College 101
SAT Tips and Strategies Article Type: Panic Button
How is the SAT® like 2nd-century BCE Italy? Conquering it requires planning, forethought, and excellent tactics and strategy. Unlike conquering 2nd-century BCE Italy, mastering the SAT involves a lot fewer elephants falling off cliffs in the Alps.
The Scantron shall be your mountain,
and the No. 2 pencils shall be your pachyderms. (Source)
Fortunately for all you junior Hannibals, Shmoop has you covered when it comes to stratagems for surmounting even the craggiest of tests. We can't help you with the elephants, though, unless they're metaphorical.
DON'T pull an all-nighter.
It might be tempting to stay up until 4 a.m. going over quadratic equations or the appropriate uses for semicolons one last time, but a good night's rest is far more important. Studies actually show that sleep deprivation negatively affects concentration and memory recall, so drink some chamomile tea, turn on relaxing music, and get a full eight hours of sleep before Test Day.
DON'T forget the essentials.
Before leaving the house, be sure to pack your Admission Ticket, the correct photo ID, at least two No. 2 pencils, and a College Board-approved calculator with extra batteries. Double, triple, and quadruple check that you have these items with you.
We also recommend bringing healthy, protein-packed snacks for the breaks. It's shocking how much energy a long standardized test requires. Think of it like a brain workout, minus the muscle burn and profuse sweating. There may be some sweating, but hopefully it won't be profuse.
DON'T ignore this very important conversation for the Reading Test.
Spend two seconds on the College Board's website, and it's easy to tell that they're really pumped about including the "Great Global Conversation" on the redesigned SAT. They guarantee that at least one passage on the test is from an American founding document or a global commentary on topics like freedom, justice, and liberty.
Why are we divulging this not-at-all secret fact? We just happened to find the perfect resource to prepare for this part of the test. No, it doesn't involve stealing the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution Center has an amazing Historical Documents page on their website, so you can snoop around for examples of the types of documents that might pop up on the SAT without being put on the Secret Service's naughty list.
DON'T be afraid to mark up your test booklet.
Though both share an intimidating sense of authority, the test booklet is not the Necronomicon. Feel free to mark it up. Write notes in the margins, circle words that don't make sense, and cross off incorrect answers. Don't worry about keeping things neat and proper, either. If the only way you can remember the formula for the circumference of a circle (2πr, by the way) is to think about Aunt Millie's two raspberry pies she brought to Thanksgiving last year, go ahead and scribble "Aunt Millie" next to that circle. The College Board only cares about scoring the Scantrons, so consider the test booklet a judgment-free document.
DO take advantage of the built-in safety net for the Math Test.
On that note, sometimes it seems like there are more formulas to study for the SAT than there are digits in pi. Thankfully, the College Board values actually knowing what to do with those formulas more than memorizing them, so they've thrown test-takers a major lifeline. On the first page of both math sections, there's a reference sheet with the most common formulas that appear on the test.
It's still important to be familiar with the formulas, though, if only to prevent paper cuts from flipping back and forth in the test booklet, but it's nice to have the reference sheet to fall back on if necessary. Check out the official practice test to see exactly which formulas are included.
DO eat a healthy breakfast.
Skip the magically delicious sugary cereal. It's not luck you need; it's protein. Even if you don't usually eat breakfast, your brain needs some fuel to do well on the exam. Eggs, cottage cheese, and yogurt are all good options—maybe not in the same bite, though.
DO turn off your cell phone for the entire exam (even breaks).
We can't stress this enough: Cell phones must be turned off.
Not on vibrate, not on silent, not on airplane mode: turn them off. Here's the official word from the College Board:
"If your device makes noise, or you are seen using it at any time, including during breaks, you may be dismissed immediately, your scores can be canceled, and the device may be confiscated and its contents inspected."
Yikes. Even if our Nana Shmoop sends a "good luck" text and we don't answer it, the sheer noise alone will cause all of this hard work to go to waste. Nana Shmoop can't bear that much guilt. Just turn your phone off, and wait to post a celebratory selfie after safely vacating the testing premises. #nailedit
DO check out the Common Prompt.
