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SAT Math

Detailed SAT and ACT Strategy guide written by experienced SAT tutors to help you with your SAT Essay Section

Everything you need to know to get a perfect SAT Math score.

SAT Reading

Everything you need to know to get a perfect SAT Math score.

Detailed SAT and ACT Strategy guide written by experienced SAT tutors to help you with your SAT Reading Section

SAT Writing

Everything you need to know to get a perfect SAT Math score.

Detailed SAT and ACT Strategy guide written by experienced SAT tutors to help you with your SAT Writing Section

SAT Essay

Everything you need to know to get a perfect SAT Math score.

Detailed SAT and ACT Strategy guide written by experienced SAT tutors to help you with your SAT Essay Section

SAT Review

Everything you need to go through the week before your SAT

Detailed SAT and ACT Strategy guide written by experienced ACT tutors to help you with your ACT Science Section

Free SAT Math Training

Intro to SAT Math

The SAT Math Test contains one 55-minute section with 38 questions (calculators ok) and one
25-minute section with 20 questions (calculators not permitted).

About SAT Math

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.

Calculator Usage

The most common SAT Math Test mistakes students to make are “silly” mistakes. In this section, we’re going to focus on these kinds of mistakes and how to avoid them. Remember that if you make silly mistakes on the test, it doesn’t matter how “good” you are at math.

Avoiding Silly Mistakes

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.

SAT Math Strategies

Math fundamentals deal with number properties, their classifications and basic operations on numbers.

Number Properties

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.

Percentage and Ratios

The beauty of inequalities on the SAT is that they allow you to do all of the same things that you can with equations:

Inequalities

Algebra

Linear equations are equations in which all variables have an exponent of 1 and whose graph is a line.

Linear Equations

A polynomial is an algebraic expression comprised of more than two terms, usually of like bases and different powers. Polynomials frequently include integer terms as well.

Polynomials

There are a few additional algebra topics often tested on the SAT. Expect each of the following to show up at least once on each SAT Math Test.

Miscellaneous Algebra

Geometry

There are only a couple of Lines and Angles questions tested on the SAT Math section. The questions are usually easy and should not pose a challenge to you.

Lines and Angles

The SAT is absolutely obsessed with triangle-based problems, and as a result, the SAT Math section includes many questions on the SAT Math section. The following set of formulas will help eradicate your trouble once and for all.

Triangles

The word TRIGONOMETRY is Greek; tri means three, gon means angle and meter means to measure. Combining all these three words, we get, “three angle measure”. The logic behind this is that trigonometry involves the measurements inside a triangle, which has three angles.

Trigonometry

Circle questions on the SAT are straightforward and formula driven. The following chapters will list all the formulas you need to know to answer the circle questions on the SAT Math section.

Circles

The polygons tested on the SAT are usually the following quadrilaterals: trapezoids, parallelograms, and special parallelograms, such as rhombuses, rectangles, and squares.

Polygons

SOLID GEOMETRY questions on the SAT Math section are some of the hardest questions you will see on the SAT Math section.

Solid Geometry

COORDINATE GEOMETRY is the study of geometry on a plane using a coordinate system. This plane is called a COORDINATE PLANE, which has scales of measurement along the x and y-axes.

Co-ordinate Geometry

Functions

The Absolute Value of a number is its distance from zero (on the number line). Thus, an absolute value is always positive. We indicate absolute value by putting two bars around the number.

Absolute Value

Students struggle with function-based questions on the SAT. This chapter will give you all the information and solved examples you need to get the function questions correct

Functions

$The term quadratic comes from the Latin word quadratus meaning square because the variable gets squared (e.g., \(x^{2}\) ). It is also called an equation of degree 2 because of the 2 superscripts on the x.$

Quadratics

A TRANSFORMATION is a change of position or size of a figure. When we transform a figure, we create a new figure that is related to the original.

Graphing Functions

Problem Solving and Statistics

There are usually 1-2 questions on complex numbers on every SAT Test. If you know what complex numbers are, these questions are pretty straightforward.

Complex Numbers

About 35% of your total SAT Math Test will be made up of word problems. Though the actual math topics can vary, it is important to develop a consistent process for answering them.

Word Problems

PROBABILITY is the likelihood that something will happen. It is a number between 0 and 1 and can be written as a per cent. When you asked about something's probability, you are asking, "How likely is it?" A larger number means there is a greater likelihood that the event will happen.

Probability

It's important to understand the graphs and charts often used in statistics based questions before we explain the core concepts tested on the SAT Math section.

Statistics

Free SAT Reading Course

The Basics

The SAT Reading Test is tough for a lot of students, and embodies a central complaint many people have about this test: How can you pick just one right answer to a question about a passage?

Introduction to SAT Reading

Reading comprehension is question driven. To be successful, you need to be an active reader – quickly consuming a passage’s main ideas and then saving time to locate relevant information within the passage to answer detail-oriented test questions.

How to Approach a SAT Passage

The Strategies

The single most important strategy to get the SAT Reading questions correct is to plagirize the answers from the passages itself.

Three Key Reading Strategies

Every part of the SAT Reading Test contains one paired passage. Each passage has a different author and a different point of view, but both will always revolve around the same basic idea or event, even if it isn’t
always immediately obvious how the two passages relate to one another.

Paired Passages

The Questions

If there is one question you are certain to see on the SAT, it is about the main idea of a passage. The main idea is nothing but the primary purpose of the passage.

Main Idea Questions

Literal translation questions ask about the details of a passage. In contrast to your approach to general questions, to master literal translation problems, you will need to re-read and grasp details in the passage.

