Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Preparing for the new math SAT

I got emails from Khan Academy saying the site is now ready.

Off-topic comment for this thread but relevant to the forum:

There may be students who have accelerated too much in math, leaving them with a weak foundation. But there are also gifted math students who need a lot of acceleration. I am concerned that some teachers and administrators use the logic above to oppose all acceleration. It is not true that all young students, when accelerated, "simply learn more facts without conceptual understanding or developing the mathematical reasoning strategies needed for higher level math".

The writing part is "optional" for non-competitive colleges. Competitive colleges will expect you to have written an essay.

Younger kids taking the SAT for talent search or DYS applications can skip it though.

I think another change with the new SAT is that there is now no penalty for guessing. It used to be that you should leave a question blank if you have no idea on it, but now you can guess away!

Yep - it is the latest not so subtle coded way for minority applicants to declare their minorityness to the admissions panel now that unfair and academically undeserved preferences are no longer able to be made explicitly.

Mecreature, thanks for sharing. When my son was in the 3rd grade finishing up an outside of school pre-alg class (focused on the algebra part) we were told he was ready for full algebra. He was outscoring all the 6-7th graders. As I was preparing to deal with his regular school on advanced placement, our life circumstances caused him to go 4-5 weeks with no math.

When we got back to the books, he remembered nothing. Could not even divide fractions (forgot the flip). I thought he was being stubborn. When I calmed down, started to think about the previous 3 years. Yes, he did all the work leading up to pre-alg, but he had only done no more than a hundred of each problem type. In some cases, maybe as few as 20. He just did not have the repetitions to sustain him over the gap.

I immediately, put him on a slower train. Spent a year making him redo the whole 5th & 6th grade classes (CTY). Glad we did. Realized that 6th grade is the math of normal life, and probably 40-50% of all achievement tests through H.S. Now, going to the 5th grade at school, he is back up to algebra (CTY). At school, he is at grade level and repeating and reinforcing the work he studied in advance. Because, he spends only minutes on school math homework, he has extra time for exploration. Also, he is killing all standard testing.

I plan to keep advanced math outside of school, until the 7th grade. I want the repetitons. Then, we will decide whether to put him on the algebra track at school, meaning that he will be repeating alg, geom, and probably alg 2, or advanced placement that will be a lot easier in middle school.

To some it all up, the professor has a point.

While the professor has a point for some kids, there are other gifted kids for whom the repetition is just not necessary (my ds is one of them). I suspect it's not necessarily repetition as much as being developmentally ready (and taught in a way) that a student understands the concepts.

I'm not an uber-accelerate-early parent, but there are benefits for accelerating in math if your child is capable and interested. In our district the primary benefit is access to upper level science courses.

Re the OP, I don't know anything about the math tracks in other school districts, but in our area, once you are in high school (as opposed to high school courses being taught in the middle school to honors level students), the math courses are not tracked, and course content is the same across courses for algebra/geometry/alg II and beyond. Students take them in whatever grade they are tracked into them, but they are with a wide range of ability students (although lower ability students don't typically reach the higher level courses).

polarbear

I think that what he is saying may be true for some kids. My DD9 was accelerated too much in math, IMO, in a gifted magnet, and she breezed through or completely skipped certain concepts that are very important (like decimals/fractions)...we are backing way up, as she has huge gaps, basically reversing the acceleration. I have heard that the kids in this gifted magnet, who are doing Algebra I in 5th or 6th grade, are really struggling when they get to the Jr. High and are faced with Algebra II. My other kid was also accelerated a lot and I'm not as worried about him, but I still want to go through things with him over the summer and make sure he is solid on basic computations, like long division, and gets the practice in. He is one of those kids who likes to do literally everything in his head, so I know conceptually, he is fine, but I'd also like him to know how to do things on paper.

A slightly different lens that perhaps offers a little connecting ground between the views above....

I think for most of our kids, it's not so much that they need repetition (though there is a certain amount of "use it or lose it" in play). The basic concepts of decimals, fractions, exponents, whatever, are easily taught, and the usual endless worksheets of basic problems that grind our kids down in elementary school are a big driver to "accelerate, now, more, PLEASE!" Most of them clearly don't need more of this kind of repetition.

At the same time, what most of them don't get is practice using those simple concepts in complex ways. There's tons of hard things you can do with those easy math tools, and there's value in spending some leisurely time with competition math, AoPS, etc, to find them. Otherwise, I think what might happen is some kids end up accelerated not too fast, necessarily, but too superficially. They have a great big box of tools and they understand the purpose of each one - but they've never been given anything but practice boards to work on, and have no idea what to do now that they suddenly need to bring all their tools together to build a house. Or a particle accelerator.

The "Official SAT Study Guide (2016 Edition)", with four practice tests, for students taking the test in March 2016 or later, is now available for about $17. Amazon reviewers http://www.amazon.com/Official-SAT-Study-Guide-2016/dp/1457304309 say the tests are online and the the book is not a necessary purchase. For 800 pages I don't mind buying a paper copy.