Those merciful SAT designers have made preparing for the Essay Exam easier than ever: they're giving out the prompt ahead of time. Now, don't get too excited. Nobody's shouting out the title of the source text from the rooftops or anything like that. However, regardless of what text you'll be asked to analyze on test day, the prompt will always say something like this:
"Write an essay in which you explain how [the author] builds an argument to persuade [his/her] audience that [author's claim]."
Those fun little brackets will be filled in with the author's name and claim, so there's no need to waste several anxious minutes trying to figure out what the writer's getting at. Take that pre-approved central claim and start analyzing!
DO make educated guesses.
This isn't the whateverth annual Hunger Games, so a wrong step won't unleash toxic gas or swarms of tracker jackers. With the switch to a correct-answers-only scoring system, an incorrect answer no longer counts against the total score, so the worst thing that can happen is missing the points for a particular question. There's no reason not to give every question a shot. Cross off any answers that are obviously wrong, then make your best guess.
DON'T rush, but DO watch the clock.
The SAT is notorious for throwing out choices that are almost right (but still wrong) among the answer options. For instance, on the Writing Test, a question stem might include two grammatical errors, and there may be a wrong answer choice that only corrects one of them. Take time to read each question carefully, and read all of the possible answers before deciding which is best. That said, if one question is taking up too much time, circle it in the test booklet and come back to it later. If you have to, heed the advice in the above tip. May the odds be ever in your favor.
How to Do Well on the SAT Writing and Language Test
Howdy, partner. We hear you're the fastest gun in the West. You stared down SAT Reading, and now you're back to take on that vile villain, SAT Writing.
OK, we exaggerate a bit. SAT Writing isn't so vile, and, if you keep a few things in mind, you'll surely have him whipped in no time.
In the writing section of the SAT, you will read 4 passages and answer 11 multiple-choice questions about each passage, for a total of 44 questions in 35 minutes. These questions will entail identifying errors and weaknesses that were deliberately included and proposing the correct edits (if any) to these incorrect sentences. This section tests your basic grammar skills, how well you can express ideas through writing, and your ability to make editorial decisions following analysis.
For a "math and science" person, the Writing section might be a bit less daunting than the Reading section. This part of the exam is more formulaic. Think of it this way: it's like you’re given an equation that has an incorrect variable, and you need to replace that variable with the correct one while improving the sentence as a whole.
Five Common Concerns of Math/Science People on the SAT Writing and Language Section
Do you consider yourself a "math and science" person? Do you dread going to English class and reading lots of text? Do you hate writing? Do you fear the SAT Writing section because of it? Here are some common concerns for people who think only the left side of their brains are functional. (Trust us, you wouldn't be able to even read this if the right side of your brain was broken.)
1. My writing isn’t strong enough.
The Writing section of the SAT is entirely multiple choice, so you won’t have to do any actual “writing” beyond filling in a circle on your answer sheet. However, you will have to know the basic grammatical rules that go along with writing, as well as be familiar with how written arguments are presented and strengthened. Be comfortable with subject-verb agreements, correct sentence structures, rules of punctuation & syntax, and other basic English grammatical rules. Practice these topics by going through a sample SAT Writing section, identifying the questions that you got wrong, and studying the rules behind the questions you miss. Do this after every SAT Writing section that you complete while practicing so that you get in the habit of tracking and reviewing your mistakes.
2. I don’t have good grammar.
You may be asking yourself, "Self, how do I go about tackling my grammar fears and learning all the right rules and tricks for success?" Our answer: Go play some old-school video games.
What, that wasn't what you were expecting?
We figured the icky grammar pill would go down a lot easier with a spoonful of retro gaming on the side. Were we right? We thought so. Games from back in the day, like Tetris and Minesweeper, are great analogies for the SAT Writing section, and not just because they remind you of your wasted youth. Adventure games like Sonic and Mario make a great metaphor for the SAT Reading Section, since they deal with long-term play, endurance, verbal weapons, and tough bosses. But the Writing Section is all about structure, patterns, and strategy, which is why games that test your ability to recognize patterns and logic are more like this section of the test.
Because the SAT Writing section will test you on a lot of grammar rules, including comma usage, subject-verb agreement, and tense, each section in our SAT Writing Guide will hit several of these commonly tested grammar rules. By the time you clear that last mine off the Minesweeper board, you'll have experience with all of them.
