Some strategies are so powerful that they can singlehandedly increase your ACT Math Test score by more than 100 points. At AP Guru, we absolutely recommend students use these three strategies time and again.
If you learn just three strategies and build them into your routine, you’ll notice a ludicrous shift in your math performance. These strategies can be applied to the majority of your ACT Math Test questions.
The ACT is a multiple-choice exam. On the Math portion, this has a profound implication: the correct answer is sitting right in front of you. Why would you ever go through the horrible work of actually solving a math problem or working harder than you need to when you can just cherry pick the right answer instead?
Just like any other strategy, this one takes a bit of practice before it’s totally useful. The more You practice, the better you’ll become at identifying when you can steal or eliminate. Examples are always the best way to learn, so let’s launch right into the good stuff
Many ACT Math Test problems don’t deal in concrete numbers - they deal in variables.
FOR INSTANCE: "A certain table has a width four times as great as its length” or “The amount of strawberries sold, S, is twice the amount of blueberries sold, B.” And so on and so forth.
In both cases, and all cases like them, you’re not dealing with numbers you’re dealing with the idea of numbers. That makes things unnecessarily difficult, and who likes when things are difficult? We don’t, and neither should you.
Math is about numbers. When you do math without numbers, it’s hard. When you do math with numbers, it’s easy. With that in mind, our goal is to use real numbers whenever we possibly can and to make them up if they don’t exist.
Always follow this Golden Rule: If you don’t need to know the value of anything in any given math problem, make the value up. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the value of x, the side length of a square, the number of students in a class, whatever. If you don’t need to know it specifically, then make it up and plug it in.
Let's see the strategy in action using a few solved examples:
So what happens if you can’t come up with real numbers? What if there are defined values in the problem you’re solving that you need to work with? And what if the answer choices don’t help you to solve the problem?
That’s where the third and final strategy comes in. The hardest part of solving any ACT Math Test problem is figuring out what you’re trying to solve in the first place. Always ask yourself: can I create a variable to stand in for a certain value?
As we’ve mentioned, math is a visual science and requires manipulation of values. All of algebra boils down to “manipulating equations” so that the thing you want isolated is on one side of the = sign, and everything else is on the other side.
Almost every ACT Math Test problem boils down to an algebraic equation – once you have an equation in your hands, a problem is far less difficult to solve. Of course, to create an equation, you need one thing: A VARIABLE.
Without variables, there are no equations. What would be the point of saying 9 = 9, or 4+5=9? These aren’t “solvable” because there’s nothing to figure out.
When you are stuck on a problem, and you can’t figure out what to do, it’s usually because you don’t have any variables to manipulate, and without variables, no real mathematics can take place.
Let’s walk you through this idea with an EXAMPLE.. Suppose you have a problem: 5 less than 2 times a number is the same as 4 times that number.
"What is the number?”
This problem may seem somewhat complicated without assigning the unknown number a variable. So, assign it one! Then all you need to do is convert the entire sentence into algebrese, the language of algebra.
“The number” is now X.
Let's try to solve it now. The equation translates to: 2X – 5 = 4X. The number is -5/2.
By actively processing problems and forcing yourself to rewrite all the information you receive, you’ll create more useful, visual models of every single problem you have to solve.
The ACT Math Test contains one 60-minute section with 60 questions, and calculators are allowed on the ACT Math Test. If you excel in math, you will find the Math Test the most straightforward section of the ACT.
You’re allowed to use a calculator on Section 4 of the SAT, but remember to use it as a tool, not as a crutch.
Some strategies are so powerful that they can singlehandedly increase your SAT Math Test score by more than 100 points. At AP Guru, we absolutely recommend students use these three strategies time and again.
Math fundamentals deal with number properties, their classifications and basic operations on numbers.
For some reason, the SAT is absolutely obsessed with percentage problems, and as a result, many students have trouble. The following set of formulas will help eradicate your trouble once and for all.
The beauty of inequalities on the SAT is that they allow you to do all of the same things that you can with equations: