Top 18 How To Get An 800 On Sat Math The 175 New Answer

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Is it easy to get 800 on math SAT?

Getting to an 800 SAT Math score isn’t easy. It’ll require perfection. But with hard work and my strategies below, you’ll be able to do it. I’ve scored 800 on Math on all my SATs, and I know what it takes.

How do you score a perfect 800 on the SAT?

What are Some Steps I can Take to Get an 800 in SAT Math?

Step 1: Master content first, then pacing. …
Step 2: Keep an error log. …
Step 3: Try to solve problems in multiple ways. …
Step 4: Master every one of your weak areas. …
Step 5: Master even the rarest of SAT Math content. …
Step 6: Repeat, repeat, repeat!

Is 800 an average SAT score?

With scores ranging from 400 to 1600 and more than 1.7 million students nationwide taking the SAT each year, the average score range is between 1000-1100. A score of 800 falls significantly below that national average and is about the 8th percentile of all test takers, which means that 92% received a higher score.

How many students get 800 on SAT Math?

For Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Caltech, and even less selective schools like Harvey Mudd, the 75th percentile SAT Math score is an 800. That means at least 25% of all students at these schools have an 800 in SAT Math.

What score did Will Smith get on the SAT?

How did your favorite celebrity do on the SAT?

Celebrity	Profession/Field	SAT Score
Ben Affleck	actor	“nearly perfect”
Bill Gates	tech entrepreneur	1590
Will Smith	actor	1600
Mark Zuckerberg	Facebook founder	1600

10 thg 1, 2020

Is 800 a good SAT Math score?

Your SAT score, which ranges from 400 to 1600, is the sum of your two section scores: Math and Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (EBRW). Each section uses a scale of 200-800 in 10-point increments. A good score on Math or EBRW, then, would be around 600.

Is Khan Academy enough for SAT?

Unfortunately, the Khan SAT program doesn’t go far enough in its skill division. As of publication date, the Reading section and the rhetorical skills part of Writing are NOT divided into skills. These are important sections, and I’ll explain more below.

Is 790 a good SAT Math 2 score?

In 2019, 24% of test takers scored a perfect 800 on this exam. Students need a perfect score just to match, not even beat, a quarter of other test takers. And, the difference between a 790 on the Math Level 2 and an 800 is massive.

Is 1500 a good SAT score?

A 1500 puts you in nearly the 95th percentile of all 1.7 million test takers. Just 100 points shy of a perfect score, a 1500 makes you eligible to apply to every college and university in the country and be competitive for admission at almost every single one, including elite institutions.

Is SAT Math hard?

And lucky for us, the difficulty on the New SAT Math is something that we can prepare for much more easily! Old SAT Math was difficult because it made you think about problems in different, unexpected ways. The problems were unlike anything you saw in your regular math classes.

Is a 790 on Math SAT good?

Is a 790 a good SAT score? A score of 790 is definitely low. It places you in the bottom 8th percentile nationally out of the 1.7 million test takers of the SAT entrance exam. The score indicates you’ve done a very poor job answering the questions on the Math and Evidence-Based Reading & Writing sections of the test.

What is the minimum SAT score for Harvard?

Is 710 a good Math SAT score?

Reading and Writing: 710-770. Math: 750-800. Composite: 1470 – 1560.
…
Good SAT Score #2: The College Competitive SAT Score.

College	Princeton University
25th Percentile Reading and Writing Score	710
75th Percentile Reading and Writing Score	770
25th Percentile Math Section Score	750
75th Percentile Math Section Score	800

28 thg 4, 2022

How hard is SAT Math?

The math person

The SAT likely won’t be too hard on the math front. The trigonometry is high level and the word problems aren’t unlike questions you’ve seen in class. Sure, some of the algebra can get a little technical, but if you are strong in this area you’ll likely excel on the test.

Is Khan Academy enough for SAT?

Is 1500 a good SAT score?

How hard is it to get a perfect SAT score?

Scoring a perfect 1600 on the SAT isn’t easy — less than 1% of students do this.

How to get a PERFECT 800 on the SAT Math Section: 13 Strategies to maximize your score

How to Get 800 on SAT Math, by a Perfect Scorer

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Summary of article content: Articles about How to Get 800 on SAT Math, by a Perfect Scorer Getting to an 800 SAT Math score isn’t easy. It’ll require perfection. But with hard work and my strategies below, you’ll be able to do it. …
Most searched keywords: Whether you are looking for How to Get 800 on SAT Math, by a Perfect Scorer Getting to an 800 SAT Math score isn’t easy. It’ll require perfection. But with hard work and my strategies below, you’ll be able to do it. How do you get an 800 on SAT Math? It takes perfection. Use the 10 key strategies and tips here to achieve that perfect score.
Table of Contents:

Choose Your Test

How to Get 800 on SAT Math by a Perfect Scorer

Overview

Understand the Stakes Why an 800 SAT Math

Know That You Can Do It

What It Takes to Get An 800 in Math

Strategies to Get an 800 on SAT Math

Recap How to Get a Perfect SAT Math Score

What’s Next

Ask a Question Below

Improve With Our Famous Guides

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How to Get 800 on SAT Math, by a Perfect Scorer

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Most searched keywords: Whether you are looking for How to Get 800 on SAT Math, by a Perfect Scorer Updating How do you get an 800 on SAT Math? It takes perfection. Use the 10 key strategies and tips here to achieve that perfect score.
Table of Contents:

Choose Your Test

How to Get 800 on SAT Math by a Perfect Scorer

Overview

Understand the Stakes Why an 800 SAT Math

Know That You Can Do It

What It Takes to Get An 800 in Math

Strategies to Get an 800 on SAT Math

Recap How to Get a Perfect SAT Math Score

What’s Next

Ask a Question Below

Improve With Our Famous Guides

Stay Informed

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Summary of article content: Articles about SAT Math: How to Score a Perfect 800 [Plus a Downloadable Guide] – Magoosh Blog | High School Updating …
Most searched keywords: Whether you are looking for SAT Math: How to Score a Perfect 800 [Plus a Downloadable Guide] – Magoosh Blog | High School Updating With the right prep, and the right understanding of SAT Math, anyone can get a perfect 800 on the test. We’ll share quick facts about SAT Math, steps you can take to get an 800, and share practice resources, including a free eBook filled with practice questions!
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Table of Contents

SAT Math Quick Facts

What Does it Take to Get an 800 in SAT Math

What are Some Steps I can Take to Get an 800 in SAT Math

Where Else Can I Get SAT Math Practice

Getting an 800 in SAT Math Frequently Asked Questions

Free Downloadable eBook The “How to Get a Perfect 800 in SAT Math” PDF

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SAT Math: How to Score a Perfect 800 [Plus a Downloadable Guide] - Magoosh Blog | High School — SAT Math: How to Score a Perfect 800 [Plus a Downloadable Guide] – Magoosh Blog | High School

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Most searched keywords: Whether you are looking for SAT Math 2 Subject Test: How to Get an 800 – YouTube Updating I forgot to mention: please note that you do not have to get every question correct to receive an 800! Typically, you can get 6-7 questions wrong and still g…college, college prep, sat, standardized test, subject test, math, high school, ivy league, perfect score, act, harvard, princeton, yale, cornell, upenn, columbia, dartmouth, brown, sat subject test, ap score reaction, how I got into college, gpa, sat math, college decision, college acceptance reaction, college decision reaction, ib, ap, ib results reaction, stanford
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SAT Math 2 Subject Test: How to Get an 800 - YouTube — SAT Math 2 Subject Test: How to Get an 800 – YouTube

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Summary of article content: Articles about 800 SAT Colleges: Best Schools That Accept a 800 SAT Score | Cappex Updating …
Most searched keywords: Whether you are looking for 800 SAT Colleges: Best Schools That Accept a 800 SAT Score | Cappex Updating The SAT is a college entrance exam that many colleges and universities consult as part of their admissions process. With scores ranging from 400 to 1600 and more than 1.7 million students nationwide taking the SAT each year, the average score range is between 1000-1100. A score of 800 falls significantly below that national average and is about the 8th percentile of all test takers, which means that 92% received a higher score.
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Make sure you keep track of time as it is better to bubble all the answers at least 5-10 minutes before the end of the exam. Don’t get so engrossed in solving … – Opinion – Have you ever wondered that despite the fact your reading and writing are perfect, you tend to lose a lot of marks in that section, and you never know why?How To Get 800 On SAT Math
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Summary of article content: Articles about How To Get A Perfect Score Of 800 On SAT Math? 1- Keep A Positive Mindset ; 2- Use The Answers To Your Advantage ; 3- Break The Material Down ; 4- Get Prep Books ; 5- Practice Complete Tests. …
Most searched keywords: Whether you are looking for How To Get A Perfect Score Of 800 On SAT Math? 1- Keep A Positive Mindset ; 2- Use The Answers To Your Advantage ; 3- Break The Material Down ; 4- Get Prep Books ; 5- Practice Complete Tests. These are the six tips that you can abide by to get a perfect score. Once you follow them, you will feel more confident about SAT Math.
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The Absolute Best Book to Ace the SAT Math Test

1- Keep A Positive Mindset

2- Use The Answers To Your Advantage

3- Break The Material Down

Best SAT Math Prep Resource for 2021

4- Get Prep Books

5- Practice Complete Tests

6- Give The SAT More Than Once

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The Best Books to Ace the SAT Math Test

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1. Double underline what each question is asking for with your pencil. · 2. Circle your answers in the test booklet first. · 3. Watch what you’re entering into … …
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800 in SAT Math All Three Times, No Stupid Mistakes – How I Did It – The College Panda

1. Double underline what each question is asking for with your pencil. · 2. Circle your answers in the test booklet first. · 3. Watch what you’re entering into … Here are three simple tips to prevent yourself from making silly or stupid mistakes on the SAT math section. I used them myself to get a perfect score.
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800 in SAT Math All Three Times, No Stupid Mistakes - How I Did It - The College Panda — 800 in SAT Math All Three Times, No Stupid Mistakes – How I Did It – The College Panda

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Most searched keywords: Whether you are looking for How to Get 800 on SAT Math | Reason Prep How to Get 800 on SAT Math · Use multiple choice against the test makers. · Plug in your own number when possible. · Break the question down. · You don’t need the … To get an 800 on the SAT Math section, you need to: Know the math content perfectly. You should be able to call up any knowledge that you need instantly and accurately. If you have to sit around thinking about how to use the Pythagorean Theorem or how to solve a quadratic, your chances of
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How to Get 800 on SAT Math, by a Perfect Scorer

Are you scoring in the 600-750 range on SAT Math? Do you want to raise that score as high as possible—to a perfect 800?

Getting to an 800 SAT Math score isn’t easy. It’ll require perfection. But with hard work and my strategies below, you’ll be able to do it. I’ve scored 800 on Math on all my SATs, and I know what it takes. Follow my advice, and you’ll get a perfect score—or get very close.

Brief note: This article is suited for students already scoring a 600 on SAT math or above. If you’re below this range, my “How to improve your SAT Math score” article is more appropriate for you. Follow the advice in that article, then come back to this one when you’ve reached a 600.

Overview

A lot of SAT Math guides out there are pretty bad. They’re written by people who don’t have actual expertise in the test, or they contain vague advice that isn’t helpful to the advanced student. You need better advice than simple SAT Math tips like “remember there’s no guessing penalty!”

In contrast, I’ve written what I believe to be the best guide on getting an 800 available anywhere. I have confidence that these strategies work because I used them myself to score 800 on SAT Math, every time I’ve taken the SAT. They’ve also worked for thousands of my students at PrepScholar.

In this article, I’m going to discuss why scoring an 800 is a good idea, what it takes to score an 800, and then go into the 8 key SAT Math strategies so you know how to get an 800 on SAT Math.

Stick with me—as an advanced student, you probably already know that scoring high is good. But it’s important to know why an 800 Math score is useful, since this will fuel your motivation to get a high score.

Finally, in this guide, I talk mainly about getting to a 800. But if your goal is a 700, these strategies still equally apply.

Understand the Stakes: Why an 800 SAT Math?

Let’s make something clear: for all intents and purposes, a 1530+ on an SAT is equivalent to a perfect 1600. No top college is going to give you more credit for a 1580 than a 1540. You’ve already crossed their score threshold, and whether you get in now depends on the rest of your application.

So if you’re already scoring a 1540, don’t waste your time studying trying to get a 1600. You’re already set for the top colleges, and it’s time to work on the rest of your application.

But if you’re scoring a 1520 or below AND you want to go to a top 10 college, it’s worth your time to push your score up to a 1530 or above. There’s a big difference between a 1440 and a 1540, largely because it’s easy to get a 1440 (and a lot more applicants do) and a lot harder to get a 1540.

A 1520 places you right around average at Harvard and Princeton, and being average is bad in terms of admissions, since the admissions rate is typically below 10%.

So why get an 800 on SAT Math? Because it helps you compensate for weaknesses in other sections. By and large, schools consider your composite score more than your individual section scores. If you can get an 800 in SAT Math, that means you only need a 730 in SAT Reading and Writing. This gives you a lot more flexibility.

MIT expects an 800 in SAT Math.

There are two other scenarios where an 800 in SAT Math is really important. First is if you’re planning for a quantitative or science major (like math, physics, statistics, chemistry). The second is if you’re applying to a highly selective technical school like MIT or Caltech.

