Pelican Parts Forums - Stumped on PSAT math questions. Can anyone help?

Quote:

Originally Posted by tincob (Post 8837239)

McLovin,

For the next tier (just below Ivy and elite) schools, is it important to take both the ACT and SAT tests as a junior?

Or should the student find which one he/she is good at and concentrate on that? I heard that most schools take either one and count it equally.

Wondering what the reality is in terms of school preference.

Colleges state they have no preference, and I've not seen anything to contradict that. A 90th percentile on the SAT is equal to the 90th on the ACT, etc.

The ACT and SAT are taken about 50/50 in the country currently (the ACT is actually taken a bit more now).

The vast majority of kids that I've seen (including my own) have practiced both tests, but then focused on the one they are more comfortable with for their official test.

They are fairly different styles of tests in many ways. (Although the SAT is being revamped this year, I believe to try to regain market share that they have steadily been losing to the ACT).

They are different in style and format, and also in substantive ways. I think, for example, that strong readers, writers and kids with a large vocab are at a competitive advantage on the SAT. Kids who are comfortable with science may prefer the ACT, which has a "science" section (I put that in quotes because while it is called a science section, it's in many ways a reading comprehension and graph reading section. But a strong science background certainly doesn't hurt).

The only way to find out is to take several practice tests, grade them and see. The answer to which is preferred is almost always pretty obvious.

We experimented with every learning method: Self study, large group lessons, private tutors (including one who charged $200/hour). I have thoughts on all of those.

Eventually, and this took a little time, I myself became an expert on the non-math sections, to where I could routinely score perfect 800s on the SAT and perfect 36s on the ACT. I then served as my son's tutor for that.

I found an excellent and surprisingly reasonably priced SAT math tutor at Harvard, he handled that. (Having not done any math for 35 years, there's no way I could help him).

After that, there's really no secret - it's all in taking practice tests, grading them, seeing what you got wrong, and figuring out why you got it wrong. The more a kid takes, the better he will score, and that's just the fact. After a while, you've seen pretty much everything there is to see.

So, it really becomes "how much does he/she want it?"