I’m glad your child did well without prepping. Some kids are just naturally good at test taking.
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A lot of people who are really good at higher-level math and stats can’t do quick mental arithmetic to save their lives.
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My daughter was the same it drove me nuts. Then she got a 34 on her ACT- wanted to take it again, again didn’t do anything until the night before and got a 36. My son has taken the PSAT twice, Pre ACT once and actually the SAT twice. He won’t study so his tests are his practice. He has a solid score but wants the Naval Academy and is not a varsity athlete so needs to be in the top percent of scores.
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My kid said that knowing how to use the Desmos calculator makes a world of difference for the digital test. He said that if you know how to use Desmos you can work out a lot of the math. Might be worth looking up some tutorials for Desmos before the test.
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For sure but if you don’t know how to use do NOT use it. It will mess you up!
That learning probably didn’t hurt. However, from what I have read and heard, a good portion of a test taker’s score - especially the more verbal portions - are largely baked in by late elementary and middle school. It is the reading and being read to and being consistently subjected to a varied and extensive vocabulary from a young age that dictates ACT / SAT performance. The math portion may be a bit different, but I suspect that there is some level of correlation there as well.
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This is my kid’s plan; they never use Desmos but use their own TI-84 on a daily basis. It will be interesting to see if their math score suffers as a result of skipping Desmos. They’ve taken the paper SAT 3 times and scored the same on math each time, so we have a baseline score.
Mine is taking the dSAT this month only because it’s required by the high school to graduate. We’re fully planning to use their December paper SAT score on college applications.
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Speaking as someone who had never heard of the Desmos calculator til it was brought up here, and who is pretty sure his kids (including the 780M one) have never played with it, what is the advantage of having used it?
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This is from a SAT/ACT tutor I see frequently post on facebook groups (do not know them personally, nor am I endorsing this info;))
Here is last-minute advice for raising scores on the revamped SAT:
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Throughout the test, avoid the trap of misdirection, the attempt to overwhelm with irrelevant information. For example, the sentence before the blank on “Standard English Conventions” questions should generally be skipped over and not read at all. Where possible, ignore the often complicated details and focus only on what is important. (Incidentally, this is an essential life skill.)
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There is a new question type in the Reading and Writing section (bulleted notes questions) that most students can answer correctly in a small fraction of the normal time with one simple trick.
This type of question contains a bulleted list of information. The question asks students to first read it, and then answer a single question to check understanding. It turns out that a much more effective way to answer the question is to completely ignore the bulleted list. The question itself always contains a simple task in the first sentence after the words “The student wants to” that is not impacted at all by the information that was just presented; in fact, the bulleted list is just a complicated distraction from the straightforward task. Students who know this “hack” will simply ignore the time-consuming reading, and more easily succeed in focusing on the question’s task. (Incidentally, this is the first question type in two decades that is genuinely flawed. I would be happy to speak to the College Board about this to enable them to improve their generally high-quality test.)
- Most of the math questions can now be solved with little or no knowledge of math. Yes, about 65% of the sample questions that the College Board has released can be solved by typing them into the very sophisticated calculator (Desmos) that is bundled with the test software. This includes advanced topics such as quadratic equations, complex functions, systems of equations, and completing the square. Some can be solved instantly by typing them verbatim into Desmos, and some can be solved through creative use of its advanced or non-intuitive features. This means that students should become expert today in its use by practicing with it at every opportunity. It can be used for free in a browser [Desmos | Graphing Calculator]
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Good luck to everyone’s kids who are testing tomorrow morning!
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My son just finished. He thought it was easy. That makes me nervous 
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My daughter also just finished and thought the math was really hard. She said there were more fill in the blank questions than she expected. For reference she got a perfect math score on the PSAT. She thought the English sections were pretty easy though.
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After further discussion he did say there was math on it he has never learned (he is currently in advanced Calc)
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What I am seeing with my Ds friends is that a lot of kids have holes in their knowledge due to COVID.
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She’s signing up for the June test just to be safe. Said the scores come out by the 22nd.
My D reported that the English was easy, but there was one math question in the first section that she didn’t know and it threw off her mojo. She went back to it three times and still couldn’t figure it out. It was multiple choice and she put an answer down, but she isn’t confident about it.
Fingers crossed, she has a decent score already, but wanted to try the digital version.
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I’m breaking my Lenten fast of CC (which was great for the first few weeks and now is a mere thought for the moment) to say that it is both awesome and horrible to be on the West Coast and have your D25 taking the SAT at the same time I’m reading feedback from those of you farther east.
D25 did no prep aside from taking one practice exam so she understood the format, which felt important since she wasn’t able to take the PSAT, so…we’ll see.
ETA: D25 concurs with everyone else. The second math section was harder than she expected.
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We drove to our testing center about an hour away. My kid had assured me that she had everything she needed. Turns out her laptop was left charging on her bed. She’s frustrated, it feels like we just keep moving the finish line. She still has a school day test next month and is registered to take it again in June, but I think she was really hoping to just be finished. Oh well, life happens I guess.
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Also reporting that S25 felt the math was really tough. He hasn’t been focused on it in prep (yes he’s been prepping! Definitely identified knowledge gaps and needed to shore up some of the language/grammar components- I fully blame Covid for this!)
He felt confident in the verbal section. We knew going in that this was going to be a first attempt and he will retake when he is at school in a familiar setting. Supescore is going to be his best friend in this effort.
Also mentioned the girl behind him was snoring, loudly 
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Will report back anything gleaned from SD25, she was manifesting a perfect score and practice tests have routinely been in the 1500-1600 range- that kid is in a different world 
Edited to add her color: the math section felt like a breeze for her, but she found some of the reading passages absolutely wild with “lots of crazy terminology”
She didn’t feel it was her best test but to the point others have made, what you feel doesn’t always correspond to how you actually DO! Either way so happy to have a test under the belt and done.
Packing bags and heading to the airport. We all need a break after a week of college tours and test anxiety.
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I think it’s absurd that they got rid of full passages.
Hoping everyone did well. I hope everyone will share results. I am very curious to see the comparisons for those that also took the paper test.