Lowest SAT score you've ever heard of?

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I am fairly new here and haven’t posted much. For one thing, I am a retired middle school math teacher and 61 years old. When I was in high school, I only took the SAT one time, during the year of 1967.</p>

<p>Back in those days, there were only two sections of the SAT:</p>

<p>1) SAT Math
2) SAT Verbal</p>

<p>Therefore, the highest possible score one could get was a 1600 instead of a 2400.</p>

<p>I also gratuated from a small town country high school, where any student who was able to get 1200 or above was considered a genius. During my high school years, I never met anybody who made a 700 or higher on either the Math or the Verbal section.</p>

<p>It also seems like in those days, if anybody did make a perfect 1600 on the SAT, it usually made the national news. I can remember reading a number of newspaper articles about students who accomplished this feat.</p>

<p>My one and only SAT Math score was nothing to brag about – a 477. My SAT Verbal score was even worse – a 399. Those scores were good enough to get into my local community college. Back in those days, your SAT scores were not rounded to the nearest tens place yet.</p>

<p>Yet, I wound up becoming a math teacher. This was after I went to college and started to get serious about studying math. My major was actually psychology, but I earned the equivalent of a “minor” in math with 18 undergraduate hours.</p>

<p>Needless to say, there were no calculators in those days.</p>

<p>Believe it or not, I now do some part-time retirement work as a private math tutor. I focus primarily upon Pre-Algebra and Algebra I. </p>

<p>I also get called upon to tutor Geometry, which I try to avoid, primarily because I don’t like dealing with all of those proofs. However, I enjoy the types of Geometry problems I see on the SATs.</p>

<p>Lately, I have also been getting a lot of requests to tutor Algebra 2, which has changed dramatically since I took it in high school back in 1966. I am havin to teach a lot of it to myself.</p>

<p>I have also tutored one SAT Math student. His parent hired me because he was unable to crack a 400 on the Math section of the SAT after several tries. With my help, he finally got it, but just barely. According to his parent, all he needed was a 400 on his SAT Math to get into the college of his choice. Math was a major struggle for him. </p>

<p>In any event, the reason why I decided to join this site was to pick up a few tutoring tips on how to better tutor the Math portion of the SAT, just in case I get any more SAT Math students in the future.</p>

<p>Many of you are way beyond me with your natural math aptitudes. An that’s good. I have learned a lot from reading your posts.</p>

<p>Before I forget, I did once help a graduate student, who only got a 250 on the Math portion of his GRE, to break a 500 on his next try.</p>

<p>For students who have been scoring in the 700s on their Math SAT scores, and who are shooting for a perfect 800, I am definitely NOT the tutor they are looking for. </p>

<p>If I were to take the Math portion of the SAT today, I MIGHT break a 700 after several tries, knowing what I know now and after what I have learned. I am guessing that I would score in the mid to upper 600s if I were to take it today. At my age (61), my thinking skills are not as fast as they used to be.</p>

<p>Therefore, if a student contacts me and wants help breaking a 400 or a 500 on the Math SAT, I believe I can help them. If they want to break a 600, I believe I might be able to help them. If they want a 700 or higher, I would refer them to somebody else. I’m just not there yet.</p>

<p>Thanks for letting me tell a little about myself.</p>

<p>Good luck on your next SAT.</p>

<p>Best Wishes,</p>

<p>Dennis</p>