So dust off your parents' Atari, break out the old-school floppy disks, and prepare to show SAT Writing who's boss.
The same grammatical concepts are tested over and over in the SAT Writing section, so just get a firm grip on what’s typically covered. Shmoop's SAT Test Prep, for example, has a topic-by-topic breakdown of what's covered on the SAT Writing exam. You can also identify what’s typically covered in the SAT Writing section by completing SAT practice tests, identifying which questions you answered incorrectly, and reviewing the underlying concepts. Shmoop's SAT Test Prep has original practice tests that already do this categorizing for you, so signing up for Shmoop will save you an extra step of analysis.
3. I don’t have a large vocabulary.
If you find yourself struggling with vocabulary as you read SAT Writing sections, practice figuring out the meaning of words by using context clues. Think of yourself as Sherlock Holmes—we'll leave it up to you to decide whether Jonny Lee Miller's rendition is more fitting than Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock for you. The big piece of the puzzle (the dictionary definition) might seem to be missing, but you can gather up the clues to fill in the gap in your knowledge. Pay particular attention to tough words that you see showing up more than once and make sure you know their meanings. It’s a good idea to save these words in a word bank of some sort so that you can add words to it that you don’t understand and cross them off as you get comfortable with them.
4. I don’t like reading.
Then what are you doing right now? Reading is actually unavoidable; even just getting to the grocery store and picking out items on a grocery list requires reading. (Maybe one day we'll all be composing our grocery lists out of emojis, but for now, we'll have to make do with what we have.)
When people say they don't like reading, they more often mean they don't like reading super-long books that take several days to read. But the SAT offers something like individual junior mints, not the whole chocolate bar. It breaks down all passages into bite-sized chunks, and passages won't take you any longer than 4 minutes to read. That's actually rather refreshing, don't you think?
Don’t forget that math and science require a fair bit of reading if you’re planning on exceling to the high levels of either field. Therefore, the tricks and lessons you're learning now will come in handy once you arrive in college. A good way to make prepping easier, however, is to attempt to find science and math-based passages to practice with in the beginning of your test prep journey. This way, your interest will stay piqued and you’ll be practicing situations you might actually encounter on test day. Just remember to vary the subjects of your passages as you progress further so you don’t end up pigeonholing yourself.
5. I don’t read as quickly as other people.
This isn't Mario Kart! No need to rush through the reading—nobody is racing you.
Each passage will probably be about 600 to 650 words in length, and the average person reads at 200 words per minute. Hey, math person, why don't you do that calculation for us: yep, that means most people can read the passage in about 3 minutes.
But this is the writing section, not the reading section. Many questions won't require much knowledge from the passage at all; they're just testing you on your ability to apply grammatical rules to individual sentences.
Only when you have questions that deal with transition words, meaning in context, structure, or rhetoric will you have to think about the passage as a larger whole. For these, you can then slow down and read for exactly what the question is asking.
In conclusion? Don’t worry about a slightly lower-than-average reading speed; you may have less than a minute to answer each question on average, but some questions will be over in just 10 seconds. Others might require you to pause and take a few minutes to re-read parts of the passage. Be efficient, but don’t feel like you have to be a trained speed reader to excel.
Five Tips and Tricks for the SAT Writing Test
Say you've been practicing by taking sample SAT exams and brushing up on the most tested grammar constructs on the SAT. Since test questions vary quite a bit, chances are that you may see a few things on the exam that seem unfamiliar come test day. Never fear: we've gathered a bunch of tips and tricks that will help you make efficient and point-saving decisions on the big day.
1. Always read all of the answer choices. Sometimes the test makers may include two error-free choices, but one of these may be a better choice stylistically speaking than the other. Save yourself a point by making sure you didn't fall for the correct-but-awkward trap.
2. Unleash those voices in your head. Sometimes you should go with your intuition; when something "sounds right," it's because you're used to speaking this thing called the English language and you've heard it before.
3. Speaking of inner voices, when you see a comma, make super dramatic pauses. Flourish your cape, take a bow. If you find yourself bobbing up and down like a hula dancer on a dashboard, chances are, you've found a comma that doesn't belong.
