Chaitanya Singh, Churchill HS
SAT IIc Math 800 in June 2013
High school years, especially 10th and 11th grade, can be a very stressful period. There are countless things to do in order to enhance one’s college resume. For students looking to showcase their talents in particular subjects to prospective colleges, the SAT Subject Tests, commonly referred to as the SAT 2’s, are one of the major items on the to-do-list. I am one of these students. During my sophomore year, I was taking multiple AP’s, and the year was already quite difficult and demanding. Then, I started hearing about the SAT 2 Math test. I started researching, as I was not very aware of its structure.
To my surprise, I found that there were two possible SAT 2 Math exams that one could select between: Level 1, and a more challenging Level 2. I discovered that I was eligible to take Level 2, as it covered curriculum up to Pre-calculus, the math class I happened to be taking that year. I resolved to prepare for the June exam, while simultaneously completing all of my schoolwork at a high level. However, things did not turn out to be as easy as I thought they would. The SAT 2 Math Level 2 exam had a stringent time policy: 50 questions in 60 minutes. Many of the problems required time to solve, as they were of a high mathematical level, and I always came up a few questions short of finishing the test within the given hour. Then I decided to turn to someone who had been helping me better my math since I had been in elementary school: Dr. Li. I enrolled into Dr. Li’s SAT 2 Math preparation session in hopes of bettering my speed by learning shorter, easier ways to solve questions that I was currently taking a lengthy approach towards. Six weeks of preparation with Dr. Li, including 2 practice tests, ended up doing the trick.
Dr. Li had once again imparted to me not only math, but efficient math, something that is crucial for the SAT 2’s. I was able to finish both of his tests, and receive high scores on each. A few days after my last class with Dr. Li, I went to take the real test, which is what all my preparation had built towards. I found that I was able to breeze through the test, and finished with quite a bit of time to spare as well. Once, again, Dr. Li had proven to be the solution.