my point exactly anhtimmy, Writing is just memorizing grammar rules, and Math is about using the stuff you learned up to pre-calc to solve somewhat easy problems.</p>
<p>And Latency, just because i haven’t taken an SAT does not mean i haven’t seen problems before.</p>
<p>It’s not a matter of being smart enough to take others opinions into consideration.
It’s a matter of being smart enough to realize that your a moron.</p>
<p>True, math and writing are largely based on memorization, but that’s true of pretty much every test. The hard part is actually pulling it off. The math section requires much more than knowledge of algebra formulas and such, you have to reason carefully through each problem and if you mess up on more than one then your score drops like crazy. Writing often has a few questions that require an ear for sophisticated prose more than some simple grammar rules, and the writing curve is usually pretty harsh as well.</p>
<p>Basically, miss 5-6 out of 100 or so questions and you drop below 1500 - not so easy even if the questions aren’t that hard.</p>
<p>Hey, lay off the flaming. Maybe the OP’s question, or one of their posts, might state something wrong, but that doesn’t give you the right to start insulting them randomly. </p>
<p>If you think they’re wrong, state why they’re wrong. Don’t throw around insults like “moron” just for the sake of it. All that does is to stir up trouble pointlessly. That’s a waste of their - and your - time.</p>
<p>Whatever happened to good manners?!..</p>
<p>^ Hmmmm, reminds me of an essay I wrote a little while ago… :)</p>
<p>I’m not flaming you over here.You said that answers to questions on CR are subjective which is not true and that’s what I pointed out and I certainly don’t think I’ve insulted you in anyways by doing so.
And as for your question of why it’s so difficult to score 1500+ in M+W,unfortunately SAT M&W are not JUST about memorizing some facts.You actually need to be able to apply that knowledge.And even if you actually are able to pull that off then amidst all the time constraints you could easily end up making a few mistakes and squander your chances of getting a 1500+ score.</p>
<p>Forget you, OP. I’m ok with my 1390 SAT score and don’t need to spend a ton of hours memorizing little manipulation methods.</p>
<p>Like anhtimmy said, CR really isn’t subjective. The answer is ALWAYS there. Math has NOTHING to do with memorizing formulas. It also only tests your math abilities to an extent because the concepts presented in 95% of the problems are so easy. If anything, the math section of the SAT actually tests your reasoning skills (your ability to figure out WHY the problems are so easy), or more simply, your common sense.</p>
<p>If any section is subjective, it’s probably the writing section. Some of those writing questions can be pretty questionable (though there still is a best answer 99% of the time). And we all know how subjective the essay is…</p>
<p>With CR the answer is always there, but there is sometimes some ambiguity in the answer choices. With CR the wrong answer could look so close to the right answer, and I find that it is harder to pick out what choice is right, especially on critical reading passages. If you know roots or vocabulary and you have somewhat of an idea of what words connote, the sentence completions shouldn’t be that difficult. Its the passage based questions that can really screw you up. I got 1580 M + W without preping for either section. CR I tried preping for and still got a 670…</p>
<p>Personally, I actually find math to be the hardest section to prepare for. Knowing the concepts will only take you so far because the concepts themselves are very simple; it’s the application that’s difficult. Practice is also of limited use because there’s an infinite amount of possible questions so you’re bound to see something on the test you’ve never seen before. If you can’t quickly reason through a question type you’ve never seen before, you’re bound to run into trouble. The writing sections tests a much more limited set of rules, and for CR everything you need is already in the test, so all you have to do is practice.</p>
<p>Wow, some of you are very rude. But, thanks for some of your responses, I learned a lot. I guess it’s because I find the ACT very easy but there’s always room for a mistake which is why a 36 is so rare. Now my question is, you get more time on the SAT than ACT yet scores seem to be significantly lower on the SAT, why?</p>
<p>“SAT scores seem significantly lower”</p>
<p>That statement is a complete logical fallacy. </p>
<p>Your perception of scores is completely arbitrary. The average for a typical SAT section is 500, whereas the average for an ACT section is 20.</p>
<p>So in actuality they equate to about the same through the standard deviation between the two.</p>
<p>You aren’t going to be able to understand why standardized tests are difficult until you take one. </p>
<p>ACT scores are only analogous to SAT scores through the percentile in which we reach them.</p>
<p>I always struggled with some parts of the SAT CR section (highest score was a 690), but did well on the math (800)</p>
<p>and my 1490 M+CR was good enough to get me into Princeton, so I’m not complaining</p>