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Top 5 essential tips for multiple choice success on the SAT

By jill muttera posted March 22, 2012

Preparing for tests involves not just SAT practice tests and SAT review, but also knowledge of SAT test-taking strategy. The majority of the SAT test is multiple-choice, so learning some tricks to beat the SAT will make the difference between good and bad SAT scores. Follow these top 5 tips for conquering multiple choice on the SAT and you’ll be on your way to your dream college!

1. Know your odds. Each correct multiple-choice answer on the SAT earns you 1 point, each blank answer earns you 0 points, and each incorrect answer loses you 1/4 point. If you can eliminate one choice, the odds are in your favor to guess. You have a 1 in 4 chance of getting the point. Think of it this way: if you skip 4 questions, you will get 0 points. If you guess on 4 questions and get 1 correct and 3 wrong, you will gain 1/4 point (1 minus 3/4). Use this knowledge to your advantage when you take the test!

2. Use process of elimination. Process of elimination allows you to narrow your choices and improve your odds. Take this common testing strategy a step further and physically cross out answer choices you know aren’t right with your pencil. This will allow you to keep your thoughts organized and not waste time reconsidering an answer choice you forgot you had already eliminated.

3. Read through all the choices. This may seem obvious, but it can be tempting to pick the first answer choice you read that sounds right when you’re pressed for time. This will come up more in reading and writing, since there is more gray area as to which choice is the best. Sometimes an answer choice that seems true does not answer that specific question in the best way.

Test your SAT math skills with this SAT multiple choice practice question and see if you’re ready to ROCK the SAT!

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SAT Math: What to Expect

By jill muttera posted February 7, 2012

Get to know the structure of SAT Math before test day so there are no surprises! It’s a great idea to know the directions ahead of time so you can get started answering questions right away on the real thing.

Timing: SAT Math is comprised of two 25 minute sections with approximately 20 questions and one 20 minute section with 16 questions. Some questions will be strictly computational and take only seconds to complete; others could take up to a few minutes. If you are totally baffled by a question or have been working on it for too long, move on to an easier question and come back to it at the end if you have time. Each question is worth the same amount, so don’t waste your time on one question you might not even answer correctly.

Try this SAT math practice question and test your quantitative skills!

Format: There are two question type formats, multiple choice and student-produced response. For multiple choice you will select one out of five answers. For student-produced response, you will not be given any choices and will have to write your answer in a grid on the answer sheet, as well as fill in the corresponding bubbles.

Content Overview: The math section covers arithmetic, algebra, geometry, statistics, and probability. So don’t sweat it if you never made it to calculus! You will be given some basic formulas to refer to, such as the area of a triangle and the volume of a cylinder. Refer to the collegeboard.com website to see exactly which formulas appear on the test so you don’t have to worry about memorizing them.

SAT Math has the least variety of question formats for you to learn, so you can focus on brushing up on math concepts, practicing solving problems, and learning relevant strategies.

Find out how you can get customized tutoring on SAT to hone your skills with a Grockit tutor.

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The SAT Essay: What to Expect

By jill muttera posted February 1, 2012

The thought of writing an essay before delving into three hours of multiple-choice testing might send shudders down your spine, but the more you know about the SAT essay, the less daunting it will seem. Read on to learn all the basics of the SAT essay.

Timing: The essay portion of the SAT comes first on the test. You will have 25 minutes to read the prompt, decide on your viewpoint, brainstorm, outline, write, and proofread your essay. Whew, that’s a lot in such a short time! Obviously steps such as outlining are going to be very condensed versions of what you would do with a take-home essay for school, and some steps you may have to skip altogether. Definitely write timed practiced essays at home before the big day so you’re prepared for what a time crunch it can be.

Format: You will be given a short paragraph relating to the prompt, usually a quotation from a historical figure, literature, etc. Don’t ignore this information! It can give you valuable ideas for your essay. This will be followed by the prompt itself, which will ask you to formulate a point of view on an issue and support that viewpoint with examples and analysis. You will be writing your essay on the lined pages provided.

Content Overview: Read through old SAT essay prompts to get an idea of the type of topics the test makers typically use. You can find the most recent ones at collegeboard.com. You will find a common thread through the prompts of “life’s big questions,” covering everything from ambition to honesty. Every prompt will tell you to use examples from “your reading, studies, experience, or observations.” Go into the essay armed with several examples from these areas that you feel comfortable writing about to support a thesis.

