Problem solving techniques/strategies

[Skynt]

Does anyone have any good strategies for the math portion of the SAT and word problems just in general? I have made weak - average SAT scores on the math primarily because I don't get enough done on the test within the time frame which I think is due to my problem solving skills. I'm actually really good at math, like calculus, and I do well in my math classes. What's the deal?

 

[Gib Z]

Practice more of those problem solving style questions. Surely there are resources available at the library that has many of those questions. Just go on and do them. Experience is best. Something I heard mathwonk here say was in a word problem, in general, every sentence can be translated into an equation, or its mathematical form. Once you've done that for all your information, try to see how that information links to give you what you want.

 

[qntty]

It's not a quick fix for the SAT, but if you really want to improve your skills solving high school level math problems (and eventually math problems in general), do problems that are slightly harder than the SAT problems such as http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/resources.php?c=182&cid=44" problems (there are several other good competition problems such as Mu Alpha Theta, Mandelbrot and RCML but I don't have any links to an archive of the problems). As the number of the problem increases, they increase in difficultly, so #1-10 on AMC will be SAT-level and get harder after that.