Hi, there. I suck at math.

[Cofo]

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I just did Test 1 from the Math Destroyer (the one with 11 tests), and ...um... I didn't even finish it because I was pretty much not getting any of them right, or didn't know even how to approach the problem.
I am very scared now about the QR section. My DAT is in 2 weeks.

What should I do? Should I just go over the first 5 tests and do this?:

Read question #1.
After reading each question, immediately look up how to do it in the solutions section.
And keep doing this for all questions in tests 1 through 5????????

Then, tests 6-11, actually time myself and simulate a real test situation.
I just need some encouragement right now, and advice. I'm freaking out.🙁

 

[MowgliR]

You have your test Aug 18th too right?


I'm pretty scared about Math too. Is it time or material that is hurting you?

Make sure you have a good background or you'll be wasting your time by timing yourself and checking answers. If you think you do, take it like a real test and go over your answers at the end. Before you go onto the next test, make sure you learned for your mistakes! I would take them all like a test, then go over them again after you go through all the tests the first time around. Key point -- dont let yourself memorize the answers, understand what's going on.


During the test: Do all the ones you can do pretty fast first. Guess and mark as you go through all the questions. Then go back and do the others.

Aim for 1 min a question. If I had 15 questions left, I tried to be around 15-16 min left on the clock minimum.

 

[mashinka]

Ahhhh! I'm aug 18th too and timing on math blows. But we can do this! I think your strategy is great and I might try to emulate it as well. Let's get through this nightmare already!
For math I'm also just trying to learn quick arithmetic tricks to save a lot of time. For trig you should look up a thread on here that has a really dope way of remembering trig functions. I'm on my phone now but as soon as I get to my comp tomorrow I'll try and find the link

 

[Cofo]

You have your test Aug 18th too right?


I'm pretty scared about Math too. Is it time or material that is hurting you?

Make sure you have a good background or you'll be wasting your time by timing yourself and checking answers. If you think you do, take it like a real test and go over your answers at the end. Before you go onto the next test, make sure you learned for your mistakes! I would take them all like a test, then go over them again after you go through all the tests the first time around. Key point -- dont let yourself memorize the answers, understand what's going on.


During the test: Do all the ones you can do pretty fast first. Guess and mark as you go through all the questions. Then go back and do the others.

Aim for 1 min a question. If I had 15 questions left, I tried to be around 15-16 min left on the clock minimum.

it's the material that's hurting me. i got an A in college algebra, a C in trig....
idk what im gonna do. my test is aug 20. should i just focus on memorizing the formulas that KBB or MATH destroyer gives us?

 

[hoylematt]

For Math Destroyer: I would do a test a day the first time through, a page at a time. The key is to see how they do it in the back, then replicate it as fast as you can on a white board from memory. Towards the end (tests 9,10, 11) when you start getting proficient with recognizing the problem types start timing yourself.

Even if you only get through 30 of the problems in 45 minutes, understand that timing is important and that you are working your way up to it. The last few days before the test, start working through the tests again starting back at 1 and time yourself. The key isn't to be a genius, its just to get a high enough score on the QR section to where you won't have to retake it solely based on a low QR score.

IMO do not get depressed. Take it a little bit at a time--memorizing the formulas in the front of the book can help with confidence as well.

One last piece of advice: Look up khan academy, hes the man.

 

[bustahfoo]

memorizing formulas won't do much good I don't think, unless you're talking about the very basic of formulas (i.e. pythagorean, distance, distance, etc). I would recommend doing a few practice tests (2 or 3) without timing yourself and try to solve everything, look through the solutions after you're done, and learn from your mistakes. If your missing around 8-10 problems under these conditions then you're in good shape. My guess is you're most likely going to be missing the wordy problems. As for the calculation problems, those are usually missed because you've made a stupid mistake, or you've forgotten a basic algebra rule. Master the calculation problems and you're in good shape.

Next, move onto the rest of the practice test and do them under timed conditions. Mark and skip problems that you have no idea how to solve after reading it (like immediately, if a path to the solution doesn't pop into your mind within 10 secs then put down your best guess, mark, and skip that problem). Get through the test as fast as you can, then go back to your marked questions. At this point, I'm assuming you can do the calculation problems quickly and correctly.

The wordy problems throughout all of Math Destroyer are fairly similar, mostly having to do with distance, velocity, time, adding rates. Just worded differently, of course.

Best.