Here’s the reason: college admissions is all about comparisons between applicants. The school wants to admit the best, and you’re competing with other people in the same “bucket” as you.

By applying as a math/science major, you’re competing against other math/science folks: people for whom SAT Math is easy. Really easy.

Here are a few examples from schools. For Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Caltech, and even less selective schools like Carnegie Mellon, the 75th percentile SAT Math score is an 800. That means at least 25% of all students at these schools have an 800 in SAT Math.

Even more surprising: the 25th percentile score for SAT Math at MIT and Caltech are 780 and 790, respectively. This means if you score a 750 on your SAT Math, you’re well below average for these schools!

I’m not going to lie. SAT Math was super easy for me. I got 800 on pretty much every practice test and official SAT I ever took. This was largely because I had a strong math background and competed in math competitions like AMC/AIME. I also worked hard and applied the strategies below to achieve perfection.

You’re competing against people like me. And if you apply with a 700 on Math, schools like MIT, Harvard, and Princeton are going to doubt your ability. Because SAT Math is supposed to be trivially easy for you.

But if you can work your way to an 800, you show that you’re at an equal level (at least on this metric). Even if it takes you a ton of work, all that matters is the score you achieve at the end.

Know That You Can Do It

This isn’t just some fuzzy feel-good message you see on the back of a Starbucks cup.

I mean, literally, you and every other reasonably intelligent student can score an 800 on SAT Math.

The reason most people don’t is they don’t try hard enough or they don’t study the right way.

Even if math wasn’t your strongest suit, or you got a B+ in Calculus, you’re capable of this.

Because I know that more than anything else, your SAT score is a reflection of how hard you work and how smartly you study.

Here’s why: the SAT is a weird test. When you take it, don’t you get the sense that the questions are nothing like what you’ve seen in school?

It’s purposely designed this way. The SAT can’t test difficult concepts, because this would be unfair for students who never took AP Calculus. It can’t ask you to solve Fermat’s Last Theorem. The SAT is a national test, which means it needs a level playing field for all students around the country.

So it HAS to test concepts that all high school students will cover. Basic algebra (solving single-variable equations, word problems), advanced algebra (quadratic and exponential equations), geometry (x-y coordinate geometry, circles squares and triangles), and basic statistics.

You’ve learned all of this before in high school.

But the SAT still has to make the test difficult to differentiate student skill levels, so it needs to test these concepts in strange ways. This trips up students who don’t prepare, but it rewards students who understand the test well.

Find the area of the shaded region below, if the radius of the circle is 5. Here’s an example:

This is a classic SAT type question. You might already know how to solve it. But it’s unlikely you ever ran into something like this in school.

The first time you see this, it might be confusing. How do you get the area of each of the shaded corners? It kind of looks like a triangle, but not really because of the curve region.

But you’ve learned all the concepts you need to solve this.

Notice that the shaded area is the area of the square, with the area of the circle punched out. To get to the answer quickly, this means that the area of a square is 10 x 10 = 100, and the area of a circle is πr2, or π * 5 * 5 = 25π.

So the area of the shaded region is 100—25π.

The SAT math section is full of weird examples like this, some of which get much more difficult.

To improve your score, you just need to:

master the types of questions that the SAT tests, like the one above

draw on the correct concepts you already know to solve the questions

practice on a lot of questions so you learn from your mistakes

I’ll go into more detail about exactly how to do this. First, let’s see how many questions you need to get right an 800.

What It Takes to Get An 800 in Math

If we have a target score in mind, it helps to understand what you need to get that score on the actual test. There are 58 questions in the Math section, and how many questions you miss determines your scaled score out of 800.

From the Official SAT Practice Tests, I’ve taken the raw score to scaled score conversion tables from four tests. (If you could use a refresher on how the SAT is scored and how raw scores are calculated, read this.)

Raw Score Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 58 800 800 800 800 57 790 790 790 800 56 780 780 780 790 55 760 770 770 790 54 750 760 750 780 53 740 750 740 770 52 730 740 730 760 51 710 730 720 750

Math has a really strict grading scale. On 3 out of 4 tests, if you just miss a single question, you get dropped down to a 790. That’s it—no perfect score!

On one of these tests, you get an extra cushion of 1 question, but that’s not much.

This all depends on how the particular test you’re taking is scored. The harder the math questions are, the more likely you can miss one question and get an 800.

The safest thing to do is to aim for perfection. On every practice test, you need to aim for a perfect raw score for an 800.

Whatever you’re scoring now, take note of the difference you need to get to a 800. For example, if you’re scoring a 700 now, you need to answer 8-9 more questions right to get to an 800.

As a final example, here’s a screenshot from my exact score report showing that I missed 0 questions and earned an 800.

(This was from the previous 2400 version of the SAT.)

OK—so we’ve covered why scoring a higher SAT math score is important, why you specifically are capable of improving your score, and the raw score you need to get to your target.

Now we’ll actually get into actionable strategies that you should use in your own studying to maximize your score improvement.

Strategies to Get an 800 on SAT Math

What’s your greatest weakness?

Strategy 1: Understand Your High Level Weakness: Content or Time Management

Every student has different flaws in SAT Math. Some people aren’t comfortable with the underlying math material. Others know the math material well, but can’t solve questions quickly enough in the harsh time limit.

Here’s how you can figure out which one applies more to you:

Take only the math sections of one practice test. We have the complete list of free practice tests here.

For each section, use a timer and have it count down the time allotted for that section. Treat it like a real test.

If time runs out for that section and you’re 100% ready to move on, then move on. If you’re not ready to move on, keep on working for as long as you need. For every new answer or answer that you change, mark it with a special note as “Extra Time.”

When you’re ready, move on to the next section, and repeat the above until you finish the second math section.

Grade your test using the answer key and score chart, but we want two scores: 1) The Realistic score you got under normal timing conditions, 2) The Extra Time score. This is why you marked the questions you answered or changed during Extra Time.

Get what we’re doing here? By marking which questions you did under Extra Time, we can figure out what score you got if you were given all the time you needed. This will help us figure out where your weaknesses lie.

If you didn’t take any extra time, then your Extra Time score is the same as your Realistic score.

Here’s a flowchart to help you figure this out:

Was your Extra Time score a 700 or above?

If NO (Extra Time score < 700), then you have remaining content weaknesses. You might have weaknesses across a range of subjects, or a deep weakness in only a few subjects. (We'll cover this later). Your first plan of attack should be to develop more comfort with all SAT Math subjects. If YES (Extra Time score > 700), then:

Was your Realistic score a 700 or above?

If NO (Extra Time score > 700, Realistic < 700), then that means you have a difference between your Extra Time score and your Realistic score. If this difference is more than 50 points, then you have some big problems with time management. We need to figure out why this is. Are you generally slow at math across most questions? Or did particular problems slow you down? Generally, doing a lot of practice questions and learning the most efficient solutions will help reduce your time. More on this later. If YES (both Extra Time and Realistic scores > 700), then you have a really good shot at getting an 800. Compare your Extra Time and Realistic score—if they differed by more than 30 points, then you would benefit from learning how to solve questions more quickly. If not, then you likely can benefit from shoring up on your last content weaknesses and avoiding careless mistakes (more on this strategy later).

Hopefully that makes sense. Typically I see that students have both timing and content issues, but you might find that one is much more dominant for you than the other. For example, if you can get an 800 with extra time, but score a 700 in regular time, you know exactly that you need to work on time management to get an 800.

Strategy 2: Do a ton of Practice, and Understand Every Single Mistake

On the path to perfection, you need to make sure every single one of your weak points is covered. Even one mistake on all of SAT Math will knock you down from an 800.

The first step is simply to do a ton of practice. If you’re studying from free materials or from books, you have access to a lot of practice questions in bulk. As part of our PrepScholar program, we have over 7,000 SAT questions customized to each skill.

The second step—and the more important part—is to be ruthless about understanding your mistakes.

Every mistake you make on a test happens for a reason. If you don’t understand exactly why you missed that question, you will make that mistake over and over again.

I’ve seen students who did 20 practice tests. They’ve solved over 3,000 questions, but they’re still nowhere near an 800 on SAT Math.

Why? They never understood their mistakes. They just hit their heads against the wall over and over again.

Think of yourself as an exterminator, and your mistakes are cockroaches. You need to eliminate every single one—and find the source of each one—or else the restaurant you work for will be shut down.

Here’s what you need to do:

on every practice test or question set that you take, mark every question that you’re even 20% unsure about

when you grade your test or quiz, review EVERY single question that you marked, and every incorrect question . This way even if you guessed a question correctly, you’ll make sure to review it.

. This way even if you guessed a question correctly, you’ll make sure to review it. in a notebook, write down:

#1: the gist of the question

#2: why you missed it, and

#3: what you’ll do to avoid that mistake in the future.

Have separate sections by subject and sub-topic (algebra—solving equations, data analysis—experimental interpretation, etc.)

It’s not enough to just think about it and move on. It’s not enough to just read the answer explanation. You have to think hard about why you specifically failed on this question.

By taking this structured approach to your mistakes, you’ll now have a running log of every question you missed, and your reflection on why.

No excuses when it comes to your mistakes.

Always Go Deeper—WHY Did You Miss a Math Question?

Now, what are some common reasons that you missed a question? Don’t just say, “I didn’t get this question right.” That’s a cop out.

Always take it one step further—what specifically did you miss, and what do you have to improve in the future?

Here are some examples of common reasons you miss a question, and how you take the analysis one step further:

Content: I didn’t learn the math skill or knowledge needed to answer this question.

One step further: What specific math skill do I need to learn, and how will I learn this skill?

Incorrect Approach: I knew the content, but I didn’t know how to approach this question.

One step further: How do I solve the question? How will I solve questions like this in the future?

Careless Error: I misread what the question was asking for or solved for the wrong thing.

One step further: Why did I misread the question? What should I do in the future to avoid this?

Get the idea? You’re really digging into understanding why you’re missing questions.

Yes, this is hard, and it’s draining, and it takes work. That’s why most students who study ineffectively don’t improve.

But you’re different. Just by reading this guide, you’re already proving that you care more than other students. And if you apply these principles and analyze your mistakes, you’ll improve more than other students too.

Bonus: If all of this is making sense to you, you’d love our SAT prep program, PrepScholar. We designed our program around the concepts in this article, because they actually work. When you start with PrepScholar, you’ll take a diagnostic that will determine your weaknesses in over forty SAT skills. PrepScholar then creates a study program specifically customized for you. To improve each skill, you’ll take focused lessons dedicated to each skill, with over 20 practice questions per skill. This will train you for your specific area weaknesses, so your time is always spent most effectively to raise your score. We also force you to focus on understanding your mistakes and learning from them. If you make the same mistake over and over again, we’ll call you out on it. There’s no other prep system out there that does it this way, which is why we get better score results than any other program on the market. Check it out today with a 5-day free trial:

Strategy 3: If You Have Math Content Gaps, Be Ruthless About Filling Them

Within SAT Math, you have to master a lot of subjects. At the high level, you need to know basic algebra, advanced algebra, data analysis, and geometry. Even further, within algebra, you need to know how to solve equations, how to deal with word problems, properties of functions, etc.

Here’s our complete mapping of all 24 skills you need in SAT Math:

Basic Algebra Linear functions Single variable equations Systems of linear equations Absolute value

Advanced Algebra Manipulating polynomials Quadratic equations Dividing polynomials Exponential functions Function notation Solving exponential equations Systems of equations with nonlinear equations

Problem Solving and Data Analysis Ratios and proportions Scatterplots and graphs Categorical data and probabilities Experimental interpretation Mean, median, mode, standard deviation

Additional Topics Coordinate geometry—lines and slopes Coordinate geometry—nonlinear functions Geometry—circles Geometry—lines and angles Geometry—solid geometry Geometry—triangles and polygons Trigonometry Complex numbers

Whew! That’s a handful. This might be a greater breakdown of skills then you’re used to, but at PrepScholar we believe in grouping questions by specific skill so you can train most effectively. In our program, we break down all our SAT Math content into these detailed skills so you can train your specific weaknesses in focused groups.

Unless you’re a math whiz and are already scoring a 750-800, it’s unlikely that you’ve mastered all of these evenly. You probably have different strengths and weaknesses across these subjects.

If from the analysis of mistakes above you find that you have a content problem, you need to improve your understanding of that content.

By Content problem, I mean that you’re not comfortable with the underlying math concepts in a subject. Maybe you forgot how to solve a type of problem, or you forgot a formula to use, or you just don’t remember the subject material.

If you’ve identified one of these issues, you’ve spotted an opportunity for yourself to improve your score.

Fill in the potholes of your understanding.

Think of a mistake like discovering a cavity in your mouth. When your dentist fills in a cavity, he doesn’t just patch up the hole right away. He cleans out the entire cavity, sterilizes it, then adds a filling.

Content mistakes are similar—you have a weakness in a subject, say x-y coordinate geometry. This probably means you have a lot of other weaknesses in that subject other than the one identified by that question. Don’t just focus on understanding that one question you missed.

Take the opportunity to research that subject and get more practice in it. You need to find a way to get lesson material to teach yourself the main concepts that you’re forgetting. Then you need to find more practice questions for this skill so you can drill your mistakes.

In our SAT prep program PrepScholar, we do that work for you by splitting up our 7,000+ practice questions by skill and difficulty. If you’re weak in algebra—solving equations, you get 20+ questions in a quiz dealing specifically with that skill. This repetitive practice fills up your content gap far better than any other method I know.

