Omnimaga

General Discussion => Other Discussions => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: Halifax on September 30, 2010, 03:08:10 pm

Title: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: Halifax on September 30, 2010, 03:08:10 pm
Hey, I'm just curious, how many people here on Omnimaga are in high school and how many of you are planning to take the SATs? Do you plan to improve your vocabulary by buying any books or anything? Any other information that you would see as helpful would be appreciated.
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: nemo on September 30, 2010, 03:17:08 pm
i took them in 8th grade for some "midwest talent search" (as if), and i'm taking the prep SATs in a few weeks and then the real SATs next year. if you're taking the SATs, improving your vocabulary would be very wise. when i took them in 8th grade i knew about half the words, and think i got a 440/800 on the reading portion, which actually isn't that bad considering i didn't know that you only get points taken off for answering incorrectly... so i filled in every question. there are a ton of SAT word lists out on the web like this one (http://www.freevocabulary.com/). i'm personally taking Latin in high school, and hoping that will compensate. it already is, i think. for example, in latin, puer means boy. the word puerile in english means childish, or boy-ish immaturity. ambulat means to walk in latin. ambulate is a word in english meaning to walk.
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: patriotsfan on September 30, 2010, 04:17:32 pm
I'm taking the PSATs on October 13th. Yeah, your best bet is to study the English section and learn some new sophisticated vocabulary if you are mathematically inclined (assuming you are if you make calculator programs for fun) like me. :P
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: yunhua98 on September 30, 2010, 04:38:29 pm
I just studied the the guide they sent.  I took it back in seventh grade for Duke TIP.  I got a 630 on writing, 650 on Reading, (because I studied the words), and 800 on math, because, well, I code calcs.  :P
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 30, 2010, 04:40:27 pm
I live in Canada so I did not take that test, but I never really taken any form of "hard difficulty mode" type classes or tests. The test to get into College was a friggin joke from what I remember, although it sucked because it occured on weekends.

Nice to see you still around by the way :)
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: AngelFish on September 30, 2010, 05:31:18 pm
Hey, I'm just curious, how many people here on Omnimaga are in high school and how many of you are planning to take the SATs? Do you plan to improve your vocabulary by buying any books or anything? Any other information that you would see as helpful would be appreciated.

Okay, I'm a few years out of HS, but...

What I would recommend is to practice your writing. That is the single most useful skill for the test. Of course, by writing I mean making random BS up that sounds important and worthwhile to state. The evaluators eat it up (in the experience of a person who was in the high 700s in all areas on the SAT). Also, review your trig.
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: meishe91 on September 30, 2010, 05:36:53 pm
Where I went we had the option to take the SAT but they only really suggested it if you were going to like a coastal school or like one of the big schools (like Harvard, Yale, etc.). They only really pushed the ACT on us, especially since we got it for free :P

I can ask my cousin though if you want...considering he got a perfect score, so I heard, on his...
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: SirCmpwn on September 30, 2010, 05:38:01 pm
I'm taking it pretty soon, and I haven't studied.  I got a 31 on my ACT without studying, so it works out pretty good for me.
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: meishe91 on September 30, 2010, 05:57:26 pm
I still need to retake my ACT...I am not satisfied with the score I got. (Though getting a 24 without studying and working off of like two or three hours of sleep isn't that bad, I guess.)
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: squidgetx on September 30, 2010, 06:12:45 pm
ACT's are more popular in the West, while SAT's are more popular in the east. Most schools don't really care which one you take.

Vocab is important for reading comprehension; I believe that there are vocab flash card stacks and apps for calc ;)
Math shouldn't be an issue, I don't think for any of us
Spoiler For Spoiler:
-Night before SAT math 2 subject test-
Parent: Have you studied at all?
Me: No. I'll probably get like an 800 or something
Parent: ...........ok fine, have it your way.
Me: Ok.
Test scores come out....
Me: lol i got an 800
Parent: ...........

Writing, I heard you need to keep it fairly simple. Clarity and evidence/examples to back up your points is key. Stay on topic and make sure you're answering the question.
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: Halifax on September 30, 2010, 07:58:07 pm
Oh no, this actually isn't for me haha, I've already taken the SAT but thanks for all of the advice. Yeah DJ, I'm finally getting back into calc programming for good! Hopefully in the near future (a week or two) I can show you all why I was asking. =)

P.S. This is the first forum I've ever been to where you get 9 posts within a few hours. Kudos to the community.
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: apcalc on September 30, 2010, 08:01:30 pm
I, like many others here, will be taking the PSATs on the 13th.  I plan on taking the SATs sometime around March. 