4. Articulate to yourself why each answer choice is incorrect, then cross off that answer choice in the exact location where it's incorrect. Misplaced comma? Put a huge X through that sucker! That way, when you get to the end of all the answer choices and still haven't found the right answer, you'll know why you eliminated certain choices. Additionally, incorrect answers will give you some insight on the traps the SAT Writing section might be trying to lay, and this will be helpful for your future questions.
5. Find the subject of the sentence and whittle it down to its purest form. Then make sure that subject agrees with the verb. For example, what's the subject of the following sentence?
A pack of dogs were eating from the trash when a raccoon appeared in the alleyway.
(A) NO CHANGE
(B) was eating
(C) have eating
(D) were to eat
The subject is not dogs, because "dogs" is attached to the preposition "of." Instead, the subject is a collective noun, "pack": "A pack [of whatevers] were eating from the trash." Oh now that sounds way funky, since "a pack" is singular. The correct answer is therefore (B): A pack of dogs was eating from the trash when a raccoon appeared in the alleyway. (This, by the way, does not sound like a peaceful situation.)
6. Memorize your FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So). And nope, we don't mean Justin Timberlake's male groupies. These are coordinating conjunctions which separate two independent clauses: when you see them separating these two full sentences, remember that you need to separate the clauses with a comma.
Consider the following two sentences, both of which are totally correct:
Justin Timberlake would have given me a call, but he was too busy performing for his fanboys.
Justin Timberlake did not give me a call because he was too busy performing for his fanboys.
The first sentence uses a comma because one of the FANBOYs is present; the second one does not, since "because" is not a FANBOY. Basically we need to put a barrier between the FANBOY and the rest of the sentence. After all, we don't want our precious JT getting mobbed by all those crazed fans.
7. Start spicing up your life with punctuation marks outside of your boring old commas and periods.
Semicolons separate two full sentences, and if the semicolon can be replaced by a period, it's a good bet that it's being used correctly.
For colons, what's to the left of the colon should be a complete sentence, while what's to the right of the colon can be just one word, a phrase, or a complete sentence.
When the SAT uses a dash—and trust us, they will probably test you at least once on this—think about replacing that dash with one side of a parenthesis. That means there should be another dash that ends the parenthesis as well.
8. Slow down and re-read parts of the passage when you reach a question that tests on flow, transitions, or possible additions. These questions can only be answered in context, so that means you'll have to go back and re-read parts of the passage for the main idea of particular sentences or paragraphs. If you've been focusing on grammar and punctuation the whole time, you might've missed some of the higher-level ideas addressed by the passage.
9. Pace yourself. Get used to what works for you. You should spend about 8 minutes on each passage and its questions. Once you’ve completed two passages and their questions, check your time. You should have about 20 more minutes left.
10. When in doubt, go with the shortest answer. If you come across two grammatically correct responses and aren’t sure which to choose, go with the more concise choice. While the shorter sentence is not always correct, you can rely on this strategy when you have no other hope.
How to do well on the SAT Reading Section
Lots of people think of the SAT Reading section as some kind of terrifying monster – a hideously ugly, foul-smelling, ornery beast just waiting to crush your college and scholarship dreams in its iron jaws of doom.
Maybe SAT Reading is a kind of monster, but it isn't one that needs to leave you quaking in your boots. In fact, you've been training to kill this guy your entire life.
How's that?
Well, it's right there in the title: SAT Reading. Wait for it...it'll come to you. Ah yes. Reading. Which is something you've been doing since you were little. From Dr. Seuss and Harry Potter back in the day, to Shakespeare and Steinbeck (or whomever) in high school, you've been prepping for this bad boy for literally more than a decade. Heck, if you can read this little paragraph, you're well on your way.
More good news: Never, ever on the SAT Reading test will you be required to use outside knowledge of Hamlet or Beowulf or even Twilight to answer a question. No memorization whatsoever is necessary for this test, because all the information you need will always be provided for you right there in the question. And you don't even have to come up with any original analysis of the texts they give you; there is no essay section here, so the right answer will always be sitting there right in front of you. It's one of five possible choices; you just have to pick the right one.
