Archive for the ‘SAT math section’ Category

Live online classes now available to help you raise your scores on your SAT Subject Tests and AP Exams

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

Prepare for exams beyond the SAT and ACT test with top instructors from anywhere you have online access.

Even if you’re not a Revolution student or parent, you now have access to Revolution’s live online Booster Classes. You can experience a Booster Class live with your instructor and fellow students, and/or review the recorded archives on your own schedule for up to three months. Booster Classes can be purchased online or over the phone for $149 each. (Two Booster Classes are also included in Revolution Prep group courses and private tutoring packages.)

Each Revolution Booster Class includes:

•    Three 2-hour sessions of live online instruction

•    Real-time classroom interaction with instructor and classmates

•    24/7 access to video archive for three months

•    Targeted homework assignments

•    Your choice of AP Exam and SAT Subject Test topics

Booster Classes start in April

AP Exams

  • AP English Lang/Comp.
  • AP US History
  • AP Calculus AB
  • AP Biology
  • AP Chemistry
  • AP Physics B

SAT Subject Tests

  • Literature
  • Math Level 2
  • US History
  • Biology E/M
  • Physics
  • Chemistry

SAT/ACT Add-ons

SAT 800/ACT 36

Call 1-877-738-7737 or go to www.revolutionprep.com for details.

Posted in Academic tutoring, ACT math section, ACT prep, ACT Science section, AP Exams, Attention Revolutionaries, PSAT, SAT and ACT Test Prep, SAT math section, SAT prep, SAT Subject Test prep | No Comments »

Testing Tips for Math and Science Exams

Friday, March 25th, 2011

The way to approach math and science exams can be much different than other subjects. Follow the tips below and you will go into your next exam (SAT, ACT or other test) confident and well-equipped for any technical exam.

Learn the vocabulary of the subject matter

You must understand the content-specific terms to get through any exam. Prepare a concise list of all pertinent vocabulary and memorize them before taking the exam.

Translate problems into English

Putting problems into words can be an easy trick to help complete a confusing question. For example, the Pythagorean Theorem, A2+B2 = C2, could be translated into, “The square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides.” Additionally, annotating the questions by circling, underlining, and writing notes in the margin, can break down confusing questions into bite-sized pieces that are easier to digest.

Time Yourself

Students often find it difficult to finish math and science exams within the time allotted. Time yourself when doing practice problems. Make it fun by competing with friends to see who can finish a set of problems first.

Analyze before solving

For the questions that are worth more points, slow down and read them twice before solving. When taking the time to analyze a problem, you will often identify new ways of solving and even figure out helpful shortcuts. Methods like combining factors or canceling numbers may be shortcuts that you have learned before, but they are easy to forget when faced with the mental stresses of exam. A relaxed mind will better recall your stored data.

Draw it

Visual representation can be an easy tool to help solve technical problems. Drawing activates new parts of the brain that create new ways of approaching a problem. Your instructor may be inclined to give you partial credit if s/he sees that you tried different methods to solve the questions.

Estimate

Calculating quick estimations will help double check your work. Start a problem by estimating the solution, that way if your calculations go awry, you can correct the error quickly.

Check your work

If you have extra time when you finish your exam, go back and check your work. Even the most seasoned of test-takers make simple mistakes. Did you include the correct units in your answer? Did you bubble in your answer in the correct place? A few small mistakes can have large impacts on your grade. Spend the extra few minutes and lock down that “A” grade.

Blake H. is an instructor and tutor for Revolution Prep. Blake attended Cal Poly –SLO as an undergrad and is currently pursuing his master’s degree in Architecture at California College of the Arts.

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How Getting the Wrong Answer Can Improve Your Score

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

If you’re preparing to take the ACT or SAT, there’s one way to prepare for the math portion (or any portion for that matter, but today’s post regards math) that you may not have thought of.  With this technique, you’ll focus less on being a good test taker and more on being a good test maker – which in turn will make you a better test taker!

On every math question, there is one right answer.  That’s one nice thing about math – there is no picking “the best answer” among several that seem good as you might have to do on the English portion of a test.  In math, the “best answer” is the only answer.  But for every correct answer, there are three to four incorrect ones.  And guess what?  These incorrect answers are not random – they are based on commonly made errors.  If you can figure out how the test maker generated these wrong answers, you can hopefully learn to avoid those errors.

For instance, imagine a simple problem were you are asked to compute the circumference in centimeters of a circle with a radius of 1 m.  The correct answer is the diameter times pi or 200pi.  There are several ways you could have gone wrong with this simple calculation:

(1)     You could have forgotten to convert meters to centimeters and given the answer of 2pi.

(2)     You could have been in a hurry and forgotten to double the radius to get the diameter and gotten an answer of 100pi.

(3)     You could have read the problem incorrectly and found the area instead of the circumference and gotten the answer of 10,000pi.

If you have taken some time to think about how these wrong answers were generated, you will be on guard against these simple errors.

To follow this method, take the math portion of a sample ACT or SAT test.  After you have graded your test, go back through each problem (both the ones you got right and the ones that you didn’t) and see if you can figure out the mistakes that the test maker intentionally made to come up with their wrong answers.  It’s a little tedious, but this method achieves good results.

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