One of the biggest challenges and international student will face in applying to American universities is the SAT test. The test not only assesses students' reading comprehension levels, but also their math skills. The math section can be quite challenging for even the best international math students, simply because many of terms are not concepts or words students have learned in their English classes. For this post, I have created and added a document that breaks down the math SAT into its content areas, and have made lists of math terms an international student will need to know in order to succeed on the SAT.

These terms are not new concepts, most likely, but are probably terms that have only been introduced in Bulgarian.

This link is also a great resource to check out, as it gives examples of the types of problems students must be able to complete for the test.

SAT Math Section

Length: 70 minutes total (two 25-minute sections, one 20-minute section)

Format: multiple choice questions and grid-in questions (you provide your own answer in a bubble fill-in section)

Topics covered and Terms/ Concepts to know:

Numbers and Operations:

Percent (hundredths/ number out of 100)

Ratio

Proportions

Integers (Odd, Even, Prime numbers)

Digits and their places

Consecutive Integers

Odd/ even integers

Exponential growth

Algebra and Functions:

Substitution 

Decimals

Fractions

Permutations

Exponents

Linear Equations

Inequalities

Quadratic Equations

Radical equations

Line equations

Absolute Value

Direct and Inverse Variation

Algebraic functions

Factoring

Variations

Functions

Radical

Geometry and Measurement:

Area

Perimeter

Circumference

Symmetry

Volume (of a box, cube, cylinder)

Pythagorean Theorem

Triangles and their properties (isosceles, equilateral, right triangles)

Parallel and Perpendicular lines

Slope

Similarity

Transformations

Different shapes (square, circle, rectangle, triangles, cylinders, cube, sphere, quadrilateral, parallelogram, cones, pyramids, polygon, pentagon, hexagon, etc)

Line segments

Rays

Vertex

Angles (and their relationships)

Corresponding angles

Congruent 

Alternate interior angles

Interior angles

Supplementary/ complementary angles

Transversal

Base angles

Hypotenuse

sin(e), cos(ine), tan(gent)

Parallel lines

Proportional

Parabola

Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability:

Arithmetic Mean/ Average

Median

Mode

Probability

Good luck studying, and if a student would like to help translate these terms into Bulgarian for future students, your help would be greatly appreciated!

Short Story #1

Hey students! As we discussed, one of the best actions you can take to challenge yourself and to start building vocabulary is to read more English short stories. This first story is a very popular story for middle and high school American students, "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. It's kind of creepy and uses a good range of new words. Read the story over the next two weeks and we'll meet to discuss the questions included at the end.

While you read, do two things:

1) Circle or underline any words or phrases that are new. This will help me understand how complex your vocabulary is in a way that essay writing doesn't allow.

2) It's good practice to write your ideas, questions, and reactions to stories as you read. If something strikes you as shocking, write it down! If you have a question about something that happens in the story, write that down, too. As you practice reading, you'll start to understand which parts of a story/ text are important to remember for tests like SAT, IELTS, and TOEFL.

Here's the site:
http://sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_lottery.pdf

Check back with me when you've finished!