All right, you know how to read. Win. You don't have to memorize anything. Epic win. Now all you need to teach yourself to do, if you want to get a phenomenal score, is to understand what the test wants you to do. Here's where we come in. We'll be breaking down the SAT Reading section into its component parts so that you'll know exactly how to attack each question when you get to it.
The SAT Reading section will test your ability to read a passage, make logical analyses, and answer multiple choice questions related to the reading. The main skills tested here are your ability to accurately interpret data, examine hypotheses, find supporting evidence, and draw coherent conclusions based on what you’ve read.
Common Concerns for Math/Science People on the SAT Reading Exam
If you’re a math or science person, and you pride yourself in your ability to think in systematic ways, then there is ample opportunity to flex that muscle in this section!
1. I don’t know how to approach reading the passage.
While there’s no magic formula for the perfect reading of the passage, there are some tips that will help you succeed. The number one strategy is to make sure you're actively reading, which means you should have your pencil in hand, ready to jot down notes as you read. Take a paragraph-by-paragraph approach: after finishing each paragraph, write a sentence summarizing what that paragraph says. Then, when you've finished reading, write one sentence summarizing the entire passage. While you may not have time to do this on test day, you should absolutely practice this strategy on practice exams. Then, as you practice more, you should figure out a good short hand to make sure you're actively digesting and processing the info in the passage as you read.
2. I don’t have a large enough vocabulary.
The vocabulary used on the SAT will not be overly complicated; in fact, the newer version of the SAT has phased out obscure vocabulary words in favor of terms used in difficult contexts. For most words you come across that you don’t know you’ll be able to discover its meaning using the words and sentences around it. This means you should spend more of your time looking for context clues and less of your time memorizing the dictionary.
3. I don’t read as fast other people.
Speed isn’t necessarily the object on the SAT—accuracy is king when it comes to the Reading section. Each passage will probably be about 600 to 650 words in length; the average person reads at 200 words per minute. You should allot, on average, 4 minutes to read through each passage, which means a below-average reading speed is perfectly sufficient. That will give you 9 minutes to read and answer the questions. Be efficient, but don’t feel like you have to be a trained speed reader to excel.
4. I’m not familiar with any famous authors or texts.
The SAT Reading section doesn’t draw on any previous knowledge of literature. Shakespeare makesbeare! Who cares? You’ll be presented with a passage that is taken from a published work. You won't need information on the author, the work itself, the era it was written in, or any other details in order to answer the questions correctly. The questions will test your ability to read accurately and analyze the English language precisely and will have less to do with the historical context of the passage.
What you will have to do, however, is read both the passage and each question closely and use clues from the test itself to inform your answer choices.
5. I struggle with summarizing the main ideas of texts.
With informational texts, begin the hunt for an explicitly stated central idea in the first paragraph, where the thesis statement usually likes to hang out. If the author has included a clear thesis statement there, rejoice. In other cases, check the conclusion. If nothing clearly stands out, try summarizing the central idea in your own words and then examine the answer options for something similar. Literary texts don't contain such explicit statements as "The theme of this story is…," but they may contain lines that come close.
Tips and Tricks for the SAT Reading Section
We like to think of the SAT Reading as the Big Boss. He looks scary and he might be a bit intimidating if you've never seen him before, but once you know how to attack him – and every Big Boss has a soft, vulnerable underbelly, right? – you'll be able to kick his butt in no time.
We're here to let you in on the secret of how to beat the Big Boss. No, it doesn't involve a cheat code. This is one terrible titan you won't be able to button- mash your way through.
1. If you aren’t sure of the correct answer, do your best to eliminate the ones you know aren’t correct. And don't just cross off the letter of these answer choices—find the specific part of the answer choice that you find suspicious, and cross that word off. That way you'll remember why you found that answer choice super shady.
2. When in doubt, go with the most general answer. The more specific answer choice is more likely to be wrong because it will probably include some minute detail that was never mentioned in the passage. Consider the following:
Shmoopy the Dog uses the word "we" throughout the passage in order to:
(A) establish comraderie with his reader, who is also meant to identify as a dog
(B) advance the need for honesty amongst his fellow animal pals
(C) establish the need for solidarity
(D) reinforce how both cats and dogs need to be respected by the humans who train them
We have so many questions here, like how this dog gained literacy skills and whether his written skills translate to verbal skills. (Man's best friend finally becomes a good conversational partner? Sign us up!) But the primary one to ask, when you're trying to guess the answer with no idea about what the passage even said, is which answer choice is the most general. That would be establishing the need for solidarity, since it's the only one that doesn't get specific about some detail that was probably mentioned in the text.
