kokotg Posted July 31, 2023 Share Posted July 31, 2023 DS is taking the SAT one more time at the end of August in hopes of bringing his math score up. He's close to maxing out the EWR, but the math is stuck in the mid 600s, so he only needs to work on math. We were on the fence about him taking it again, but it seems worth putting in a push to get the math up enough that he could submit the score most everywhere, even at his reaches (I don't know that he's applying anywhere that's not test optional...if he is it's somewhere where his current score is good enough)...at any rate, he decided he wants to give it one more shot. His older brothers both did Khan and nothing else and did well with that, but the math prep on Khan is not clicking with this kid. He has no particular problems with math except that he doesn't like it (and thus spends a lot of time doodling instead of actually mathing...though not on the actual SAT day, I don't think). And his Dad is a high school math teacher, so he has a built in tutor. My plan is to have them spend 30 minutes or so an evening for the next few weeks, see what happens, and call it good either way. Does anyone have recommendations for a book or other resource that would work well for this? Is a book even necessary or should he just spend the time going through problems, since his Dad is there for the explanations part? (although he doesn't have any recent experience with tutoring SAT prep in particular) I don't think we care enough about raising the score to pay for an outside tutor in these days of test optional admissions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted July 31, 2023 Share Posted July 31, 2023 We liked the SAT Prep Black Book best of the couple we looked at. I glossed over the "rah, rah, students who use this book are the most prepared" schtick which we found tiresome. We liked his thorough discussion of all the right and wrong answers for each question for the first 4 released tests. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gstharr Posted July 31, 2023 Share Posted July 31, 2023 If he understands the math (alg 1 &2, and geometry) and just needs practice questions, check out Dr. Raymond Chung's SAT Math ( I believe 5th ed. is latest, but 3rd or 4th will do, and are cheaper), PWN the SAT Math Guide, and as many of the kaplan, princeton practice test you can get your hands (2020, 2021, 2022 are fine and cheaper). Alternate daily taking timed calc/no calc sections. Dad should score the exams and have your son fully rework any wrong responses--not simply, I see what I did wrong. Repetition is the key, because there is a pattern to the test questions. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennyD Posted July 31, 2023 Share Posted July 31, 2023 1 hour ago, Miss Tick said: We liked the SAT Prep Black Book best of the couple we looked at. Agreed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KimberlyW Posted August 1, 2023 Share Posted August 1, 2023 (edited) I found 1600.io really useful in tutoring for the SAT. They now have an ebook that I've heard amazing things about (and sounds like it may be more helpful in your case because you can take practice tests and then complete sections based on only the problems you missed) but I have only personally used the 2 physical volumes. Edited August 1, 2023 by KimberlyW Clarity 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madteaparty Posted August 1, 2023 Share Posted August 1, 2023 I have no SAT specific tips but just want to say my DS was the same and he managed to raise his math score a huge amount from where he started. Issue is it took a bit of time ((more than a month) and he didn’t get his nearly perfect ACT score (which was the number he was aiming for) until a bit later senior year than August. So, it can be done but it may take a bit of runway is all. I’ve heard anecdotally fall senior year is a huge growth time 💪 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted August 1, 2023 Author Share Posted August 1, 2023 5 hours ago, madteaparty said: I have no SAT specific tips but just want to say my DS was the same and he managed to raise his math score a huge amount from where he started. Issue is it took a bit of time ((more than a month) and he didn’t get his nearly perfect ACT score (which was the number he was aiming for) until a bit later senior year than August. So, it can be done but it may take a bit of runway is all. I’ve heard anecdotally fall senior year is a huge growth time 💪 That's good to hear! Although this kid is likely applying ED so August will be his last shot for that. I kind of wish I'd tried to talk him out of taking it again at all because he's SO hard on himself about it (he's also auditioning for the music school at his ED school so applying test optional almost certainly won't matter even a tiny bit there), but I tried to just lay out pros and cons as I saw them and leave it up to him, and here we are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmeilaen Posted September 15, 2023 Share Posted September 15, 2023 We are using The College Panda's SAT Math and ACT and SAT Review with Dana Mosely (Chalk Dust Company). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malam Posted September 18, 2023 Share Posted September 18, 2023 I'll second the 1600.io orange book and the College Panda SAT Math 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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