Strategy 4: If You Miss a Question, Try It Again Before Reading the Explanation

When you’re doing practice questions, the first thing you probably do is read the answer explanation and at most reflect on it a little.

This is a little too easy. I consider this passive learning—you’re not actively engaging with the mistake you made.

Instead, try something different—find the correct answer choice (A-D), but don’t look at the explanation. Instead, try to re-solve the question once over again and try to get the correct answer.

This will often be hard. You couldn’t solve it the first time, so why could you solve it the second time around?

But this time, with less time pressure, you might spot a new strategy, or something else will pop up. Something will just “click” for you.

When this happens, what you learned will stick with you for 20 times longer than if you just read an answer explanation. I know this from personal experience. Because you’ve struggled with it and reached a breakthrough, you retain that information far better than if you just passively absorbed the information.

It’s too easy to just read an answer explanation and have it go in one ear and out the other. You won’t actually learn from your mistake, and you’ll make that mistake over and over again.

Treat each wrong question like a puzzle. Struggle with each wrong answer for up to 10 minutes. Only then if you don’t get it should you read the answer explanation.

Strategy 5: Master Every SAT Math Skill—Even the Rare Ones

The SAT has an uneven balance of questions by skill. Algebra dominates the test, taking up over 50% of the test. This is somewhat good news, in that if you’re an Algebra whiz, you’ll do well on the bulk of SAT math.

The bad news is that there’s a long tail of straggling skills that show up just a few times a test. We’ve done a careful analysis of every math question on every official SAT test, and here are the LEAST common skills in SAT math. I’ll show you the frequency of appearance, as well as the expected # of questions per test for that skill.

Skill Frequency Expected Questions Per Test Dividing polynomials 1.72% 1 Trigonometry, radians 1.72% 1 Absolute value 1.29% 0.75 Complex numbers 1.29% 0.75 Experimental interpretation 0.86% 0.5 Lines and angles 0.86% 0.5 Solid geometry 0.86% 0.5 Systems of equations with nonlinear equations 0.86% 0.5 Function notation 0.43% 0.25

This might surprise you. Some of these skills have an expected # of questions lower than one.

That’s right: sometimes you might not even get a complex number or solid geometry question. But you have to know it anyway. You have to know it all.

In some ways, this is really extreme. You have to know a lot of topics in trigonometry, just to answer that one question per test. Here’s an example:

You need knowledge of radians and standard triangles to answer this question. To solve the question, you can realize that if the x length is √3, and the height is 1, then you know that this is a 30-60-90 triangle lying on its long side. Thus the angle is 30 degrees.

Then, because π radians is 180 degrees, then the angle is π/6 radians, so a = 6.

But notice that you weren’t tested on any other items in standard trigonometry—SOH CAH TOA, graphing functions like cos (90 + 2x), and converting between sin and cos. Yet you still need to know this, because you can’t predict what they’re going to test.

This is also true of complex numbers, solid geometry (volumes, surface areas), absolute value, dividing polynomials, etc.

This is the challenge of the 800 Math scorer—you need a wide BREADTH of knowledge as well as DEPTH of mastery in each one. No single test is going to test the entire breadth of your knowledge, but you must be prepared anyway.

The way we handle this at PrepScholar, which is based on how I mastered the SAT myself, is to give you detailed lessons and quizzes for all 24 Math skills, and all Reading/Writing skills. For even the least common skills like complex numbers and solid geometry, you’ll get dozens of questions to practice with and master the skill. You’ll leave no stone unturned, which is why top scoring students love us.

If you don’t use PrepScholar, then you need to find great sources of practice content yourself, and to structure your study time optimally so you get both breadth and depth.

Strategy 6: Finish With Extra Time and Double Check

Your goal at the end of all this work is to get so good at SAT Math that you solve every question and have extra time left over at the end of the section to recheck your work.

In high school and even now, I can finish SAT Math sections in about 60% of the time allotted. This means I finish a 25 minute section in 15 minutes or less, and a 55 minute section in 35 minutes. This gives me a ton of time to recheck my answers two times over and make sure I make no careless mistakes.

How can I finish a section this quickly? It comes down to mastery of the math skills and a LOT of experience with the test. When I see a question, I usually know exactly what the College Board is asking for, and I’ve seen so many such questions that I know exactly how to solve it in the fewest steps needed.

It comes from hard work and perseverance. If you’re pretty far from this time benchmark, don’t fret—it took me a lot of training and experience to get to this level. (After all, I’ve seen thousands of questions in my own SAT prep and when designing our PrepScholar SAT program).

So let’s say you finish a section ahead of time. What do you do with all that extra time?

Don’t rest and don’t put your head down. Use this valuable time to double-check, even triple-check your work. Remember, even one question missed will bring you down from an 800—you need to achieve perfection.

What’s the best way to double-check your work? I have a reliable method that I follow:

Re-read the question again. Question your assumption about what the question is about. If the question asks for a specific variable, make sure you’re solving for that variable!

If the question asks for a specific variable, make sure you’re solving for that variable! Try to resolve the question another way. If I solved a question algebraically, I can recheck it by plugging in the solution.

If I’m 100% sure I’m right on a question, I draw a huge check mark in the test book and never look at the question again. Even if I feel just a little twinge of remaining doubt, I’ll come back to it on the third pass.

At least two minutes before time’s up, I rapidly double-check that I bubbled the answers correctly. I try to do this all at once so as not to waste time looking back and forth between the test book and the answer sheet. Go 5 at a time (“A D A C B”) for more speed.

Here’s an example of solving a question two ways:

First way: My natural instinct is to solve this algebraically. I know I can plug in numbers, but I feel that’s slower and more error prone than getting a definitive answer through solving the equation. 3x – 5 ≥ 4x – 3 I can rearrange in my head in one step like so: -2 ≥ x (if you make careless mistakes, like the College Board expects you to do, it’s worthwhile splitting it up into smaller steps) OK, so the solution set is numbers less than or equal to -2. This leaves answer A as NOT the solution. Double-check way: Now that I know answer A should be correct, I’m going to verify by plugging that value back in and expecting the inequality to fail: 3x – 5 ≥ 4x – 3 -3 – 5 ≥ -4 -3 -8 ≥ -7 That’s obviously false, so I can verify that A is the right answer. At this point I’m confident enough that I can move on and not check this question again.

Another time management tip: If you notice yourself spending more than 30 seconds on a problem and aren’t clear how you’ll get to the answer, skip and go to the next question. Even though you need a perfect raw score for an 800, don’t be afraid to skip. You can come back to it later, and on your first pass it’s more important to get as many points as possible.

Quick Tip: Bubbling Answers

Here’s a bubbling tip that will save you 2 minutes per section.

When I first started test taking in high school, I did what many students do: after I finished one question, I went to the bubble sheet and filled it in. Then I solved the next question. Finish question 1, bubble in answer 1. Finish question 2, bubble in answer 2. And so forth.

This actually wastes a lot of time. You’re distracting yourself between two distinct tasks—solving questions and bubbling in answers. This costs you time in both mental switching costs and in physically moving your hand and eyes to different areas of the test.

Here’s a better method: solve all your questions first in the book, then bubble all of them in at once.

This has several huge advantages: you focus on each task one at a time, rather than switching between two different tasks. You also eliminate careless entry errors, like if you skip question 7 and bubble in question 8’s answer into question 7’s slot.

By saving just 10 seconds per question, you get back 200 seconds on a section that has 20 questions. This is huge.

Note: If you use this strategy, you should already be finishing the section with ample extra time to spare. Otherwise, you might run out of time before you have the chance to bubble in the answer choices all at once. 5 minutes before the section ends, make sure you bubble in the answers you already have.

Strategy 7: Eliminate Careless Mistakes

Careless mistakes are one of the most frustrating types of errors to make, and nearly everyone makes them, especially on Math.

You know the underlying material, you know how to solve the question, and you’re feeling good. But then you grade the quiz, and you find a careless mistake.

Oops—the question asked for the perimeter of the circle and not the area, which is what you calculated.

These types of errors are the most costly and frustrating. You’ve already put in a ton of work to master the underlying material, and here a question has tricked you into losing a point.

This is why finishing the test early, like I mention above, is so helpful. You get extra time to take a breather and double-check your answers.

If you find that careless mistakes are a recurring problem for you, here are some strategies to get rid of them:

In the question, underline what the question is specifically asking you to solve for. It’s so easy for the SAT to trick you into solving the wrong thing.

If you’re solving for a particular value (like length, area, etc), write the units down in the scratch space.

Be careful with calculator entry. A missing parentheses makes a big difference. “4 + 9 / 2” is completely different from “(4 + 9) / 2”

Avoid bubbling errors by using the Quick Tip above.

Here’s an example:

This question is asking us to solve for y + z. Not x, y, or any other combination of variables.

To make sure I remember this, I underline y + z, and I also write “y + z = ?” in the work space so that I remember what I’m solving for.

You can bet that in many answer choices, the SAT will have trap answers for other things you can solve for, like x. (This one happens not to, but it’s very common).

Memorize the SAT Math Formulas.

Strategy 8: Memorize the Formulas and Common Math Facts

If you’re still flipping to the front of the section to look at the math formulas, you haven’t gotten to understand SAT Math well enough yet.

Not only does this cost you time, it also indicates that you haven’t practiced enough with SAT Math to have the required formulas come to you fluidly.

Memorize the formulas at the front of the section and these common math facts:

calculating slope from two points (rise over run)

remainder when dividing a polynomial

common right triangles: by angles 45-45-90 (1-1-√2) 30-60-90 (1-2-√3) by sides 3-4-5 5-12-13

formula for volumes, surface areas

We have a complete list of SAT Math formulas here.

Strategy 9: Don’t Overly Depend on the Calculator

As you likely already know, Section 3 is a Math section forbidding the use of calculator, with 20 questions. Section 4 is a Math section that allows calculator, with 38 questions.

The calculator is really useful for certain questions that require complex calculations, like multiplying decimals together or taking square roots of weird numbers.

However, in many other situations, it’s too much of a crutch, and it can make you soft. Learning to solve questions without the use of a calculator will strengthen your math intuition and force you to understand the underlying math, rather than relying on a calculator.

Actually, every question on the SAT is solvable without a calculator. Because the College Board cares a lot about equality, it doesn’t want to give an unfair advantage to students who have grown up with graphing calculators compared to students who can’t afford them or never used them in school. So it designs questions that don’t require advanced calculators to solve.

Practically, this is important because some of the no-calculator questions are solvable with a calculator, and you need to wean yourself off of the calc. Here’s an example:

Yes—you can solve this by plugging it into your graphing calculator’s systems of equations tool. But this appears on the no calculator section, so you have to get used to solving this with pen and paper.

The second reason to depend less on the calculator is because solving without a calculator is actually faster in many cases. Here’s an example:

The calculator way to solve this would be to solve for the quadratic formula, 0 = -4.9 t2 + 25t. You can plug it in and the calculator will spit out two values for t.

How I would naturally approach is to factor first:

0 = t (-4.9t + 25)

Obviously t = 0 is one solution, but the other solution is pretty easy to find too. I don’t even need to use the calculator—I know 4.9 is close to 5, so I can see that t is close to 5. This is answer D.

For me, the second way is faster and feels more robust than the first. I know I’ve solved for t definitively, and I’m confident in my answer choice. Whereas if I used a calculator, I don’t have a “feel” for the solution—I’m purely trusting the calculator and what I entered into the calculator as correct.

Now, when I double-check (Strategy 6), I might solve it a different way by plugging in the answer choices. I’ll try plugging in answer choices C and D, and it’ll be clear that D is the better answer. But this is reserved for answer checking, rather than the first time I solve it.

Being able to solve SAT Math questions without a calculator will train your SAT Math skills more rigorously. This is important when you’re aiming for a perfect math score.

Strategy 10: Keep a Calm Mind During the Test, No Matter What

Now you know what it takes to achieve perfection on SAT Math.

You know that it’s critical to get a perfect raw score, or you might score a 780.

This makes a lot of students freak out during the test.

“I can’t solve this question…my 800 is gone…I’m getting more nervous and I have to skip the next question too…”

You can see how quickly you can unravel like this. Before you know it, you’re scoring way worse than you ever did on a practice test.

You need to learn to be mentally strong, like an athlete on game day.

Yes, you might have to skip a question on the first pass through. Maybe even two in a row.

But you’ve practiced hard up to this point. You know this stuff, and you’ll come back to those questions and get it later.

You need to keep up a positive mindset during the test, or you’ll crumble.

And in the worst case, maybe you won’t get an 800. But if you’ve consistently been getting 800’s on the practice tests, you likely won’t go much lower than 750—and that’s still really good.

Recap: How to Get a Perfect SAT Math Score

Those are the main strategies I have for you to improve your SAT math score to an 800. If you’re scoring above a 600 right now, with hard work and smart studying, you can raise it to a perfect SAT Math score.

Notice that I didn’t actually teach you that much math content. I didn’t point to any specific math solutions that will instantly raise your score.

That’s because these one-size-fits-all, guaranteed strategies don’t really exist. (And anyone who tells you this is deceiving you). Every student is different.

Instead, you need to understand where you’re falling short, and drill those weaknesses continuously. You also need to be thoughtful about your mistakes and leave no mistake ignored.

