I don’t think “study” is really the correct term for what I’ll be doing. I’m not going to be learning anything new or looking at any specific ‘types of problems’, I just have to learn to better manage my time and read the questions more carefully. Most of the points I lost on my first try were lost because I kept checking my answer because I’m so prone to making a mechanical error in my rush. For example, I get the idea quickly, and while writing out my calculations I write “2” instead of “-2” in the following line. I was so afraid of that that I didn’t want to rush through and lose easy points, and so I didn’t finish as many of the harder questions as I could’ve. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but I don’t think the SAT math questions are super-challenging or anything, or at least, that wasn’t my problem with them. My problem has been that I either go through a question too quickly and make a careless error, or too slowly and miss other questions.
I appreciate your candor, and I’m certainly going to have to think long and hard about what you’re saying, but would you not agree that, with my ambitions, getting into MiT (disregarding possible financial issues) would be beneficial regardless of my classmates’ performance? That’s an honest question, because I’m not sure what that experience would be like. I feel right now that being around such intelligent people builds an awesome and beneficial atmosphere that I don’t want to pass up.