<p>people say, such and such a book have the best strategies…but what are those ppl referring to? is there actually a strategy for different types of math or cr or writing questions? i dont believe timing to be a strategy, as it is just something you need to be good at for this test. isnt the real key to mastering the SAT just tons of practice, or is there a ‘strategy’?? if so, wat is an example of one?</p>
<p>I think they just mean the type of crap that’s in Barron’s books, with those huge anagrams with each letter standing for something.</p>
<p>There are a few strategies. For instance the math section will generally provide multiple choice possiblities in a consecutive fashion. So, if you can rule out C as being too great or too small then you can also exclude the answers greater or smaller than C. Also, you can plug in the provided multiple choice answers, which can often be a quicker way of solving the problem.</p>
<p>The skills that are good for any test are good for taking the SAT. Any test-prep guide or course that deals with these skills in general are useful. For example, the fact that the answers to a math problem run from low to high or high to low is good test writing – all tests should be written this way. </p>
<p>Since there are so many prep books out there, the “strategies” for “beating” the SAT’s provide a way to sell books. These books are read not only by test takers, but also by the test developers, so if there are any real “secrets” being revealed for “cracking” previous forms of the test, they probably won’t be useful for very long. </p>
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<p>Lots of practice is one of the real keys to mastering anything. It’s just not the only key. It also helps to know the subject material, among other things.</p>
<p>thanx (10 char)</p>
<p>PR really stresses “shortcuts” as strategies in the math section. Instead of using equations and such, sometimes you can ballpark the answer and save time.</p>
<p>I hate ballparking an answer.</p>
<p>Yeah, I didn’t like that about PR. They have the Ball Park, POOD, Joe Bloggs, the ‘C’ thing.</p>
<p>But thanks to PR I got an 800 math :)</p>
<p>Yeah, you need to know how to do math and know your English grammar, but the strategies help with shortcuts and stuff. I liked the PR strategies best, esp for process of elimination, and the ball park one too. It just helps a little extra to know the traps that are built into the test so you don’t spend as much time racking your brains to solve the question. But definitely, practice is key. Do as many tests as you can.</p>
<p>so…all PR is teaching you is more or less common sense?</p>
<p>LOL if only it were that easy…then again, our class brainiac has no street smarts whatsoever. So I guess there’s academic common sense and real world common sense.</p>