3. Be careful of answers that contain both correct and incorrect information: these are like the centaurs of the SAT. Seems all right up top, like your average half-naked human, until you realize that this human has fused with a giant horse body. And that's just weird. You’ll often be presented with an answer that begins with accurate information, then contains a detail which is incorrect.
4. Watch out for extreme word choices like "hate," "very," "extraordinary," "incredibly," etc. If the author were so critical of something that he absolutely hated it, for example, you better see venomous spit on the page as evidence. The SAT tends to choose more scholarly articles, so it's unlikely that Be very suspicious of those answer choices. Only choose an answer with such wording if you’re absolutely certain the text supports it.
5. When you don’t know the meaning of a word, try to figure it out by using the words and sentences surrounding it. If that still doesn’t help, don’t let that freeze you up. See if the word is really necessary to figure out the meaning of the sentence. Can you still answer the question without knowing the specific meaning of that word? If not, then still try to eliminate the choices that seem to be wrong and take your best guess.
6. Underline or write a note about the main idea of each paragraph as you read. Think of it as your roadmap to the text. Then, as your big finishing touch, write a sentence summarizing the main idea (or the main events that happened) of the entire passage. There's almost definitely going to be a main idea question in each set, so you will have already answered that question before you even read it. Also, individual notes will help you remember the structure of the passage, so if you forget some details, you know where to look for it.
7. Try to predict the correct answer after you’ve read the question, but before you’ve read the answer choices. Then, when you go through the answers, pay attention to those that are aligned with your prediction. However, make sure this strategy doesn’t replace a careful reading of each option. Your prediction might have been incorrect, so stay flexible and make sure you’re interpreting the passage carefully.
8. Look for "two for one" deals: the new SAT will often include question pairs. In each of these question pairs, there will be one question asking you what the passage argues or what its author believes, and a second question will then ask you which line will best serve as evidence for that. If you don't know the answer to the first question in one of these sets, look at the next question to see if the particular lines provided as answer choices will help you out.
How to do well on the SAT Math for a Language Person
Preparing for the Math section of the SAT is a lot like getting ready for a vacation: you'll need to know where you're going, how to get there, and the supplies you need to make it an awesome trip. Not to mention how to avoid getting sent to the emergency room with a tragic case of food poisoning from that suspicious-looking hot dog on a stick that you bought from a gas station.
We make these mistakes so you don't have to. We're a river to our people.
Here's the thing: most of us hate packing. It's boring, we leave it until the last possible minute, and we usually still end up wondering why we thought it was a good idea to pack five pairs of snowpants and a grass skirt for a week in Cabo. Whether you're traveling around the world or just across town, figuring out what you need to take (and what to leave behind) can be harder than planning the trip itself.
Luckily, you can pack light for SAT Math. Here's a quick rundown of the essentials.
Some of the major skills that the SAT math section will test are your ability to interpret single and multi-variable expressions, ratios & proportions, systems of linear equations, polynomials, quadratic equations, scatterplots and graphs, etc. The main fields you’ll see tested are algebra, geometry, and statistics, but many questions will be a delicious math-y milkshake of multiple skills, sprinkled with good ole fashioned arithmetic and served cold.
If you’re a student who considers themselves stronger in ELA (English & Language Arts), you can excel at the SAT math section as long as you approach your preparation strategically. This means you’ll need to focus on practicing the skills that are most commonly tested on the exam. Use Shmoop’s online test prep and pay attention to which questions you don’t get correct. We’ll let you know what skills those questions we’re targeting, and you’ll know exactly which skills you need to target to improve your score.
Five Concerns of English/Language Arts People And Why You Shouldn't Worry
1. I'm not in the advanced math class like my peers, so I haven’t studied calculus or advanced statistics yet.
The SAT math section won’t contain questions testing calculus or advanced statistics.
