Math sequence to qualify for SET (CTY)

[mathnerd]

If your kids qualified for SET (through CTY) how much math in the high school math curriculum sequence did your child complete before attempting the SAT as a middle schooler?

I am trying to figure out at what point my son will be able to take the SAT to try to qualify for SET.  So far, he has finished AOPS Intro to Alg. He has placed well in some national level math competitions and he studies interesting math topics and does a lot of math related puzzles for fun. That is the brief background of his academic level in math. He is working on AOPS Number Theory at the moment and will start AOPS Intermediate Algebra soon. If he completes the Algebra portion of the High school math sequence, does it provide a sufficient knowledge base to try for a 700 score in the SAT or do kids usually finish pre-Calc and Calc before they attempt it? I am trying to get a clearer picture so that my son can decide if he wants to go down the path of qualifying for SET in the next 2 years or not. Thanks as always for your help and wisdom.

[Kathy in Richmond]

Both of my kids qualified for SET in the fall of grade 7.

Ds did Jacob's Algebra in grade 6 and was part way through Dolciani Alg 2. He had not done a formal geometry.

Dd also did Jacob's in 6th and was part way through his geometry text when she took the SAT. She did alg2 in grade 9.

So, not super advanced in formal math curriculum! They started in public school, so even getting ds into prealgebra as a 5th grader took a lot of work.?

I used to teach for CTY when they had in-person classes here in Richmond for gifted math kids. Their approach was to speed them through a middle of the road curriculum (Bettinger, which is similar to Lial's).  My babies were small then, and I decided that I'd take a different approach with them. We didn't hurry through curriculum, but we did a lot of sideways math...puzzle books, living math books, lots of board games requiring reasoning, some very informal number theory and probability (no AoPS back then), chess, science museum and math center classes, etc. My goal always was to keep them interested and wanting more.

When they hit middle school age, I added in some AMC and MathCounts practice problems weekly. Dd started a little before that, because she wanted to do whatever big brother was doing. He started contest problems about a week before his first AMC 8 since I didn't find out till the last minute that homeschoolers were going to be allowed to participate that year. He scored a perfect paper, which sort of woke me up, LOL. After that AoPS was just beginning to come on the scene (found out about them on a MathCounts message board), and we also started down the road of summer math camps.

Edited August 7, 2018 by Kathy in Richmond

[Arcadia]

For DS12, it was test prep rather than how much he finished in math.

DS13 took SAT for the first and only time in June (end of 6th grade) after he finished AoPS precalculus and had a 750. He didn’t prep other than doing one of the practice test from CollegeBoard to know the format. His was the third sitting of the new SAT.

DS12 took the SAT twice in 6th grade. He didn’t prep the first time. The second time was in June, finished AoPS intermediate algebra, and had a 790. His first score was a 650 without prep in November (seven months earlier). He used Barron’s to prep and his English score went up by 210 points (620 to 730). 

[Arcadia]

Another thing to consider is the grading curve. The June SAT curve was harsh for math https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/easy-sat-has-students-crying-over-shocking-low-scores-n891036

So a bit of luck is involved. DS12 took for fun the first time and was aiming for SET the second time. He felt he could do all the questions for the math section the first time (after AoPS intermediate algebra) but he ran out of time for all four sections. A simple scientific calculator is more than adequate, DS13 said he didn’t have to use his calculator for SAT math calculator section. DS12 finished everything the second time he took the SAT, his test taking skills has really been improving. 

[gstharr]

Mine just missed SET on the June 2nd test. , We did about 8 practice math test from 2016-2017 Princeton workbooks (older=cheaper). But, I did make a mistake in his prep. He only did one reading/verbal practice to see the format. I almost told  him to take a nap during the verbal parts of the exam, but realized that doing nothing while others were testing would make him nervous. He surprised me with a 640 verbal. Now, we wonder if he would have gotten a 700 v with practice.