A bit of practical advice about maximizing your SAT math score

I’ve covered this before at length, but it’s important to remember that, in general, you’ll increase your score more by making fewer silly mistakes than you will by getting more of the hardest questions right.  I’ve always left the actual calculations and decision making in your court, though. Well, the decision making is still in (more…)

How to know whether you should guess on the SAT

Because there’s a penalty of ¼ raw score point for incorrect multiple choice responses on the SAT, many students experience extreme trepidation about guessing when they aren’t sure about an answer. I’ve stated my general advice on guessing before, but the truth is that while I almost always find that my students benefit slightly from (more…)

Score Choice™ and “Super Score” FAQ

Most of what you’ll read below can be found couched in more confusing language right at The College Board’s own Score Choice™ website, or in their Score-Use  Practices report. The College Board, obviously, is the final authority since they make the rules, but since I’m often inundated by these questions, I thought it’d be nice to (more…)

Test Day FAQ

I figure now is as good a time as any to answer publicly some of the questions I’ve been asked more than once privately. Some of these are great questions. Some are…not. Should I take a practice test the night before? No. Relax on the night before. If you’re cramming now because you didn’t prepare (more…)

Is the SAT graded on a curve?

Holy mackerel are people misinformed about the SAT. And boy howdy do they like to disseminate their misinformation as though it’s gospel truth. I’ve heard some really dumb things coming even from people who should know much better, like high school college counselors/guidance counselors. In fairness, mastering the SAT (not just the test itself, but the (more…)

SAT Math Truism: You’ll increase your score more by getting fewer easy ones wrong than you will by getting more hard ones right

Imagine you’re given the task of picking as many apples from a particular apple tree as possible, in a short amount of time. You know that none of the apples on the tree are any more or less delicious than any of the others, but of course the higher up they are, the harder they (more…)

“When should I guess on the SAT?”

[highlight style=”yellow”]Note: This post is about the old SAT (pre-2016). The “new” SAT does not have a penalty for incorrect answers. [/highlight] In short: almost always. (Note: This is generalized advice; if it doesn’t sit well with you, read this.) I’ve encountered a lot of misinformation about the SAT in my travels, but the single subject (more…)