I really should memorize some vocab lists (it is the one area I do poorly with :() but I just can't find the interest to do so.  I think I am ok with math (I got a 730 on the math PSAT last year).  Grammar, I am not sure, sometimes I do amazing on the tests, other times I just do terrible.
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 30, 2010, 08:06:42 pm
Yeah DJ, I'm finally getting back into calc programming for good!
Aah that would be cool. Would it be official, though? Because (no offense intended) the last two times you said that on TI-Freakware you vanished again a week later :( . It would be awesome if you came back for real and worked again on some projects :D

One thing, though:

P.S. This is the first forum I've ever been to where you get 9 posts within a few hours. Kudos to the community.
9 posts in a few hours? Try 86 in under two hours (http://ourl.ca/7241). :P

Activity indeed reached one heck of a spike since March, though. Cemetech is finally catching up, too. (although we have yet to match 600 posts in 2 hours... if you remember that New Year 2007 thread with Netham45 and Tenniskid493 :P)
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: Snake X on September 30, 2010, 08:08:06 pm
yeah, im going to be taking the PSAT in march
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: apcalc on September 30, 2010, 08:09:07 pm
PSAT in March????

They are only give on October 13 and 16 this year.

And not again until October of next year.
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: Halifax on September 30, 2010, 08:15:18 pm
Aah that would be cool. Would it be official, though? Because (no offense intended) the last two times you said that on TI-Freakware you vanished again a week later :( . It would be awesome if you came back for real and worked again on some projects :D
I plan too, especially since everything has been running smoothly of lately. Truly I left programming for about a year or two in all. Believe me though, don't think I've forgotten about the project we had planned, or rewordings I should say ;) Once I believe I'm ready I'll contact you.
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 30, 2010, 08:18:02 pm
Ooh that would be cool. I still got a copy somewhere I think, but it was hacked with 1000pts stats and I did not have the source nor the tools to compile.

(for people who are wondering what we are talking about, we were working on a french translation of Dying Eyes)
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: AngelFish on September 30, 2010, 09:18:12 pm
P.S. This is the first forum I've ever been to where you get 9 posts within a few hours. Kudos to the community.

Some of the larger forums on the Internet will get 9 posts within a few minutes. But this is definitely the largest Calculator forum I've seen.
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 30, 2010, 09:37:35 pm
Yeah I remember once, I was curious and went on a huge forum and went at the bottom of page to see the post count. I refreshed every 3 second and saw it increase by 2-5 everytime x.x

The funny thing with Omni, though, is that even if last year we only had 15000 posts, we still managed to top every other forum in activity. That tells you how that the TI community was still recovering from some stuff x.x. I would show an update graph of every forum activity since 2005, but now we're getting kinda off-topic :P
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: AngelFish on September 30, 2010, 09:52:15 pm
Not to continue with the off-topic stuff, but what exactly is the community recovering from? I've been relatively isolated from it until recently.
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: apcalc on September 30, 2010, 09:55:25 pm
I was not around during the activity drop, but from what I understand, around 2006ish, many of the calculator programmers came to the assumption that everything that could be done for calcs had already been accomplished.  Also, I believe there were some inter-community wars that halted progress on many things.  In recent years, things like Axe Parser, Ndless, calc84's gb emulators, the signing keys, etc... have proven that we have not even come close to accomplishing everything that can be done on calcs.  More people got interested in calcs and activity has increased. :)
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: Halifax on September 30, 2010, 09:56:11 pm
I'm completely fine with the off-topic since it's all news to me haha.
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: AngelFish on September 30, 2010, 10:00:04 pm
I was not around during the activity drop, but from what I understand, around 2006ish, many of the calculator programmers came to the assumption that everything that could be done for calcs had already been accomplished.  Also, I believe there were some inter-community wars that halted progress on many things.  In recent years, things like Axe Parser, Ndless, calc84's gb emulators, the signing keys, etc... have proven that we have not even come close to accomplishing everything that can be done on calcs.

I'm still amazed by what Axe and Assembly can do. I've seen my calculator outperform some computers ;D

On the other hand, I was talking with one of the electronics engineers from TI a couple days ago. Quite informative to say the least.
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: MRide on September 30, 2010, 10:21:37 pm
I just studied the the guide they sent.  I took it back in seventh grade for Duke TIP.  I got a 630 on writing, 650 on Reading, (because I studied the words), and 800 on math, because, well, I code calcs.  :P
Hey! I did that too, except I took the ACT.  I think I got a 25 overall.

(Although I just took a practice test and got a 34, so....big improvement since 7th grade)
Title: Re: SAT (Standardized Testing)
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 30, 2010, 10:53:03 pm
I was not around during the activity drop, but from what I understand, around 2006ish, many of the calculator programmers came to the assumption that everything that could be done for calcs had already been accomplished.  Also, I believe there were some inter-community wars that halted progress on many things.  In recent years, things like Axe Parser, Ndless, calc84's gb emulators, the signing keys, etc... have proven that we have not even come close to accomplishing everything that can be done on calcs.  More people got interested in calcs and activity has increased. :)
What apcalc said, and the inter-community problems hurt Omnimaga particularly bad and lead to its demise back in 2008. It became clear at that point that it would be best to move on and hope that one day, once things have calmed down, we can restart from scratch. One year after doing so, we discovered that the shut down, in very long terms, caused us more benefits than problems, which is sad to say in some ways, but to be honest, if the entire staff from the old board returned in late 2008 or even 2009, not even half of it would have been accepted as staff (no offense).

(although I kinda wish I hidden the old board instead of deleting it, so I could have put the old posts back up)