If you want to go back and review any strategies, here are quick links to them:

Strategy 1: Understand Your High Level Weakness: Content or Time Management

Strategy 2: Do a Ton of Practice, and Understand Every Single Mistake

Strategy 3: If You Have Math Content Gaps, Be Ruthless About Filling Them

Strategy 4: If You Miss a Question, Re-Solve It First

Strategy 5: Master Every SAT Math Skill—Even the Rare Ones

Strategy 6: Finish With Extra Time and Double Check

Strategy 7: Eliminate Careless Mistakes

Strategy 8: Memorize the Formulas and Common Math Facts

Strategy 9: Don’t Overly Depend on the Calculator

Strategy 10: Keep a Calm Mind During the Test, No Matter What

Keep reading for more resources on how to boost your SAT score.

What’s Next?

We have a lot more useful guides to raise your SAT score.

Read our complete guide to a perfect SAT score, written by me, a perfect scorer.

Are you aiming for a top school like Harvard or the Ivy Leagues? Here’s my famous guide, How to Get Into Harvard.

Learn how to write a perfect-scoring SAT essay, step by step.

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? We have the industry’s leading SAT prep program. Built by Harvard grads and SAT full scorers, the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics, then customizes your prep program to you so you get the most effective prep possible.

I built the PrepScholar program based on the principles in this article—the principles that worked for me and thousands of our students.

Check out our 5-day free trial today:

How to Get 800 on SAT Math, by a Perfect Scorer

Are you scoring in the 600-750 range on SAT Math? Do you want to raise that score as high as possible—to a perfect 800?

Getting to an 800 SAT Math score isn’t easy. It’ll require perfection. But with hard work and my strategies below, you’ll be able to do it. I’ve scored 800 on Math on all my SATs, and I know what it takes. Follow my advice, and you’ll get a perfect score—or get very close.

Brief note: This article is suited for students already scoring a 600 on SAT math or above. If you’re below this range, my “How to improve your SAT Math score” article is more appropriate for you. Follow the advice in that article, then come back to this one when you’ve reached a 600.

Overview

A lot of SAT Math guides out there are pretty bad. They’re written by people who don’t have actual expertise in the test, or they contain vague advice that isn’t helpful to the advanced student. You need better advice than simple SAT Math tips like “remember there’s no guessing penalty!”

In contrast, I’ve written what I believe to be the best guide on getting an 800 available anywhere. I have confidence that these strategies work because I used them myself to score 800 on SAT Math, every time I’ve taken the SAT. They’ve also worked for thousands of my students at PrepScholar.

In this article, I’m going to discuss why scoring an 800 is a good idea, what it takes to score an 800, and then go into the 8 key SAT Math strategies so you know how to get an 800 on SAT Math.

Stick with me—as an advanced student, you probably already know that scoring high is good. But it’s important to know why an 800 Math score is useful, since this will fuel your motivation to get a high score.

Finally, in this guide, I talk mainly about getting to a 800. But if your goal is a 700, these strategies still equally apply.

Understand the Stakes: Why an 800 SAT Math?

Let’s make something clear: for all intents and purposes, a 1530+ on an SAT is equivalent to a perfect 1600. No top college is going to give you more credit for a 1580 than a 1540. You’ve already crossed their score threshold, and whether you get in now depends on the rest of your application.

So if you’re already scoring a 1540, don’t waste your time studying trying to get a 1600. You’re already set for the top colleges, and it’s time to work on the rest of your application.

But if you’re scoring a 1520 or below AND you want to go to a top 10 college, it’s worth your time to push your score up to a 1530 or above. There’s a big difference between a 1440 and a 1540, largely because it’s easy to get a 1440 (and a lot more applicants do) and a lot harder to get a 1540.

A 1520 places you right around average at Harvard and Princeton, and being average is bad in terms of admissions, since the admissions rate is typically below 10%.

So why get an 800 on SAT Math? Because it helps you compensate for weaknesses in other sections. By and large, schools consider your composite score more than your individual section scores. If you can get an 800 in SAT Math, that means you only need a 730 in SAT Reading and Writing. This gives you a lot more flexibility.

MIT expects an 800 in SAT Math.

There are two other scenarios where an 800 in SAT Math is really important. First is if you’re planning for a quantitative or science major (like math, physics, statistics, chemistry). The second is if you’re applying to a highly selective technical school like MIT or Caltech.

Here’s the reason: college admissions is all about comparisons between applicants. The school wants to admit the best, and you’re competing with other people in the same “bucket” as you.

By applying as a math/science major, you’re competing against other math/science folks: people for whom SAT Math is easy. Really easy.

Here are a few examples from schools. For Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Caltech, and even less selective schools like Carnegie Mellon, the 75th percentile SAT Math score is an 800. That means at least 25% of all students at these schools have an 800 in SAT Math.

Even more surprising: the 25th percentile score for SAT Math at MIT and Caltech are 780 and 790, respectively. This means if you score a 750 on your SAT Math, you’re well below average for these schools!

I’m not going to lie. SAT Math was super easy for me. I got 800 on pretty much every practice test and official SAT I ever took. This was largely because I had a strong math background and competed in math competitions like AMC/AIME. I also worked hard and applied the strategies below to achieve perfection.

You’re competing against people like me. And if you apply with a 700 on Math, schools like MIT, Harvard, and Princeton are going to doubt your ability. Because SAT Math is supposed to be trivially easy for you.

But if you can work your way to an 800, you show that you’re at an equal level (at least on this metric). Even if it takes you a ton of work, all that matters is the score you achieve at the end.

Know That You Can Do It

This isn’t just some fuzzy feel-good message you see on the back of a Starbucks cup.

I mean, literally, you and every other reasonably intelligent student can score an 800 on SAT Math.

The reason most people don’t is they don’t try hard enough or they don’t study the right way.

Even if math wasn’t your strongest suit, or you got a B+ in Calculus, you’re capable of this.

Because I know that more than anything else, your SAT score is a reflection of how hard you work and how smartly you study.

Here’s why: the SAT is a weird test. When you take it, don’t you get the sense that the questions are nothing like what you’ve seen in school?

It’s purposely designed this way. The SAT can’t test difficult concepts, because this would be unfair for students who never took AP Calculus. It can’t ask you to solve Fermat’s Last Theorem. The SAT is a national test, which means it needs a level playing field for all students around the country.

So it HAS to test concepts that all high school students will cover. Basic algebra (solving single-variable equations, word problems), advanced algebra (quadratic and exponential equations), geometry (x-y coordinate geometry, circles squares and triangles), and basic statistics.

You’ve learned all of this before in high school.

But the SAT still has to make the test difficult to differentiate student skill levels, so it needs to test these concepts in strange ways. This trips up students who don’t prepare, but it rewards students who understand the test well.

Find the area of the shaded region below, if the radius of the circle is 5. Here’s an example:

This is a classic SAT type question. You might already know how to solve it. But it’s unlikely you ever ran into something like this in school.

The first time you see this, it might be confusing. How do you get the area of each of the shaded corners? It kind of looks like a triangle, but not really because of the curve region.

But you’ve learned all the concepts you need to solve this.

Notice that the shaded area is the area of the square, with the area of the circle punched out. To get to the answer quickly, this means that the area of a square is 10 x 10 = 100, and the area of a circle is πr2, or π * 5 * 5 = 25π.

So the area of the shaded region is 100—25π.

The SAT math section is full of weird examples like this, some of which get much more difficult.

To improve your score, you just need to:

master the types of questions that the SAT tests, like the one above

draw on the correct concepts you already know to solve the questions

practice on a lot of questions so you learn from your mistakes

I’ll go into more detail about exactly how to do this. First, let’s see how many questions you need to get right an 800.

What It Takes to Get An 800 in Math

If we have a target score in mind, it helps to understand what you need to get that score on the actual test. There are 58 questions in the Math section, and how many questions you miss determines your scaled score out of 800.

From the Official SAT Practice Tests, I’ve taken the raw score to scaled score conversion tables from four tests. (If you could use a refresher on how the SAT is scored and how raw scores are calculated, read this.)

Raw Score Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 58 800 800 800 800 57 790 790 790 800 56 780 780 780 790 55 760 770 770 790 54 750 760 750 780 53 740 750 740 770 52 730 740 730 760 51 710 730 720 750

Math has a really strict grading scale. On 3 out of 4 tests, if you just miss a single question, you get dropped down to a 790. That’s it—no perfect score!

On one of these tests, you get an extra cushion of 1 question, but that’s not much.

This all depends on how the particular test you’re taking is scored. The harder the math questions are, the more likely you can miss one question and get an 800.

The safest thing to do is to aim for perfection. On every practice test, you need to aim for a perfect raw score for an 800.

Whatever you’re scoring now, take note of the difference you need to get to a 800. For example, if you’re scoring a 700 now, you need to answer 8-9 more questions right to get to an 800.

As a final example, here’s a screenshot from my exact score report showing that I missed 0 questions and earned an 800.

(This was from the previous 2400 version of the SAT.)

OK—so we’ve covered why scoring a higher SAT math score is important, why you specifically are capable of improving your score, and the raw score you need to get to your target.

Now we’ll actually get into actionable strategies that you should use in your own studying to maximize your score improvement.

Strategies to Get an 800 on SAT Math

What’s your greatest weakness?

Strategy 1: Understand Your High Level Weakness: Content or Time Management

Every student has different flaws in SAT Math. Some people aren’t comfortable with the underlying math material. Others know the math material well, but can’t solve questions quickly enough in the harsh time limit.

Here’s how you can figure out which one applies more to you:

Take only the math sections of one practice test. We have the complete list of free practice tests here.

For each section, use a timer and have it count down the time allotted for that section. Treat it like a real test.

If time runs out for that section and you’re 100% ready to move on, then move on. If you’re not ready to move on, keep on working for as long as you need. For every new answer or answer that you change, mark it with a special note as “Extra Time.”

When you’re ready, move on to the next section, and repeat the above until you finish the second math section.

Grade your test using the answer key and score chart, but we want two scores: 1) The Realistic score you got under normal timing conditions, 2) The Extra Time score. This is why you marked the questions you answered or changed during Extra Time.

Get what we’re doing here? By marking which questions you did under Extra Time, we can figure out what score you got if you were given all the time you needed. This will help us figure out where your weaknesses lie.

If you didn’t take any extra time, then your Extra Time score is the same as your Realistic score.

Here’s a flowchart to help you figure this out:

Was your Extra Time score a 700 or above?

If NO (Extra Time score < 700), then you have remaining content weaknesses. You might have weaknesses across a range of subjects, or a deep weakness in only a few subjects. (We'll cover this later). Your first plan of attack should be to develop more comfort with all SAT Math subjects. If YES (Extra Time score > 700), then:

Was your Realistic score a 700 or above?

If NO (Extra Time score > 700, Realistic < 700), then that means you have a difference between your Extra Time score and your Realistic score. If this difference is more than 50 points, then you have some big problems with time management. We need to figure out why this is. Are you generally slow at math across most questions? Or did particular problems slow you down? Generally, doing a lot of practice questions and learning the most efficient solutions will help reduce your time. More on this later. If YES (both Extra Time and Realistic scores > 700), then you have a really good shot at getting an 800. Compare your Extra Time and Realistic score—if they differed by more than 30 points, then you would benefit from learning how to solve questions more quickly. If not, then you likely can benefit from shoring up on your last content weaknesses and avoiding careless mistakes (more on this strategy later).

Hopefully that makes sense. Typically I see that students have both timing and content issues, but you might find that one is much more dominant for you than the other. For example, if you can get an 800 with extra time, but score a 700 in regular time, you know exactly that you need to work on time management to get an 800.

Strategy 2: Do a ton of Practice, and Understand Every Single Mistake

On the path to perfection, you need to make sure every single one of your weak points is covered. Even one mistake on all of SAT Math will knock you down from an 800.

The first step is simply to do a ton of practice. If you’re studying from free materials or from books, you have access to a lot of practice questions in bulk. As part of our PrepScholar program, we have over 7,000 SAT questions customized to each skill.

The second step—and the more important part—is to be ruthless about understanding your mistakes.

Every mistake you make on a test happens for a reason. If you don’t understand exactly why you missed that question, you will make that mistake over and over again.

I’ve seen students who did 20 practice tests. They’ve solved over 3,000 questions, but they’re still nowhere near an 800 on SAT Math.

Why? They never understood their mistakes. They just hit their heads against the wall over and over again.

Think of yourself as an exterminator, and your mistakes are cockroaches. You need to eliminate every single one—and find the source of each one—or else the restaurant you work for will be shut down.

Here’s what you need to do:

on every practice test or question set that you take, mark every question that you’re even 20% unsure about

when you grade your test or quiz, review EVERY single question that you marked, and every incorrect question . This way even if you guessed a question correctly, you’ll make sure to review it.

. This way even if you guessed a question correctly, you’ll make sure to review it. in a notebook, write down:

#1: the gist of the question

#2: why you missed it, and

#3: what you’ll do to avoid that mistake in the future.

Have separate sections by subject and sub-topic (algebra—solving equations, data analysis—experimental interpretation, etc.)

It’s not enough to just think about it and move on. It’s not enough to just read the answer explanation. You have to think hard about why you specifically failed on this question.

By taking this structured approach to your mistakes, you’ll now have a running log of every question you missed, and your reflection on why.

No excuses when it comes to your mistakes.

Always Go Deeper—WHY Did You Miss a Math Question?

Now, what are some common reasons that you missed a question? Don’t just say, “I didn’t get this question right.” That’s a cop out.

