How can I improve mathematical calculation speed?

[EdCLS]

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Hello,

I recently received my Berkeley Review general chemistry books. I started going through them earlier this week, and I've come to realize that I need to improve my math skills. I've never had trouble in math--I received good grades in the math classes I've taken. I'm just not very fast, and TBR *really* emphasizes quick basic math skills as important for the MCAT.

Do you guys know of a good, targeted way to improve calculation speed? Will it come with sufficient passage practice, or should I go for something more focused? I imagine I'm not the only one who's run into this issue, so I'm curious as to what solutions others have come up with.

Thanks in advance!

 

[mcant]

Practice, practice, practice!

I always put everything in scientific notation and rounded, it makes things a lot easier. The vast majority of MCAT calc q's can be estimated so rounding doesn't matter.

There's also a great trick for figuring out logs (ie: pH calculations). Say you have -log(n x 10^-m). This can immediately be re-arranged to m - log👎. Since n is always a number between 1 and 10 (if in scientific notation), you can estimate the answer.

For example, if you have:

-log(7 x 10^-8)

You can rearrange to:

8 - log(7)

Since 7 is closer to 10, you know that log(7) is going to be closer to 1 than 0. Therefore, you can estimate the answer at around 7.3 (the actual answer is 7.15).

 

[StIGMA]

No joke - get fourth to eighth grade level (multiplication/division through algebra) books that just have pages and pages filled with problems. They are meant to be done 10 to 80 problems per minute, depending on what skill it is. Work through a few books, and all your calculations (head math) will be solid.

 

[Raigon]

get EK Verbal + Math they teach you how to round