Everything you see on the exam will come from mathematical concepts taught before calculus, and the SAT is much more interested in testing the foundational skills of math as opposed to the most advanced topics a high schooler might know. Math is cumulative, so make sure that you’re confident tackling the easier SAT math questions before you start practicing the things you aren’t as confident on.
2. I’m not good at math without a calculator.
Throw away that crutch—you're actually more likely to make a typo and to slip up when you turn to your calculator, because it's easy to drop a number or two and make a careless mistake when you're shifting from the page to the calculator. The only way you'll get used to catching your careless mistakes is if you start writing down all your steps and seeing where you go wrong. The calculator swallows those mistakes whole and gives you no insight into the process.
3. I am no good at remembering formulas.
Thankfully, the SAT math section won’t require you to have a list of geometrical formulas memorized! There will be a reference section in the directions that contains a lot of the formulas you’ll need. But what formulas do you have to have memorized? Some of the main ones are the quadratic equation, the standard formula and point-slope formula for a line, the formula for the slope of a line, how to calculate percentage & percent change, and how to calculate an average.
4. I am too slow to finish the math section.
The math section gets harder as you progress through the multiple-choice question, so focus on the easier questions which you have a harder time getting right. If you know you'll be pressed for time, skip the last few multiple-choice questions before you get to the grid-in questions. You can guess on these multiple-choice questions and then spend your time working on the grid-in questions, which you won't be able to guess on.
5. Math is so broad—where should I start and what should I study?
For someone stronger in the language arts, it can be daunting prepping for the SAT math section because there are simply so many topics to cover. If you’re completely lost, here’s where we recommend to start:
Kick things off with algebra, and make sure that you’re very confident in the algebraic skills the SAT will test. This includes solving and graphing linear equations with one or two variables, identifying equations of lines on a graph, solving linear inequalities, interpreting linear functions, etc. You’ll get sick of the word linear prepping for this section, but channel the nausea into a perfect score and make us proud, Shmoop reader.
Once your algebra is up to speed, focus on ratios, rates, proportions, and percents. Many of these questions are taken from the Problem Solving and Data Analysis domain. You should be comfortable using the above to solve single and multi-step problems, like determining a unit conversion to solve a unit rate word problem.
After you’re comfortable with the above, continue into statistics and become comfortable with mean, median, mode, range, and the other fundamentals of statistical analysis. You should be able to use statistics to compare two different sets of data and be comfortable calculating standard deviations.
Review more advanced topics like quadratic and exponential functions, solving quadratic equations, working with polynomial expressions, solving systems with one linear equation or one quadratic equation, using and interpreting function notation, etc.
Five Tips and Tricks for the SAT Math Section
1. Overwhelmed by variables? Try to use your own numbers instead of working with x and y. Sure, your Algebra teacher will probably be crying tears of frustration there in the corner, but who cares if you get a few extra points?
2. Guess and check. You know the answer is literally right in front of you in a multiple-choice question, so sometimes you can work backwards from those answer choices to see which one is correct. This isn't always the most efficient method, but once you learn to use it, you'll get a better sense of when it will save you time and when it won't.
3. Remember to document the steps it takes for you to figure out an answer - On the no-calculator section, you’ll be relying on your wits and what you write down to figure out the right answer. If you write out the steps it takes you to figure out the correct response, you’ll be able to not only see your logic laid out on paper, but go back and catch mistakes you might have made.
4. Once you've found the final answer, make sure you're answering the right question. After multiple steps in a math problem, it's easy to lose track of which variable you're trying to solve for.
5. Turn words into math – You’ll come across a few word problems on the SAT math section, and you should be familiar with how to represent these words as math. When you see divided by, per, ratio, or quotient, you should immediately know you’re dealing with division. If you read times or product of, it’s multiplication. Sum or more than is addition, and difference or less than is subtraction. An integer is a number that isn’t a fraction or decimal, and consecutive integers are represented as an integer x , x + 1, x + 2, x + 3, etc. You can also find consecutive even or consecutive odd integers by using x + 2, x +4, x + 6, etc. Some easier word problems may not need to be represented mathematically, but this is a great way to visualize things if you’re stumped.
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