Always take it one step further—what specifically did you miss, and what do you have to improve in the future?

Here are some examples of common reasons you miss a question, and how you take the analysis one step further:

Content: I didn’t learn the math skill or knowledge needed to answer this question.

One step further: What specific math skill do I need to learn, and how will I learn this skill?

Incorrect Approach: I knew the content, but I didn’t know how to approach this question.

One step further: How do I solve the question? How will I solve questions like this in the future?

Careless Error: I misread what the question was asking for or solved for the wrong thing.

One step further: Why did I misread the question? What should I do in the future to avoid this?

Get the idea? You’re really digging into understanding why you’re missing questions.

Yes, this is hard, and it’s draining, and it takes work. That’s why most students who study ineffectively don’t improve.

But you’re different. Just by reading this guide, you’re already proving that you care more than other students. And if you apply these principles and analyze your mistakes, you’ll improve more than other students too.

Bonus: If all of this is making sense to you, you’d love our SAT prep program, PrepScholar. We designed our program around the concepts in this article, because they actually work. When you start with PrepScholar, you’ll take a diagnostic that will determine your weaknesses in over forty SAT skills. PrepScholar then creates a study program specifically customized for you. To improve each skill, you’ll take focused lessons dedicated to each skill, with over 20 practice questions per skill. This will train you for your specific area weaknesses, so your time is always spent most effectively to raise your score. We also force you to focus on understanding your mistakes and learning from them. If you make the same mistake over and over again, we’ll call you out on it. There’s no other prep system out there that does it this way, which is why we get better score results than any other program on the market. Check it out today with a 5-day free trial:

Strategy 3: If You Have Math Content Gaps, Be Ruthless About Filling Them

Within SAT Math, you have to master a lot of subjects. At the high level, you need to know basic algebra, advanced algebra, data analysis, and geometry. Even further, within algebra, you need to know how to solve equations, how to deal with word problems, properties of functions, etc.

Here’s our complete mapping of all 24 skills you need in SAT Math:

Basic Algebra Linear functions Single variable equations Systems of linear equations Absolute value

Advanced Algebra Manipulating polynomials Quadratic equations Dividing polynomials Exponential functions Function notation Solving exponential equations Systems of equations with nonlinear equations

Problem Solving and Data Analysis Ratios and proportions Scatterplots and graphs Categorical data and probabilities Experimental interpretation Mean, median, mode, standard deviation

Additional Topics Coordinate geometry—lines and slopes Coordinate geometry—nonlinear functions Geometry—circles Geometry—lines and angles Geometry—solid geometry Geometry—triangles and polygons Trigonometry Complex numbers

Whew! That’s a handful. This might be a greater breakdown of skills then you’re used to, but at PrepScholar we believe in grouping questions by specific skill so you can train most effectively. In our program, we break down all our SAT Math content into these detailed skills so you can train your specific weaknesses in focused groups.

Unless you’re a math whiz and are already scoring a 750-800, it’s unlikely that you’ve mastered all of these evenly. You probably have different strengths and weaknesses across these subjects.

If from the analysis of mistakes above you find that you have a content problem, you need to improve your understanding of that content.

By Content problem, I mean that you’re not comfortable with the underlying math concepts in a subject. Maybe you forgot how to solve a type of problem, or you forgot a formula to use, or you just don’t remember the subject material.

If you’ve identified one of these issues, you’ve spotted an opportunity for yourself to improve your score.

Fill in the potholes of your understanding.

Think of a mistake like discovering a cavity in your mouth. When your dentist fills in a cavity, he doesn’t just patch up the hole right away. He cleans out the entire cavity, sterilizes it, then adds a filling.

Content mistakes are similar—you have a weakness in a subject, say x-y coordinate geometry. This probably means you have a lot of other weaknesses in that subject other than the one identified by that question. Don’t just focus on understanding that one question you missed.

Take the opportunity to research that subject and get more practice in it. You need to find a way to get lesson material to teach yourself the main concepts that you’re forgetting. Then you need to find more practice questions for this skill so you can drill your mistakes.

In our SAT prep program PrepScholar, we do that work for you by splitting up our 7,000+ practice questions by skill and difficulty. If you’re weak in algebra—solving equations, you get 20+ questions in a quiz dealing specifically with that skill. This repetitive practice fills up your content gap far better than any other method I know.

Strategy 4: If You Miss a Question, Try It Again Before Reading the Explanation

When you’re doing practice questions, the first thing you probably do is read the answer explanation and at most reflect on it a little.

This is a little too easy. I consider this passive learning—you’re not actively engaging with the mistake you made.

Instead, try something different—find the correct answer choice (A-D), but don’t look at the explanation. Instead, try to re-solve the question once over again and try to get the correct answer.

This will often be hard. You couldn’t solve it the first time, so why could you solve it the second time around?

But this time, with less time pressure, you might spot a new strategy, or something else will pop up. Something will just “click” for you.

When this happens, what you learned will stick with you for 20 times longer than if you just read an answer explanation. I know this from personal experience. Because you’ve struggled with it and reached a breakthrough, you retain that information far better than if you just passively absorbed the information.

It’s too easy to just read an answer explanation and have it go in one ear and out the other. You won’t actually learn from your mistake, and you’ll make that mistake over and over again.

Treat each wrong question like a puzzle. Struggle with each wrong answer for up to 10 minutes. Only then if you don’t get it should you read the answer explanation.

Strategy 5: Master Every SAT Math Skill—Even the Rare Ones

The SAT has an uneven balance of questions by skill. Algebra dominates the test, taking up over 50% of the test. This is somewhat good news, in that if you’re an Algebra whiz, you’ll do well on the bulk of SAT math.

The bad news is that there’s a long tail of straggling skills that show up just a few times a test. We’ve done a careful analysis of every math question on every official SAT test, and here are the LEAST common skills in SAT math. I’ll show you the frequency of appearance, as well as the expected # of questions per test for that skill.

Skill Frequency Expected Questions Per Test Dividing polynomials 1.72% 1 Trigonometry, radians 1.72% 1 Absolute value 1.29% 0.75 Complex numbers 1.29% 0.75 Experimental interpretation 0.86% 0.5 Lines and angles 0.86% 0.5 Solid geometry 0.86% 0.5 Systems of equations with nonlinear equations 0.86% 0.5 Function notation 0.43% 0.25

This might surprise you. Some of these skills have an expected # of questions lower than one.

That’s right: sometimes you might not even get a complex number or solid geometry question. But you have to know it anyway. You have to know it all.

In some ways, this is really extreme. You have to know a lot of topics in trigonometry, just to answer that one question per test. Here’s an example:

You need knowledge of radians and standard triangles to answer this question. To solve the question, you can realize that if the x length is √3, and the height is 1, then you know that this is a 30-60-90 triangle lying on its long side. Thus the angle is 30 degrees.

Then, because π radians is 180 degrees, then the angle is π/6 radians, so a = 6.

But notice that you weren’t tested on any other items in standard trigonometry—SOH CAH TOA, graphing functions like cos (90 + 2x), and converting between sin and cos. Yet you still need to know this, because you can’t predict what they’re going to test.

This is also true of complex numbers, solid geometry (volumes, surface areas), absolute value, dividing polynomials, etc.

This is the challenge of the 800 Math scorer—you need a wide BREADTH of knowledge as well as DEPTH of mastery in each one. No single test is going to test the entire breadth of your knowledge, but you must be prepared anyway.

The way we handle this at PrepScholar, which is based on how I mastered the SAT myself, is to give you detailed lessons and quizzes for all 24 Math skills, and all Reading/Writing skills. For even the least common skills like complex numbers and solid geometry, you’ll get dozens of questions to practice with and master the skill. You’ll leave no stone unturned, which is why top scoring students love us.

If you don’t use PrepScholar, then you need to find great sources of practice content yourself, and to structure your study time optimally so you get both breadth and depth.

Strategy 6: Finish With Extra Time and Double Check

Your goal at the end of all this work is to get so good at SAT Math that you solve every question and have extra time left over at the end of the section to recheck your work.

In high school and even now, I can finish SAT Math sections in about 60% of the time allotted. This means I finish a 25 minute section in 15 minutes or less, and a 55 minute section in 35 minutes. This gives me a ton of time to recheck my answers two times over and make sure I make no careless mistakes.

How can I finish a section this quickly? It comes down to mastery of the math skills and a LOT of experience with the test. When I see a question, I usually know exactly what the College Board is asking for, and I’ve seen so many such questions that I know exactly how to solve it in the fewest steps needed.

It comes from hard work and perseverance. If you’re pretty far from this time benchmark, don’t fret—it took me a lot of training and experience to get to this level. (After all, I’ve seen thousands of questions in my own SAT prep and when designing our PrepScholar SAT program).

So let’s say you finish a section ahead of time. What do you do with all that extra time?

Don’t rest and don’t put your head down. Use this valuable time to double-check, even triple-check your work. Remember, even one question missed will bring you down from an 800—you need to achieve perfection.

What’s the best way to double-check your work? I have a reliable method that I follow:

Re-read the question again. Question your assumption about what the question is about. If the question asks for a specific variable, make sure you’re solving for that variable!

If the question asks for a specific variable, make sure you’re solving for that variable! Try to resolve the question another way. If I solved a question algebraically, I can recheck it by plugging in the solution.

If I’m 100% sure I’m right on a question, I draw a huge check mark in the test book and never look at the question again. Even if I feel just a little twinge of remaining doubt, I’ll come back to it on the third pass.

At least two minutes before time’s up, I rapidly double-check that I bubbled the answers correctly. I try to do this all at once so as not to waste time looking back and forth between the test book and the answer sheet. Go 5 at a time (“A D A C B”) for more speed.

Here’s an example of solving a question two ways:

First way: My natural instinct is to solve this algebraically. I know I can plug in numbers, but I feel that’s slower and more error prone than getting a definitive answer through solving the equation. 3x – 5 ≥ 4x – 3 I can rearrange in my head in one step like so: -2 ≥ x (if you make careless mistakes, like the College Board expects you to do, it’s worthwhile splitting it up into smaller steps) OK, so the solution set is numbers less than or equal to -2. This leaves answer A as NOT the solution. Double-check way: Now that I know answer A should be correct, I’m going to verify by plugging that value back in and expecting the inequality to fail: 3x – 5 ≥ 4x – 3 -3 – 5 ≥ -4 -3 -8 ≥ -7 That’s obviously false, so I can verify that A is the right answer. At this point I’m confident enough that I can move on and not check this question again.

Another time management tip: If you notice yourself spending more than 30 seconds on a problem and aren’t clear how you’ll get to the answer, skip and go to the next question. Even though you need a perfect raw score for an 800, don’t be afraid to skip. You can come back to it later, and on your first pass it’s more important to get as many points as possible.

Quick Tip: Bubbling Answers

Here’s a bubbling tip that will save you 2 minutes per section.

When I first started test taking in high school, I did what many students do: after I finished one question, I went to the bubble sheet and filled it in. Then I solved the next question. Finish question 1, bubble in answer 1. Finish question 2, bubble in answer 2. And so forth.

This actually wastes a lot of time. You’re distracting yourself between two distinct tasks—solving questions and bubbling in answers. This costs you time in both mental switching costs and in physically moving your hand and eyes to different areas of the test.

Here’s a better method: solve all your questions first in the book, then bubble all of them in at once.

This has several huge advantages: you focus on each task one at a time, rather than switching between two different tasks. You also eliminate careless entry errors, like if you skip question 7 and bubble in question 8’s answer into question 7’s slot.

By saving just 10 seconds per question, you get back 200 seconds on a section that has 20 questions. This is huge.

Note: If you use this strategy, you should already be finishing the section with ample extra time to spare. Otherwise, you might run out of time before you have the chance to bubble in the answer choices all at once. 5 minutes before the section ends, make sure you bubble in the answers you already have.

Strategy 7: Eliminate Careless Mistakes

Careless mistakes are one of the most frustrating types of errors to make, and nearly everyone makes them, especially on Math.

You know the underlying material, you know how to solve the question, and you’re feeling good. But then you grade the quiz, and you find a careless mistake.

Oops—the question asked for the perimeter of the circle and not the area, which is what you calculated.

These types of errors are the most costly and frustrating. You’ve already put in a ton of work to master the underlying material, and here a question has tricked you into losing a point.

This is why finishing the test early, like I mention above, is so helpful. You get extra time to take a breather and double-check your answers.

If you find that careless mistakes are a recurring problem for you, here are some strategies to get rid of them:

In the question, underline what the question is specifically asking you to solve for. It’s so easy for the SAT to trick you into solving the wrong thing.

If you’re solving for a particular value (like length, area, etc), write the units down in the scratch space.

Be careful with calculator entry. A missing parentheses makes a big difference. “4 + 9 / 2” is completely different from “(4 + 9) / 2”

Avoid bubbling errors by using the Quick Tip above.

Here’s an example:

This question is asking us to solve for y + z. Not x, y, or any other combination of variables.

To make sure I remember this, I underline y + z, and I also write “y + z = ?” in the work space so that I remember what I’m solving for.

You can bet that in many answer choices, the SAT will have trap answers for other things you can solve for, like x. (This one happens not to, but it’s very common).

Memorize the SAT Math Formulas.

Strategy 8: Memorize the Formulas and Common Math Facts

If you’re still flipping to the front of the section to look at the math formulas, you haven’t gotten to understand SAT Math well enough yet.

