Math - SAT planning for the advanced student

[danielleisdz]

Hello!  I am looking ahead at our math studies.  We are loving Saxon Math and I believe we might be able to finish Calculus by 13 or 14 years old.  My question is whether that is wise given the SATs are taken at age 16.  There's a lot of time to forget things in that period.  I might not want to try the SATs early because of the verbal section.

 

Thanks!

 

 

[Luckymama]

Have your child take the SAT Math 2 subject test as soon as pre-calculus is completed. Like, the next possible testing date.

 

And then shortly before the regular SATs are taken, take a released SAT as a practice to identify areas which might need reviewing (geometry, for example). Do targeted review followed by some more practice tests.

[dauphin]

That's the typical age for the SAT, yes, but if you have a student finishing Calculus that young, what do you envision for graduation (early?), DE, etc? How old is your student?

[snowbeltmom]

In my experience with my kids, the vast majority of math tested on the SAT is the type of math that, if the student mastered the topic, will not be forgotten even if the student hasn't seen the material for years.  I would make sure that your child masters the material and he will be in great shape for the SAT.  Good luck.

[Dmmetler]

In addition, many college superscore, so if he gets an awesome math score as a 9th grader, but then gets a better English score as an 11th grader, they'll take the best of both tests. 

 

 

[Arcadia]

. I might not want to try the SATs early because of the verbal section.

The new SAT english section going by the four practice tests is now more like ACT, just seem more wordy than ACT.

Some colleges do supercore for SAT as well.

[wapiti]

It will be interesting to see how the Redesigned SAT works out.  For the very advanced student, I would definitely take practice SATs and ACTs to see which test is a better fit and then review accordingly with a test prep book.

 

For such a very advanced student, I might also consider whether some additional math may make sense, for further talent development.  See, e.g. that Math Revolution article from the Atlantic and, as always, Rusczyk's The Calculus Trap and talk on problem solving)

Edited March 15, 2016 by wapiti

[Mike in SA]

Assuming your child doesn't stop taking math, I would expect test scores to continue climbing well after calculus. It's not like algebra disappears from the content - in fact, perfection begins to become a base assumption.

 

If you are worried about geometry, well, SAT is moving away from that.

 

All that said, I do not recommend plowing through to calculus at 13 or 14 using Saxon. If your child is capable of that, you will be doing them a disservice in the long run. Take a pause to learn other topics or do college algebra first. Depth matters. You don't have to go AOPS - there is a lot of good content to be had elsewhere. Group theory, probability (not basic statistics), discrete math, number theory, and finite math (more business oriented) are all good choices.

[madteaparty]

We are not mathy here (so help us god) and at this time not planning on jumping on the STEM train, so we are "delaying" math as it were. It also takes us three rounds for anything to stick. Doing algebra 1 now (second round), AMC class (again, not interested in the contest, just in doing some math) and C&p in summer, then taking the entire 7th grade year for algebra 2 and geometry. Intermediate algebra 8th grade.

I happen to think the Foerster book problems look so much like the new SAT. So I'm saving some to sprinkle around like magic dust review.

[MarkT]

Hello!  I am looking ahead at our math studies.  We are loving Saxon Math and I believe we might be able to finish Calculus by 13 or 14 years old.  My question is whether that is wise given the SATs are taken at age 16.  There's a lot of time to forget things in that period.  I might not want to try the SATs early because of the verbal section.

 

Thanks!

Saxon is not advanced - you should supplement with AoPS, Dolciani or Foerster to see if student fully understands the underlying math concepts.

 

Don't rush on to Calculus see:

https://www.artofproblemsolving.com/articles/calculus-trap