Author: Melissa Budijono ('23) and Clarine Tantowi ('23)
Photographer: Joycelynn Saputra (‘25)
Photo Courtesy of Joycelynn Saputra
Every year, high schoolers have the chance to take the SAT for their college application. Many juniors and seniors, who are the majority of SAT test takers, start studying for the SAT in 10th grade or even all the way back in middle school. However, many have struggled to understand how to approach the SAT, especially the math section. “When should I start studying? How many times should I take the SAT? How can I self-study?” These are just a few questions students have asked themselves when they begin studying. In an interview with the Times, teachers, students, and tutors delve further into what the SAT actually is and how to approach the SAT math section.
Photo Courtesy of Joycelynn Saputra | Interview with Ms. Hall
Ms. Melissa Hall, the school’s guidance counselor, gave The BAIS Times reporters some information on how to prepare and register for the SAT.
She said, “You have to create a CollegeBoard account, then register and pay for the SAT through the CollegeBoard account online. You have to register about 4-5 weeks before the test day… During the pandemic, BAIS has been one of the few facilities that is open for testing, so they fill up pretty fast. Also, take some practice exams and work at Khan Academy. The night before, you have to eat a good meal, get 8 hours of sleep, wake up 1-2 hours before the test, take a shower, and drink some water. You will arrive at campus at 7:30 and check in with proper ID.”
Students have also asked two other common questions: when should a student take the SAT and how many times should a student take the exam. Ms. Hall said that she has seen the best results from students taking the exam in March of their junior year, which is like the “sweet spot.” Pak Chandra Isyanto, a private mathematics tutor who has worked with BAIS students over the years, also said that it is best to take the SAT no more than three times because the score doesn’t really increase much after taking it a few times. It is especially difficult to improve once you have reached your target goal.
The SAT consists of all the materials students have learned throughout their elementary, middle school, and high school years. This means that students should focus on learning skills in math class and then be able to apply them during the SAT exam. Ms. Hall said that, “Everyday choices are the ones that really matter because SAT is not a thing you cram for.” She stresses that while preparing for the SAT is beneficial and recommended, the SAT shouldn’t be a student’s top priority as they shouldn’t completely neglect their homework and studies.
Besides doing their best in their math classes, students who successfully achieve high scores have a few other attributes in common. A few additional things that can help students get a better score is taking the PSAT, taking previous SAT practice tests, using Khan Academy for review, and following practice guide videos on how to be able to score well. Taking the PSAT can provide a similar experience to taking the SAT so that students will be more familiar with the structure of the SAT, which they will take later. Pak Chandra also said it is important to be familiar with the types of problems that the College Board had covered in the past SAT exams because they will come up again. Taking previous practice tests will help with this and can also help prepare test takers to become more familiar with the topics that are included on the SAT exam, like some parts of geometry or algebra. Khan Academy provides free SAT prep and is especially useful if a student has taken an SAT exam before because they can link their results to the website. This personalizes a student’s SAT study plan and enables them to just focus on the math topics that they struggled with.
Not only is taking practice tests and working on Khan Academy important, students also need to focus on test taking strategies.
“The last method I’ve focused on in tutoring [for the SAT] is basic test taking strategies. You may not know every answer. But in multiple choice tests, process of elimination, working backwards, or just guess and check methods are really helpful,” said Mr. Michael Davis, a middle and high school math teacher at BAIS.
Calculator tricks can also be helpful to efficiently answer the questions with the time limit of the SAT exam. Pak Chandra's specialty is teaching calculator tricks to his students, and he said that understanding calculators is very important because using a calculator to solve some of the problems in the calculator section can save precious seconds that are valuable in this type of exam setting. It may seem challenging to learn how to use a TI-84 or Casio scientific graphing calculator, but Pak Chandra emphasizes its usefulness for questions that involve graphing equations, making function tables and solving equations.
Photo Courtesy of Melissa Budijono | Interview with Pak Chandra
Another dilemma when it comes to taking the SAT is whether students should study for the SAT or the AP calculus exam their junior year.
During BAIS students’ sophomore year, one decision that is always hard is choosing whether to take the advanced trigonometry functions class instead of the normal Algebra 2 class. Sophomores taking Algebra 2 could have more time to focus more on preparing for the SAT their junior year. Pak Chandra noted that “doing Algebra 2 first could help you don’t get too overwhelmed with the concepts, meanwhile working on all of the different stuff in precalculus can be very challenging as well.”
Taking trigonometry functions in sophomore year would mean that the student would advance to AP Calculus class their junior year, which also means that AP Calculus students have to put a lot more attention on their AP class rather than the SAT. Pak Chandra, who is also an AP Calculus tutor, described that the math included in the AP Calculus curriculum and the SAT exam are “two very different topics that don’t fit together.” AP Calculus is simply too complex and advanced a topic that it would not be required for the SAT exam. Pak Chandra said, “Based on my experience, I see that most students get overwhelmed because of the tests [AP Calc and SAT exam], and doing it at the same time can be very challenging.” Students need to choose their focus on preparing to do well on either the SAT or AP Calculus but often cannot do well on both exams at the same time. It's not impossible, but it is very difficult.
Despite the SAT being an important part of a student’s college application, students need to keep in mind their target schools’ locations. Universities in the U.S. are focusing less on the SAT for admissions because they have taken into consideration other factors other than test scores. However, most of the rest of the world still require SAT scores because it is an international exam that has been used for years to determine one’s ability to be ready for a certain university or not. While a high score on the SAT might not guarantee admission to prestigious universities, it is still important enough that students should take some time to prepare for the SAT exam.
In conclusion, students need to start preparing for the SAT gradually because they need to have a solid foundation of the math concepts covered, and then be able to review during their sophomore and junior years with Khan Academy, practice tests, and other SAT resources. BAIS students should also carefully consider whether to take trigonometry functions or Algebra 2 first because that will determine the rest of their math path. Getting a good score on the SAT is hard; however, it is achievable.
*If you need more specific suggestions, please feel free to talk to the writers of this article and/or the teachers and tutors mentioned above.*