Not only does this cost you time, it also indicates that you haven’t practiced enough with SAT Math to have the required formulas come to you fluidly.

Memorize the formulas at the front of the section and these common math facts:

calculating slope from two points (rise over run)

remainder when dividing a polynomial

common right triangles: by angles 45-45-90 (1-1-√2) 30-60-90 (1-2-√3) by sides 3-4-5 5-12-13

formula for volumes, surface areas

We have a complete list of SAT Math formulas here.

Strategy 9: Don’t Overly Depend on the Calculator

As you likely already know, Section 3 is a Math section forbidding the use of calculator, with 20 questions. Section 4 is a Math section that allows calculator, with 38 questions.

The calculator is really useful for certain questions that require complex calculations, like multiplying decimals together or taking square roots of weird numbers.

However, in many other situations, it’s too much of a crutch, and it can make you soft. Learning to solve questions without the use of a calculator will strengthen your math intuition and force you to understand the underlying math, rather than relying on a calculator.

Actually, every question on the SAT is solvable without a calculator. Because the College Board cares a lot about equality, it doesn’t want to give an unfair advantage to students who have grown up with graphing calculators compared to students who can’t afford them or never used them in school. So it designs questions that don’t require advanced calculators to solve.

Practically, this is important because some of the no-calculator questions are solvable with a calculator, and you need to wean yourself off of the calc. Here’s an example:

Yes—you can solve this by plugging it into your graphing calculator’s systems of equations tool. But this appears on the no calculator section, so you have to get used to solving this with pen and paper.

The second reason to depend less on the calculator is because solving without a calculator is actually faster in many cases. Here’s an example:

The calculator way to solve this would be to solve for the quadratic formula, 0 = -4.9 t2 + 25t. You can plug it in and the calculator will spit out two values for t.

How I would naturally approach is to factor first:

0 = t (-4.9t + 25)

Obviously t = 0 is one solution, but the other solution is pretty easy to find too. I don’t even need to use the calculator—I know 4.9 is close to 5, so I can see that t is close to 5. This is answer D.

For me, the second way is faster and feels more robust than the first. I know I’ve solved for t definitively, and I’m confident in my answer choice. Whereas if I used a calculator, I don’t have a “feel” for the solution—I’m purely trusting the calculator and what I entered into the calculator as correct.

Now, when I double-check (Strategy 6), I might solve it a different way by plugging in the answer choices. I’ll try plugging in answer choices C and D, and it’ll be clear that D is the better answer. But this is reserved for answer checking, rather than the first time I solve it.

Being able to solve SAT Math questions without a calculator will train your SAT Math skills more rigorously. This is important when you’re aiming for a perfect math score.

Strategy 10: Keep a Calm Mind During the Test, No Matter What

Now you know what it takes to achieve perfection on SAT Math.

You know that it’s critical to get a perfect raw score, or you might score a 780.

This makes a lot of students freak out during the test.

“I can’t solve this question…my 800 is gone…I’m getting more nervous and I have to skip the next question too…”

You can see how quickly you can unravel like this. Before you know it, you’re scoring way worse than you ever did on a practice test.

You need to learn to be mentally strong, like an athlete on game day.

Yes, you might have to skip a question on the first pass through. Maybe even two in a row.

But you’ve practiced hard up to this point. You know this stuff, and you’ll come back to those questions and get it later.

You need to keep up a positive mindset during the test, or you’ll crumble.

And in the worst case, maybe you won’t get an 800. But if you’ve consistently been getting 800’s on the practice tests, you likely won’t go much lower than 750—and that’s still really good.

Recap: How to Get a Perfect SAT Math Score

Those are the main strategies I have for you to improve your SAT math score to an 800. If you’re scoring above a 600 right now, with hard work and smart studying, you can raise it to a perfect SAT Math score.

Notice that I didn’t actually teach you that much math content. I didn’t point to any specific math solutions that will instantly raise your score.

That’s because these one-size-fits-all, guaranteed strategies don’t really exist. (And anyone who tells you this is deceiving you). Every student is different.

Instead, you need to understand where you’re falling short, and drill those weaknesses continuously. You also need to be thoughtful about your mistakes and leave no mistake ignored.

If you want to go back and review any strategies, here are quick links to them:

Strategy 1: Understand Your High Level Weakness: Content or Time Management

Strategy 2: Do a Ton of Practice, and Understand Every Single Mistake

Strategy 3: If You Have Math Content Gaps, Be Ruthless About Filling Them

Strategy 4: If You Miss a Question, Re-Solve It First

Strategy 5: Master Every SAT Math Skill—Even the Rare Ones

Strategy 6: Finish With Extra Time and Double Check

Strategy 7: Eliminate Careless Mistakes

Strategy 8: Memorize the Formulas and Common Math Facts

Strategy 9: Don’t Overly Depend on the Calculator

Strategy 10: Keep a Calm Mind During the Test, No Matter What

Keep reading for more resources on how to boost your SAT score.

What’s Next?

We have a lot more useful guides to raise your SAT score.

Read our complete guide to a perfect SAT score, written by me, a perfect scorer.

Are you aiming for a top school like Harvard or the Ivy Leagues? Here’s my famous guide, How to Get Into Harvard.

Learn how to write a perfect-scoring SAT essay, step by step.

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? We have the industry’s leading SAT prep program. Built by Harvard grads and SAT full scorers, the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics, then customizes your prep program to you so you get the most effective prep possible.

I built the PrepScholar program based on the principles in this article—the principles that worked for me and thousands of our students.

Check out our 5-day free trial today:

SAT Math: How to Score a Perfect 800 [Plus a Downloadable Guide]

Who wants a perfect 800 score in SAT Math? Who wouldn’t want that? Well, good news—that perfect 800 is within your reach. With the right prep, and the right understanding of SAT Math, anyone can get an 800, or something very close to it. We’ll share quick facts about SAT Math, steps you can take to get an 800, and share practice resources, including a free eBook filled with practice questions!

Aside from the obvious appeal of seeing that beautiful 800 glowing on your score report, there are other benefits to scoring perfectly in SAT Math. Whether you feel more confident in SAT Math or the Reading/Writing & Language sections of the test, a perfect Math score can keep your whole-test score high, making you a highly competitive applicant.

Table of Contents

SAT Math: Quick Facts

The first step toward SAT Math preparation is understanding. And by this, I mean you need to understand the basic structure of the test. It’s an easy first step. Consult the quick facts list and the two tables below, and you’ll clearly see the whole picture.

Fact #1: There are two sections of SAT Math: Calculator, and No Calculator.

The third and fourth sections of the whole SAT exam focus on math. Section 3 of the test is the first math section, and is headed “Math Test—No Calculator.” As you’d assume, you can’t use a calculator in this section of the test. Section 4 of the exam, the second SAT Math section, is entitled “Math Section—Calculator.” And—you guessed it—you can use a calculator in this part of SAT Math.

For full details on the differences between these two sections, check out the handy dandy table below:

Test Section Multiple

Choice

Questions “Grid-In”

Questions Time Limit No Calculator

(20 questions) 15 5 25 minutes

(average

1 min., 15 sec.

/ question) Calculator

(38 questions) 30 8 55 minutes

(average

1 min., 27 sec.

/ question) Whole SAT Math Section

(58 questions) 45 13 80 minutes

Fact #2: Questions are either multiple choice or grid-in.

The majority of SAT Math questions are multiple choice. However, there is a smaller group of “grid-in” questions at the end of both SAT Math sections. Grid-in questions require test-takers to come up with the exact numerical answer themselves, and then enter the answer by filling in bubbles for the digits in the number.

Fact #3: Each question is worth the same amount of points.

Although there are two sections of SAT Math, the questions in these sections are equally weighted. A question missed in either section will have the exact same impact on your score. Moreover, you don’t earn more points for one topic or another. Whether a question deals with stats, trig, compound interest, etc., it will be worth the same amount as any other question. (And of course, multiple choice and grid-in questions are worth the same amount of points as well.)

Fact #4: Both sections focus on the same categories of math problems.

The College Board puts SAT Math problems into four categories: Heart of Algebra, Problem Solving and Data Analysis, Passport to Advanced Math, and Additional Topics in Math. Questions from these subcategories are distributed equally across the Calculator and No Calculator sections of SAT Math.

You can see the categories and their subcategories below:

Category Math Topics Covered Number of questions per category Heart of Algebra -Linear equations and functions

-Inequalities 19 Problem Solving and Data Analysis -Ratios

-Proportions

-Percentages

-Units of measurement

-Quantitative data 17 Passport to Advanced Math -Equivalent algebraic expressions

-Quadratic equations

-Exponents

-Other nonlinear equations and functions (including expressions for lines on the coordinate plane) 16 Additional Topics in Math -Geometry (2 dimensional and 3 dimensional)

-Trigonometry (very basic trig) 6

Fact #5: SAT Math is scored on a 200-800 scale.

Once all of your right and wrong answers have been tallied up, the College Board will convert your performance into a score between 200 and 800. This 200-800 range scaled score is what you’ll see on your official score report.

As you may have already realized, this 200-800 point range means that the two SAT Math sections (Calculator and No-Calculator) make up half of the 400-1600 range of your overall score for the exam. The other half of your SAT score is based on the first two sections of the SAT: SAT Reading, and the SAT Writing and Language Test.

What Does it Take to Get an 800 in SAT Math?

Now that you know the basic structure of the test, let’s look at exactly what it takes, score-wise, to get that flawless 800.

In some ways, it’s hard to answer this question concretely. You see, the SAT scores every test slightly differently. Your final scaled score (200-800 range) is based on your raw score (the number of questions you answer correctly). But each individual SAT exam has its own raw-to-scaled score conversion table. If you get a slightly harder-than-average mix of SAT Math questions on test day, the score conversion table is more “forgiving;” you’ll lose fewer points off your score for each missed question. However, if you get a mix of SAT Math questions that is of average difficulty or is slightly easier than average, missing even a single question can affect your score.

Now, no one can predict exactly what your raw-to-scaled score conversion will be for the SAT exam you personally take. But we can make a pretty educated guess at the possibilities. This is because the College Board has posted eight full practice SATs online, all of which contain questions from real past SAT exams. And each test comes with its own score conversion chart!

Below, take a look at the College Board’s sample of raw-to-scaled SAT Math score conversion. In the table, I’ve included the scores you need to get at least 750 on every test. This should give you some idea of what it takes to get a perfect or near-perfect SAT Math score.

SAT Math Score Conversion Table

Raw Score Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5 Test 6 Test 7 Test 8 58 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 800 57 790 790 790 800 790 790 790 800 56 780 780 780 790 770 780 770 800 55 760 770 770 790 760 770 760 790 54 750 760 750 780 750 760 740 790 53 740 750 740 770 730 740 730 780 52 730 740 730 760 720 730 720 770 51 710 730 720 750 710 720 700 750 50 700 720 710 750 710 710 690 740

As you can see, more often than not, you need to get every single SAT Math question right in order to get that perfect 800. Even the two outlier tests in the table above require near-perfection. For Test 4, you can miss one question and still get an 800. And for Test 8, you can miss two questions (out of 58 questions) and still be “perfect” on your score report.

So what does this mean? Well, for one thing, it means you should train to get every single math question right on the test. The odds are very good that even missing one will knock your score down to 790. But the outlier tests also teach a valuable lesson: on test day, if you feel like you may have missed a question or two, don’t despair. You still have a chance at that perfect 800, perhaps a 25% chance, based on the available data.

Still, the best way to maximize your chances is to walk in on test day and answer every last question correctly. Does that goal sound daunting? In some ways, it is. But there are a number of steps you can take to make sure your chances at an 800 are really, really good.

What are Some Steps I can Take to Get an 800 in SAT Math?

If you’re aiming for 800, you need a solid action plan. Planning your studies can feel overwhelming, I know. But fear not! I’m about to walk you through a 10 step plan to get you all the way to 800, regardless of where your score is right now.

As you read these steps, please understand that the steps below are not necessarily one-after-the-other. The activities in these steps can and should overlap. You can decide which courses of action to start right away, and which to start a little bit later. But for the majority of your studies, all the activities below should be blended, done together in a winning combination. Roll up your sleeves, and we’ll get started.

Step 1: Master content first, then pacing

Nearly every SAT Math student I’ve ever tutored has the same complaint when they start studying. I always hear students complain that they are missing so many questions just because they run out of time.

As you start your path to full mastery of SAT Math, you need to think of problem solving and pacing as two separate skills. And you need to understand the relationship these two skills have to each other.

Problem solving is the skill of doing math operations correctly.

is the skill of doing math operations correctly. Pacing is the skill of doing math operations efficiently.

In other words, pacing isn’t just speed. If you do all of your math operations quickly but frequently get wrong answers, you aren’t being efficient, no matter how fast you are. Problem solving skills are the foundation for pacing skills. You need to learn how to do math operations the correct way before you can learn how to do them the efficient way.

So as you start really diving into SAT Math, don’t hold yourself to time limits at first. Instead, focus just on problem solving processes, and not on pacing at all. Them, slowly introduce timed practice and pacing. This can be done in phases, as follows:

Step 1, Phase 1 When you first start your practice, don’t use a timer at all. Just focus on doing the best you can on each SAT Math question you complete. At the end of each study session, see how many questions you’ve gotten wrong. Make a second attempt at any questions you missed, and then consult answer explanations to see if your second try was on the right track.

