Finding Your Level
The first thing to do to get ready for SAT Subject Test: Mathematics Level 2 is to be sure you are
taking the right test. The information you need to make that decision, besides the differences in
content, concerns level of difficulty, scoring, and reputation.
YOU DON’T NEED TO BE PERFECT
On Level 2 you can leave several questions unanswered, or even get them wrong, and still get
an 800.LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY AND SCORING
After content, the second and third factors to consider in deciding which test to take are level of
difficulty and scoring. Level 2 questions are considerably more difficult than Level 1 questions.
Some Level 2 questions are more difficult because they test more advanced topics. But even the
Level 2 questions on basic math are generally more difficult than their counterparts on Level 1. This
big difference in level of difficulty, however, is partially offset by differences in the score conversion
tables. On Level 1, you would probably need to answer every question correctly to get an 800. On
Level 2, however, you can get six or seven questions wrong and still get an 800. On Level 1, you
would need a raw score of more than 20 (out of 50) to get a 500, but on Level 2, you can get a
with a raw score as low as about 11.
You don’t need as many right answers to achieve a particular score on Level 2, so don’t assume that
you’ll get a higher score by taking Level 1. If you’ve had a year of trigonometry and/or precalculus,
you might actually find it easier to reach a particular score goal by taking Level 2.