G5052 Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 My sophomore did the PSAT, and I was quite happy with the scores. The math needs to come up a little if we're going to be in the running for a National Merit award though. He claims that the math gave him the most trouble and that he skipped the harder problems. I'm not surprised. Although he had an "A" in Algebra I, and is pushing an "A" now in Algebra II, math takes a looong time. He truly struggles although he works hard and eventually figures it out. He had the same issue on the Stanford exam last year. He did beautifully on the percentile, but skipped/guessed more on the math than anywhere else. Will the Chalk Dust SAT/ACT help with that? He needs to know shortcuts and how to work faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTMCassandra Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 We bought these, and my math-hating daughter really likes them. She didn't get them all done before the PSAT, but she will definitely finish them before trying the SAT. So they get a thumbs-up from us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 My daughter also found the Chalk Dust SAT review beneficial. (Just a note: I have a set for sale on the Classifieds board.) Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenda in MA Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 My sophomore did the PSAT, and I was quite happy with the scores. The math needs to come up a little if we're going to be in the running for a National Merit award though. He claims that the math gave him the most trouble and that he skipped the harder problems. I'm not surprised. Although he had an "A" in Algebra I, and is pushing an "A" now in Algebra II, math takes a looong time. He truly struggles although he works hard and eventually figures it out. He had the same issue on the Stanford exam last year. He did beautifully on the percentile, but skipped/guessed more on the math than anywhere else. Will the Chalk Dust SAT/ACT help with that? He needs to know shortcuts and how to work faster. I had my older son use the Chalkdust SAT/ACT math review. He didn't mind watching it, but I don't think it helped him that much. He was already pretty strong in math, and I think the Chalkdust set is best as a review for those who are trying to improve an average score. If your son is already doing pretty well, and just needs shortcuts & speed tips, I would suggest having him work through the math sections of the College Board Blue SAT prep book. I did that with my younger son this summer, and I kept a list of all of the problems he missed. I found that about half of his mistakes were due to not reading the problem (it asked for 2x, and he chose x, etc.). The more times he was duped by the wording in the problem, the more determined he became to read carefully. The other half of his errors were some conceptual/algebraic things he had either forgotten or hadn't seen in the form they appear on the PSAT. For those, we just got out the math books and reviewed the appropriate sections, and he studied the list of problems he had missed the week before the test. As his practice sessions progressed last summer, he slowly got better and better on the math sections (and quicker, too), and he improved his math score about 8 points from what it was the previous fall. HTH, Brenda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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