Step 1, Phase 2 Reach a point where you are consistently getting 75% accuracy or higher without having to go back and re-do any missed problems. Once you’re confident that you can maintain that level of accuracy, introduce a timer, but not time limits. Check the timer only at the beginning and end of each session, recording the timing of each practice session as a whole. Compare your total time to the total number of questions you answered, and look at your average time per question. You can still go back to re-work missed questions, but at this point you should be doing that after your timed practice session is finished. (In other words, re-done problems should not be factored into your accuracy or your pacing.)

Step 1, Phase 3 Continue practicing with a timer but no time limit. Now, however, you should start looking at your timer during practice. Begin to mark how much time you spend on each individual question. Flag and list any questions where you are considerably over the real SAT’s maximum average time per question (1:15 for the No Calculator section, 1:27 for the Calculator section). Then make note of the types of questions you are slowest with. Do some targeted practice with your slower question types, and work to get your overall average time per question down.

Step 1, Phase 4 Once your average time per question is at or near 1:15 per No Calculator question and 1:27 for questions where you can use a calculator, start holding yourself to the actual SAT Math time limits. You may find that your accuracy suffers a little when you first start to do this. This is normal, and your accuracy will come back. Keep working within those limits!

Step 1, Phase 5 Once you can get 75% accuracy or higher within the time limits, start trying to get 75%+ accuracy in less than the allotted amount of time. Try to maintain your accuracy while still having at least 5 minutes to spare in No Calculator, and 10 minutes to spare in Calculator. Use that extra time to go back and correct your questions for even greater accuracy. (And now that you’re comfortably in the time limit, going back to re-work questions does count as part of your accuracy and pacing!)

Step 1, Phase 6 Once you have good accuracy and the ability to go back and re-do problems as needed, try to reach a point where you can get 95%-100% accuracy in some of your practice sessions. Once that starts to happen, you’re in 800 range in terms of both accuracy and pacing. Keep up that good work!

Step 2: Keep an error log

An error log is a record of all the SAT Math problems that you get wrong. This kind of log, if done in the right way, can be a very powerful tool for getting an 800 in SAT Math.

Error logs for SAT Math should include the following information:

Which problem you missed (chapter/page/problem number for problems in a book or PDF, URL/screenshot/problem name or number for online questions)

What the correct answer was

What your wrong answer was

A brief description of what went wrong (for example: converted the fraction to the wrong kind of decimal, took the wrong approach, got confused and guessed, accidentally raised a number to the wrong power, etc…)

Strategies and approaches that would have gotten you the right answer

Here is an example of what a typical SAT error log entry might look like:

Question Information

Link: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/sat-practice-test-3.pdf

Other info: Page 34 of test, question 7 of the No Calculator section Link: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/sat-practice-test-3.pdfOther info: Page 34 of test, question 7 of the No Calculator section Skills Involved

f(x) function operations, plugging in values, subtraction with both negative and positive answers Correct Answer

Choice C, gotten by recognizing that f(x) value is the result when an x value is plugged into an equation. My Answer

B, gotten because I accidentally mistook the numbers in the f(x) column for the x values, and mistook the number in the x column for the end result of the equations. Next Time I Should…

Be more aware of how f(x) tables work, and know that the function stands for the answer to the equation, and not for a value inside the equation.

As you maintain this kind of error log, you’ll notice certain patterns in your mistakes. You’ll see which types of math problems you most often get wrong. You’ll also see a pattern of winning strategies emerge—things you could have done differently for better accuracy.

When you have enough error log entries, you should summarize your error log information in two shorter documents. One of these documents should be a “cheat sheet” that lists all the most important strategies you’ve realized you need to follow. The other should be a “goal sheet,” where you list all the SAT Math content and problem types that you need to improve in.

Step 3: Try to solve problems in multiple ways

While you should definitely do longer SAT Math question practice sets, sometimes it’s also good to focus intensely on just one question. There is always more than one way to solve an SAT Math problem. Solving a problem in multiple ways can help you get a better sense of the very best way to solve a problem quickly and smoothly.

Let me show you a very basic example of this. Suppose you see this question on the SAT:

A) 50

B) 25

C) –0.08

D) –12.5

This problem has a lot of nuance, and there are a number of ways you could approach it. So it’s a good idea to experiment with them all.

Approach #1

Now, basically, what you need to do is solve for x and then plug x into x/2. The first thing you should do is simplify 5/x = 8/[2(x+5)]. But how? Well, you could multiply both sides by x. But if you take that approach, you’ll quickly realize things get messy, with result of 5 = {8/[2(x+5)]}*x. Could you proceed from there and still get the answer? Yes, but this approach is unwieldy, and doesn’t represent true simplification.

Lesson learned! That initial approach doesn’t work well. So let’s forget about multiplying both sides by x. In fact, let’s forget entirely about multiplying both sides by any one denominator. This is a dead end no matter which denominator you choose. Multiplying by a single denominator only shifts numbers form one denominator to another. That can create the illusion of simplification. But you want to actually simplify the equation.

Approach #2

To truly simplify things in a problem like this, the first thing you should do is look at individual fractions, not the equation as a while. So let’s look at the original equation again, fraction-by-fraction:

5/x = 8/[2(x+5)]
The 5/x portion is something you can ignore initially. There’s no way to simplify 5x. But that’s not the case with 8/[2(x+5)]. Here, the 8 and the 2 can be simplified. Let’s isolate those to get the fraction 8/2. This is the same as 4/1, or 4. So the 2 in the denominator can be eliminated, since it becomes a 1, and 1*(x+5) is the same as just 2(x+5). So now for the full equation, we have:

5/x = 4/(x+5)

Approach #3

This is noticeably simpler, isn’t it? The next step in the simplification is to get rid of the denominators. And by this, I mean really get rid of the denominators, plural. Don’t just multiple one denominator by the other—make both denominators disappear at once. You can do this by using the “secret weapon” that will clear the denominators in any algebra problem like this one: cross-multiplication.

Cross multiplication works as follows: when a/b = c/d, ad = bc. In our simplified equation of 5/x = 4/(x+5), we have the following values for a, b, c, and d:

a = 5

b = x

c = 4

d = x + 5

This gives us a fraction-free equation of:

5(x + 5) = 4x, or 5x + 25 = 4x

Approach #5

We can simplify that even further to get our answer:

5x + 25 = 4x

x + 25 = 0

x = –25

Approach #6

From there, simply divide that x value by 2 to get your answer. But even in this relatively easy step, there are two different approaches you could take.

You could initially divide –25 by 2 in fraction form to get –25/2, and then convert –25/2 to –12 and 1/2, and then to –12.5. Or you could try to jump straight to the decimal, instantly seeing that –25/2 –12.5. Which approach is better? Well, going straight to the decimal is obviously faster. But if you “think” better in fractions, going from –25/2 to a mixed numeral and then to a decimal may actually be your best path to a correct answer.

Mind you, I’m not saying you should experiment with alternate approaches to every single practice problem; that would be very time consuming. But finding different approaches for a few problems a day can help you get a much stronger sense of the best way to approach any SAT Math question. And you’ll be able to avoid obvious missteps such as multiplying by one denominator, as seen above.

Step 4: Master every one of your weak areas

Error logging and finding different ways to solve problems will both help you identify your weak areas. Once you’ve found those trouble areas, you need to work on them aggressively. Don’t rest until you’ve truly mastered even your hardest SAT Math topics and problem types.

One way to really overcome your trouble spots is targeted practice. Is probability especially hard for you? Or perhaps geometry as a whole is difficult? Do practice sessions that consist entirely of problems from just one trouble spot. Focus on each spot, solving problems, error logging, learning how to improve, and ultimately improving.

There are a number of ways you can “cherry pick” problems from your weak areas. Search this very blog for practice math problems in your SAT Math trouble spots. You can do that by going to this custom Google search of the Magoosh High School Blog and adding in keywords related to your SAT Math weaknesses. And with a Magoosh SAT subscription, you can also use the Custom Practice settings in Magoosh SAT to select certain types of math problems.

And of course, there’s the good old fashioned method of going through an SAT Math practice book (or PDF), and manually choosing the best possible mix of practice questions in your weak areas.

Step 5: Master even the rarest of SAT Math content

I’ve already told you to leave no stone unturned when it comes to the content you’ve been getting wrong during practice. But you should also leave no stone unturned, period.

This means studying and mastering even the concepts that are very rare on the SAT, the ones that may or may not appear on test day. And be sure to study those rarer concepts thoroughly. If you miss a single concept in study and that concept turns up on the exam, getting just one problem wrong there (or anywhere) could lead to a 790 or lower.

So what does the study of these rare question types look like? To give one example, take trigonometry. Trig is a very rare SAT Math topic; you may only see one or two problems on the test. It might look like this problem (from Magoosh SAT):

Here, you need to know the formulas for sine (opposite/hypotenuse), cosine (adjacent/hypotenuse), and tangent (opposite/adjacent). And then you need to look at those formulas and see which answer choice combination of them would always come out to a ratio of 1.

But what if the one trig problem you encounter in SAT is a different one, such as this one (also from Magoosh):

For this problem, you have to know the broader concept of SOHCATOA, the way in which every trigonometric triangle property relates to the other. (See Magoosh’s free video lessons for SOHCATOA Part 1 and SOHCATOA Part 2.) You also need to understand circle arc length as it relates to trigonometry (see the circle arc length tutorial for SAT Math).

As you can see, you never know quite what you’ll get when it comes to even a single rare concept. So you’ll want to study every single aspect of trig and do as many practice trig SAT Math problems as you can. The same goes for every math concept on the SAT. Whether a concept is relatively rare or extremely common, if you want an 800 in SAT Math, you must treat all concepts as equal. Even the rarest types of SAT Math are worth your full attention.

Step 6: Repeat, repeat, repeat!

What do practice questions, answer explanations, and tutorials have in common? All of them are worth reviewing for a second, third, or even fourth time.

In fact, if you don’t understand an SAT Math answer explanation or lesson, look at it again immediately. Feel free to stop and double check what you just read, watched or heard.

Never be willing to simply not understand something. And never assume you understand an SAT Math principle fully, just because you’ve explored it one time through. You’ll be surprised at how much more understanding you can gain when you go through material multiple times. This kind of hard work and willingness to retrace your steps will make you “math-wiser” and increase your chances of getting that perfect 800.

Step 7: Do NOT just memorize formulas, processes and patterns. Also truly understand them.

Formulas, processes, and patterns, oh my! These are the building blocks of solving SAT Math problems accurately and efficiently. For that reason, I’ve included a complete list of them in the eBook that comes with this article.

But you want to truly use these formulas, not abuse them. What is formula abuse, you may ask? Formula abuse is a common malady among SAT preppers; it’s the act of memorizing formulas without truly understanding them.

Without a decent understanding of why a formula works, it’s very easy to misremember a formula, or miss a step in a formula when applying it. In contrast, proper formula use involves picking a formula apart, really thinking about it and understanding why it works.

Understanding Formulas Let’s look at an example of proper formula use. We’ll use (not abuse) the formula for exponential growth: This formula is also sometimes called the compound interest formula, because it’s most often used to calculate the accrual of compound interest. In this equation P = principal (starting value), and r = rate of growth (interest rate). n = the number of time periods per year that the interest accrues. So for example, if the interest accrues monthly, we’d have a value of 12 for n, but if it occurs quarterly, n would be 4, for the four fiscal quarters of the year. Finally, t = time in years, and A = new amount after all interest has accrued. But again, it’s not enough to merely memorize this formula and the meaning of each variable. And indeed, it’ll be hard to understand and recall the meanings of the variables if you don’t use them and test out the formula. To test out this formula (and thus gain a deeper understanding of it), let’s plug in a few different values for P, r, n, t and A. First, let’s say that we start out with $1,000 (P = 1,000), and then that initial amount earns 5% interest (r = 0.05), compounded quarterly (n = 4), for 11 years (t = 11). After 11 years, what’s our final amount (A = ?)? Well, let’s run the numbers: Crunching all of those numbers, you get approximately 1,000 * 1.73 for the interest. And yes, the numbers I’ve given you would likely be in the Calculator section, and the answer would be an approximation. So if the original $1,000 earned 5% interest, compounded quarterly, for 11 years, you’d have $1,730. Now, here’s where you can really test a formula—we’re going to run a different set of numbers and see what the result is. In this case, I’d like to test and demonstrate the effect of a different compounding schedule. So I’ll keep the initial amount (P = 1,000) and the initial interest (r = 0.05) the same. We’ll also keep the total time period at 11 years (t = 11). But now, I’m going to say the interest compounded monthly (n = 12) and see what difference that makes: So here, we have approximately 1,000 * 1.004^132 = 1,000 * 1.69. So the final amount is now $1,690 (A = 1,690). That’s a difference of approximately $40 if interest is compounded 4 times a year instead of once a year. And you can explore this formula even further in many different ways. For example, what if the interest compounded annually (n = 1). Or what if the total time of interest accrual was cut in half (t = 5.5)? This kind of experimentation can help you understand what each variable in a formula truly means and does.

Understanding Processes: Question 1 This same kind of experimentation should be done with other processes and patterns found in specific SAT Math problems that you practice. Remember the example math problem I showed you in Step 3? To refresh your memory, it was the problem that looked like this: I actually based that problem on question 5 from the Calculator section of SAT Math on official SAT Practice Test 3. The original problem had different values in the equation, as follows: …And the original problem asked for different final value for the answer, specifically this one: My changes to the numbers altered the outcome of the problem in different ways. For one thing, it made the final answer negative rather than positive. For comparison, see the answer to the original question in the College Board’s answer PDF for official SAT Practice Test Part 3.