Literal Translation Questions

Vocabulary-in-context questions are usually among the most straightforward questions on the Reading Test, as well as some of the least time-consuming.

Vocabulary In Context Questions

Inference questions tend to be among the most challenging types of Reading Comprehension questions on the SAT. Instead of testing your understanding of what is in the text, inference questions test your understanding of what isn’t in the text.

Inference Questions

No matter how unfamiliar the terminology may be, all the information you need to answer graph-related questions will be right in front of you. These questions are set up precisely so that you can figure them out without any outside knowledge.

Infographics Questions

The Answers

The SAT test writers are amazingly skilled at writing tempting wrong answers, so it’s worth taking some time to understand the techniques they use to avoid falling for their traps.

How to Tackle Answer Choices

Free SAT Writing + Language Training

Grammar Basics

The SAT Writing and Language Test is a passage-based test. There are four multi-paragraph passages and 44 questions to go with them. The makers of the SAT break this test down into two main sections: Usage and Mechanics and Rhetorical Skills.

The Strategies

Though sentence structures are rarely tested on the SAT, you will need to understand them to accurately answer comma-based questions.

Sentence Structures

Punctuations

The comma is widely used in writing and is the most commonly tested concept on the SAT Writing and Language Test. Therefore, it’s extremely important to understand how to correctly use commas and when to avoid them.

Comma Usage

Even though comma usage is the most prominent punctuation rule tested on the SAT, other punctuation such as semicolons, colons, dashes, and apostrophes are frequently tested as well.

Semicolons, Colons & Dashes

Modifiers are words, phrases or clauses used to describe something in a sentence. They are often tested on the SAT in the form of comma usage.

Modifiers

Verbs & Pronouns

The SAT Writing and Language Test repeatedly tests the proper usage of verb tenses. Knowing when to use different verb tenses and forms will be extremely beneficial to you on this part of the test.

Verbs

The SAT Writing & language section usually tests 2-3 questions on subject-verb agreement on every test. Here we tell you all you need to know about subject-verb agreements on the SAT.

Subject Verb Agreement

A pronoun can often be used as a substitute for a noun in a sentence. Anytime a pronoun is used in a passage, that pronoun must have a clear antecedent; that is, it must directly connect to a noun or pronoun that was mentioned before it.

Pronouns

Miscellaneous Grammar

Parallelism is a very strange concept. Unlike commas, semicolons, pronouns, tenses, etc., parallelism isn’t applied to just a single area of grammar – it spans all aspects of the English language.

Parallelism

There are many pesky little grammar rules that you’ll be tested on as part of the SAT. Therefore, it’s important to not just know these grammar rules, but also how test questions are structured .

Miscellaneous Grammar

Rhetorical Strategies

At this point, you probably feel good about mastering all the grammar rules included in the Writing and Language Test. That’s great, however, combining sentences questions still stump most of our AP Guru students. These are the hardest questions that the SAT Test can throw at you.

Combining Sentences

On every SAT Writing and Language Test, one or two passages will be accompanied by an information graph or chart associated with the passage. Here is how you to tackle these tricky questions.

Infographics

Concision works on one very basic principle: it is incorrect to use 10 words to express an idea you could express using 5.

Concision and Word Choice

Transitions are one of the most common and trickiest topics tested on the SAT Writing + Langauge and Language Test.

Transitions

Add or delete questions ask whether you should add or delete a sentence within a passage. Most questions will therefore require you to consider the context of the surrounding sentences and/or paragraphs.

Add or Delete Questions

These questions ask you to identify whether a particular sentence is correctly placed within a paragraph, or whether a particular paragraph is correctly placed within a passage.

Organization and Structure

Command of Evidence questions on the SAT asks you to determine how the writer of the passage can best achieve a particular outcome or purpose.

Command of Evidence

Free SAT Essay Training

The Basics

The SAT essay is optional. It is graded out of 24 points. Your score will show up next to your “1600” score, but it won’t actually affect it in any way.

The SAT Essay - An Introduction

The most important task for a student on the SAT essay is to understand the author’s purpose in writing the essay. The purpose in fancier words is called the thesis of the essay.

The Thesis

The Strategies

The first of the three points that the SAT wants you to write about is identifying the evidence the author uses in his essay to prove his thesis.

The Evidence

Stylistic and persuasive elements are in a way opposite to the evidence based elements discussed in the last chapter. They are NON-FACT based statements that the author uses to prove his thesis. They often appeal to your emotions.

Stylistic & Persuasive Elements

Reasoning is the connective tissue that holds an argument together. It's the “thinking” — the logic, the analysis — that develops the argument and ties the claim and evidence together.

Reasoning

The previous chapters laid out the rhetorical elements to identify in a prompt, but how do these elements get translated from the prompt to your sat essay? In this chapter, we’ll discuss how you should fill out each body paragraph.

Analysis

The Template

This chapter will introduce a repeatable framework that will make SAT essay writing easy and ensure you get a great score.

The Template

We have discussed how to write an ACT essay and respond to the prompts. Now, it’s the time to help you write the essay better using varied sentence structures and correct grammar usage.

Effective Writing Toolkit

Free SAT Review Guides

The article will deep dive into the 10 most important points, concepts and strategies that you need to know to ace the SAT Reading section.

SAT Reading Review

The following are the most important points to remember when tackling the SAT Writing + Language Section

SAT Writing and Language Review

The article will deep dive into the 10 most important formulae, concepts and strategies that you need to know to ace the SAT Math section.

SAT Math Review

In SAT, just like in life, the only way to get better is to focus on your weaknesses and mistakes. Real improvement comes from obsessing over your errors and scrutinizing your mistakes or weak areas until they cease to exist.

SAT Review Process