Worthington HS: Math Courses to SAT
How do your High School Math Courses prep you for the SAT?
This is a fair question with a murky answer. In High School, you pick up math knowledge in your courses. There’s no question that much of what you do helps build your foundational knowledge for the SAT. You will learn concepts and build math skills that will be critical for the SAT Math.
With that said, the SAT is more than what you learn. At the same time, it’s a lot less than what you learn in your classes. For example, if you have Calculus in HS, that’s fantastic - but it won’t really help you on the SAT. If you took Algebra, Statistics, Precalculus, and Geometry, then you’ve probably learned a lot of the fundamentals you need to know. But the SAT is still different. The SAT Math test will ask you questions in ways you’ve never seen in your math classes. So while your courses will help, you will still need to study SAT Math, a subject on its own.
For this post, I’m going to look at the courses that are offered at Thomas Worthington High School and Worthington Kilbourne High School.
Math I (Math I-A and Math I-B): In this course, you’ll see linear and exponential relationships; reasoning with equations; descriptive statistics; connecting algebra and geometry through coordinates; and circles. All of this is relevant for the SAT Math test. This course will cover three of the four major areas of the SAT Math test (Heart of Algebra, Data Analysis, and Additional Topics).
Math II: In this course, you’ll see applications of probability; expressions and equations; quadratic functions and modeling; similarity, right triangle trigonometry and proof; circles with and without coordinates; and extending geometric ideas to three dimensions. While you won’t have proofs on the SAT, everything else listed here is relevant for the SAT Math exam. This course covers portions of all four major areas of the SAT Math exam.
Honors Math II: In this course, you’ll focus on inferences and conclusions from data; polynomials, rational and radical relationships; trigonometry of general triangles and trigonometric functions; and modeling with functions. This is very relevant for the SAT, primarily the Passport to Advanced Math and Additional Topics areas.
Math III: This course will focus on inferences and conclusions from data; polynomials, rational and radical relationships; trigonometry of general triangles and trigonometric functions; and modeling with functions. This course contains portions that are relevant for the SAT in the areas of Data Analysis, Passport to Advanced Math, and Additional Topics.
Honors Math III: This course focuses on finding connections between multiple representations of functions, transformations of different function families, finding zeros of polynomials and connecting them to graphs and equations of polynomials, modeling periodic phenomena with trigonometry, and understanding the role of randomness and the normal distribution in making statistical conclusions. For the SAT Math, this course primarily focuses on the topics covered in Passport to Advanced Math and Additional topics, with some coverage of Data Analysis as well.
Block Math II / Math III: You would view this as a combination of Math II and Math III as it states in the course title. Its a fast-paced and wide-range topic course that will cover portions of every major area of the SAT Math test.
Honors Pre-Calculus: This course integrates the major ideas of functions, trigonometry, and solving equations and inequalities needed for calculus. Some of the functions analyzed include linear, exponential, logarithmic, quadratic, power, polynomial, rational, and trigonometric, along with transformations of these functions. Other topics include matrices, polar coordinates, complex numbers, modular arithmetic, mathematical induction, graphs, and vectors. For the SAT Math, this is most certainly relevant for Passport to Advanced Math and Additional topics. It also covers a lot of topics that are “too advanced” to appear on the SAT test.
Transition to College Math: This course reviews and extends the algebraic concepts used in Mathematics III including further study of linear and quadratic equations and functions, polynomials and rational functions, trigonometry, logarithms, sequences, series, probability, descriptive statistics, and the complex number system. This course covers Data Analysis, Passport to Advanced Math, and the Additional Topics areas of the SAT math exam.
Financial Algebra: The mathematical formulas, functions and graphical representations used in the course assist students in making sense of the financial world around them through mathematical modeling and equip them with the ability to make sound financial decisions based on data. This course will primarily help students solidify their knowledge of Data Analysis for the SAT test.
AP Calculus AB: This course is far too “advanced” for SAT Math topics. It will cover polynomials in detail which do appear on the SAT but the SAT tests it at a much more basic level than what is taught in this course.
So now what to do you with this knowledge? Learn the concepts taught in class. The better you do in your classes, the more prepared you’ll be for the SAT. It sounds obvious but it’s important to understand that your classes are an important first step in your SAT prep.
Also, don’t equate “not relevant to the SAT” to “should not take.” Colleges and Universities look closely at the courses you take and that plays a big part in your admissions process. Don’t skip AP Calculus because it’s not as relevant for the SAT Math.
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