Understanding Processes: Question 2 I did a few other experiments with the processes in this question as well. For instance, at one point I changed it to: This got some really interesting results. Here, I didn’t just change the answer, but also some of the process. I wound up dealing with some fairly complex fractions-within-fractions toward the end. My final steps looked like this: I ultimately got an answer of 15/16, or 0.9375. Taking both formulas and actual practice problems and changing the values in different ways is a very powerful study tool. Exercises like the ones above are especially useful if you want to get an 800, for two big reasons. First of all, it helps you to understand how the initial variables in a question determine the steps and outcome. In that way, you can see the steps and the answer coming. You can anticipate the possibility of tricky fractions, or changes to exponents, and so on. And you get a better sense for whether the answer you come up with actually feels right… or might be wrong. This kind of strong “number sense” is the exact trait you need to become an 800 SAT Math student.

Step 8: Train Yourself for Minimal Calculator Use

What if I told you that your calculator is a trap, a trick to fool you into getting the wrong answers? That on SAT Math, the Calculator section is still better done largely without a calculator? It’s surprising but true—you don’t need a calculator for most of what you do in the Calculator section. Not only that, but calculator use can open you up to mistakes you otherwise might not make.

Don’t get me wrong, a calculator should be used on the SAT when you both can use one and absolutely need to. However, there are two potential downsides to calculator use that you need to be aware of. Let’s go through those right now.

Calculator downside 1: Taking unnecessary extra steps Mental math keeps your mind sharp, ever-searching for shortcuts and ways to simplify the problem. When you use a calculator, on the other hand, you tend to focus on completing processes rather than simplifying processes. You’re much more likely to key every single step of a problem into your calculator. And this sometimes makes a calculator solution take longer than a mental math solution. Let me give you an example of a Calculator problem that’s both simpler—and yes, faster—to solve by mental math. Larry is comparing the sales of two hot dog stands he owns, Stand A and Stand B. He notes that yesterday, Stand B sold 30 percent more hot dogs than Stand A. According to Larry’s records, Stand B sold 169 hot dogs yesterday. Based on the percentage difference, how many hot dogs did Stand A sell yesterday? A) 105

B) 122

C) 130

D) 199 Here, if you used a calculator, you’d have to start checking the math for each answer, multiplying every choice by 1.3 (the multiplier for a 30% increase). 105*1.3 = 136.5, 122*1.3 = 158.6, and 130*1.3 = 169. So you’d be able to stop at the third choice and select it. But let’s see how much easier it is without a calculator, relying on mental math techniques. In that case, you would probably start with a shortcut for calculating 30%. You’d realize that 30% is 1/10 times 3. So to figure out what 30% of any answer choice is, you’d need to divide the answer choice by 10 and then multiply that 1/10 of the answer by 3. From there, a quick glance at the answer choices reveals something interesting. Because (C) is the only answer that ends in 0, (C) is the only answer where 10% is a whole number. So it’s the only answer where 30%, or a 30% increase, would also be a whole number. Since a 30% increase leads to the whole number 169, you’ve just eliminated answers (A), (B), and (D) effortlessly. If you have a keen understanding of mental math shortcuts, you can get to the answer almost instantly without a single calculator keystroke. Here, the calculator could have wasted 15-20 seconds or so of your time. Think about how much that wasted time will add up if you needlessly use the calculator on 10, 20, or even 30 of your SAT Math Calculator problems.

Calculator downside 2: Keying in mistakes It’s pretty difficult to write down the wrong number on a piece of scrap paper completely by accident. I mean, how often have you intended to write down, say, a 9, and accidentally written a 6 or 5 instead, without even noticing that you did that? I can’t imagine that’s happened very often to anyone. If you look at your calculator keypad, you’ll know why I’m bringing this up. The 5 is diagonal from the 9 on most calculators, and the 6 is right below the 9. So these kinds of mistakes are easy to make on a calculator, yet wholly avoidable with mental math and pencil/paper. However, there’s also a less obvious way that calculators facilitate careless mistakes. To see how else the SAT Math Calculator section can lure you into keypad mistakes, let’s take a look at this problem: Based on the histogram above, which of the following is the closest to the average (arithmetic mean) number of people per household? A) 3

B) 4

C) 5

D) 6 Because there are so many numbers, it’s tempting to try to use a calculator to keep track of them all. You need to divide the total number of people on the block by the number of households. Now, there are 17 households total; this is easy enough to add up with or without a calculator. But what about the total number of people? To get that with a calculator, you’d enter this operation: (4*1) + (4*2) + (5*4) + (2*5) + 7 + 8 = 57 Unfortunately, when you use a calculator to deal with info from a graph, you’re not focusing much on the full meaning of the graph. Instead, your energies are devoted to transferring numbers from the visual to the calculator. So you could easily transfer numbers that you shouldn’t. For example, you might accidentally include a 3 and a 6 in the figure for total people among the households. In our haste to copy numbers from the chart to the calculator, you may not think about the fact that there are zero households with those numbers of people. In that case, your calculation would incorrectly look like this: (4*1) + (4*2) + 3 + (5*4) + (2*5) + 6 + 7 + 8 = 66 With that mistake, you get 66/17 instead of 57/17. 66/17 leads you to a number that rounds up to 4 (an incorrect answer), while 57/17 would round down to the correct answer of 3. It would actually be far safer to use scrap paper or mental math for just about every step in this problem. The only point at which a calculator might be useful is the very end, when you actually divide the number of people by the number of households. Otherwise, the calculator really is a trap that can cause you to miss an otherwise manageable question.

How to train yourself to use the calculator less

Basically, you need to treat every Calculator problem as a challenge. The challenge is to do the entire problem, or as many steps as possible, without a calculator.

Be creative! Think of shortcuts you can take to skip steps, make other steps go faster, and get to that answer quickly, just through brain power. And speaking of shortcuts, that brings us to Step 9 on your path to an 800 in SAT Math…

Step 9: Know and practice common strategies for SAT Math

Strategies are the lifeblood of your SAT Math performance. On problems where it’s useful, be sure to try backsolving—starting with the answer choices, and then seeing which answer choice best works for the question. (You saw this in the first example problem in Step 8 above.) Be sure to use other common strategies as needed, too. Sometimes estimation will get you to the right answer choice quickly. Other times, replacing the variables with numbers you’ve picked will make it easier for you to understand an algebra operation in SAT Math.

In general, you want to cultivate a strong “number sense,” so that you can identify and use the right mental math tricks for various questions in SAT Math. For more instruction on this, with lots of tips and examples, check out the downloadable eBook!

Step 10: Complete as many high quality practice questions as you can

When it comes to getting an 800 in SAT Math, practice makes perfect. But not just any practice. There are plenty of low-quality SAT Math practice questions out there. Poorly designed SAT Math practice won’t match what’s actually on the exam, and can leave you unprepared for the real test. Be sure to seek out high quality resources from reputable companies.

This blog is a good place to start. Here, you’ll find excellent SAT Math practice in our free resources, such as the Guide to a Perfect 800 in SAT Math eBook.

Where Else Can I Get SAT Math Practice?

There are quite a few places to get good SAT Math practice. Check out the lists below.

Magoosh SAT Math Practice

In addition to the eBooks I mentioned in the previous section, you can also practice SAT Math with:

College Board SAT Practice

The College Board, the company that makes the real SAT exam, offers a generous amount of free practice in SAT Math, along with practice questions for the rest of the exam.

Official SAT Practice Tests (free online resource, includes 8 full tests in PDF, with essay questions and answer explanations)

SAT Sample Questions (additional free online test questions for SAT Math, SAT Reading, and SAT Writing and Language)

The Official SAT Study Guide (The practice tests in this book are also available online, through the above-linked Official SAT Practice tests. However, this book also offers additional model practice questions and tutorials, as well as a chance to practice the SAT in paper form, like you would on test day.)

Khan Academy SAT Prep

Khan Academy has worked closely with the College Board to create additional official prep for SAT Math. (And for the other parts of the exam, of course!) Here is what they have to offer:

SAT Math Practice (The practice problems come in video form, with a video lesson on how to solve each problem; there are 79 video lessons in all. This is a companion practice set to Khan Academy’s similar SAT Reading and Writing practice.)

Full-length SAT (in addition to the full-length practice tests from Magoosh and College Board, Khan provides one of their own)

Other sources of SAT Math practice

I definitely recommend Magoosh, College Board, and Khan Academy as the very best sources of SAT Math practice. But needless to say, these three sources aren’t the only ones out there. Should you try any additional publishers and companies? You just might want to. Read Magoosh’s SAT book reviews and decide for yourself.

Getting an 800 in SAT Math: Frequently Asked Questions

If you want the very top score in SAT Math, there are a few important things you need to know. Here are some answers to ambitious SAT Math students’ frequently asked questions.

What is the math on the SAT?

This is a great question. As I’ve mentioned before, you really do need to know every possible math topic on the SAT if you want to get an 800.

The College Board puts SAT Math into four categories: Heart of Algebra, Problem Solving and Data Analysis, Passport to Advanced Math, and Additional Topics in Math. But obviously, these sometimes poetic-sounding category names don’t tell the whole story. Let’s take a closer look at what kind of math is actually in these categories.

Heart of Algebra deals with regular algebraic equations, and with functions, by which I mean the problems that use the notation f(x) to indicate a certain type of algebraic function. Heart of Algebra also deals with algebraic inequalities in addition to regular equations.

Problem Solving and Data Analysis is dominated by word problems and infographics. You’ll need to calculate proportions and rations of different things to each other. You’ll also deal a lot with percentage changes, units of measurement, and other types of quantitative data.

Passport to Advanced Math is the next step up from Heart of Algebra, in terms of difficulty. Here, you’ll solve systems of algebraic equations, and algebraic equations where there is more than one possible answer. This category of SAT Math also includes quadratics and other algebraic equations where one or more of the variables is a square or exponent. Expect to deal with many exponent-related problems, and many problems where x, y, or other variables have two possible values, or sometimes more.

So, what are Additional Topics in Math, exactly? While the College Board-given name implies this is a generic mix of extra math, there is in fact a common theme: geometry. Expect to deal with coordinate geometry, three-dimensional geometry (volume, surface measurements for physical objects, etc.) and two-dimensional geometry (area, angles, shape, and so on). Here, you’ll also see some trigonometry, advanced mathematics in 2D geometry, focusing on the properties of triangles and circles.

Is there any calculus on the SAT?

There are no calculus math problems on the SAT. However, within the “Passport to Advanced Math” category of questions, there are some math problems that could be thought of as “pre-calculus.”

The more advanced math problems on the SAT will include complex algebraic expressions and functions that might also be seen in some easier calculus problems. However, what you do with those functions on the SAT will be different from what you’d do with them in calculus. You won’t be using calculus methods to evaluate functions, and the answer choices won’t be the kinds of results you’d typically get in a calculus math problem.

What is the highest level of math on the SAT?

This question is a little tricky. In terms of the typical high school learning sequence for math, trigonometry is probably the most advanced content in SAT Math. However, not everyone learns math in the same sequence at their high school.

More importantly, not everyone finds the same kinds of math to be hard or easy. When students ask what the highest level of SAT Math is, they are usually really trying to figure out what the hardest SAT math is. And for that, your individual mileage may vary. Typically, SAT test takers find trig and the complex systems of algebraic equations to be the hardest.

However, I’ve also talked to plenty of students who are reasonably comfortable with trig and Passport to Advanced Math, but find something else to be really challenging. (This “something else” could be a certain type of word problem, a certain aspect of the exponential growth formula, specific kinds of shapes in geometry, and so on.) Anyone aspiring to a perfect 800 in SAT Math should work diligently to discover and address their own personal weaknesses.

Free Downloadable eBook: The “How to Get a Perfect 800 in SAT Math” PDF

Hopefully the information and steps in this article can guide you as you work toward your perfect score. But we’re not done yet! Magoosh has also made an eBook to help you along the way. This eBook lists the strategies you should practice and the formulas you should truly understand.

We’ve also given you 20 practice questions (with answer explanations) so you can actively use those strategies and formulas. These questions cover all of the math content you’ll see on the test.

Good luck, and here’s to a perfect 800!

So you have finished reading the how to get an 800 on sat math topic article, if you find this article useful, please share it. Thank you very much. See more: how to get an 800 on sat reading, SAT Math Test, PrepScholar SAT, SAT Math Test PDF, Khan Academy SAT Math, SAT practice test, SAT Math tips, SAT Practice Test #4

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How to Get 800 on SAT Math, by a Perfect Scorer

How to Get 800 on SAT Math, by a Perfect Scorer

SAT Math: How to Score a Perfect 800 [Plus a Downloadable Guide] – Magoosh Blog | High School

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How To Get 800 On SAT Math

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SAT Math: How to Score a Perfect 800 [Plus a Downloadable Guide] – Magoosh Blog | High School

How to Get a Perfect 800 on the SAT Math Test | CollegeVine Blog

How to Get 800 on SAT Math, by a Perfect Scorer

How to Get 800 on SAT Math, by a Perfect Scorer

SAT Math: How to Score a Perfect 800 [Plus a Downloadable Guide]

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