Now that you know the basics of the SAT essay, start writing! Find out how Grockit’s expert tutors can help you to critique your practice essays so that you can learn from your mistakes.

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Fractions & Rational Numbers on the SAT

By vivian kerr posted October 17, 2011

Fractions are one of the important building blocks of SAT Math. All fractions are rational numbers. A rational number is a number that can be expressed as a ratio of two integers. Therefore all integers are also rational numbers. Rational numbers either have no decimal (4/1), or have a terminating or repeating decimal (1/4 = .25, 1/3 = .3333).

Try this SAT math question for practice!

Equivalent fractions are fractions that simplify to the same form. For example, 6/8, and ¾. In a fraction, when you multiply the numerator and the denominator by the same non-zero integer, it’s like multiplying the entire fraction by 1. The value of the fraction doesn’t change.

To simplify fractions, you need to understand the LCM, lowest common multiple, and the LCD, least common denominator. The LCD is the LCM (the smallest number that is also a multiple of both integers). For example, if we were to solve: 2/3 + ¼ – 1/2. The LCD is going to be the smallest number that 3, 4, and 2 divide into evenly. Since 2 is already a factor of 4, we can choose 12. Since 3, 4, and 2 will all evenly divide into 12.

When you multiply fractions, you can multiply the numerators straight across, then the denominators straight across. Before you multiply, you can also cancel out numbers across the numerators and denominators. For example: 1/5 * 5/6 * 12/2 * 1/3 = ?. One way to start if by crossing out the 5 in the denominator of the first fraction, and the 5 in the numerator of the second fraction. That gives us:

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SAT Practice: How to Find the Area of a Polygon on the SAT

By vivian kerr posted September 19, 2011

Polygons can be a confusing concept for SAT students with even a strong grasp of Geometry because they don’t appear as often as triangles, circles, and other geometric shapes. You’re likely to find a polygon question towards the end of a SAT Math section as it’s considered a more challenging concept. Let’s review a few basic properties and then learn how to calculate the area for one!

Find out how you can Collaborate with your peers to reinforce your knowledge and theirs on Grockit today!

A polygon is a many-sided closed figure whose sides are straight lines. A regular polygon has sides of equal length.

Every time you add a side to a polygon, you add 180 degrees to the sum of its interior angles. That is why a triangle has a sum of 180 (3 sides), a square has a sum of 360 (4 sides), and so on.

The area of a square is side x side. The area of a rectangle is length x width. But what about for shapes with more than 4 sides?

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Multiple Choice on the SAT: How to Use the Answer Choices

By vivian kerr posted September 6, 2011

Contrary to what you may think, the answer choices on the SAT are not designed to trap or trick you! We may describe them as “tricky” or “tempting” but seeing the answer choices can actually be a huge asset on Test Day. After all, we know that 1 of the 5 must be correct! Unlike grid-ins, we can often utilize the answer choices in problem solving questions to help us find the solution and get better SAT scores overall. Here are 5 ways you can make the answer choices work for you on your SAT Test!

For Writing question, remember that “No Error” is a strong option. For Identifying Sentence Error test questions, parts of a sentence are underlined. For this SAT question, Choice (E) is “No Error.” There is not always going to be an error. In fact, about 1/4^th of the time, “No Error” is correct! Trust your instincts. If a sentence “sounds” okay, and you’ve checked the other four choices and found no grammatical mistake, the SAT alternative is choice E.

Eliminate (-) or (+) choices in Sentence Completions using your prediction. On test day, don’t simply read the sentence and plug in the answer choices, re-reading the SAT sentence five times. Identify the keywords that relate to the blank and write in your OWN word for the blanks, or at least predict whether the blank is a (+) or (-) word. Ace these tricky SAT questions by then eliminating answer choices that contain words with the opposite word charge!

Find out how Grockit can predict your performance on the SAT

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SAT Math Practice: Data Interpretation

By christopher babits posted June 30, 2011

Interpreting data on the SAT may come in many forms: charts, graphs, tables, or extrapolating information from a reading passage. Mastering all the different ways to interpret data will be an important part of scoring well on the SAT. Only by getting enough test prep, including spending some time in Grockit’s interactive games with trained instructors, will ensure you get the score you want. Make sure to remember the following tips and strategies when faced with a data interpretation question. Then, use them to solve the sample problem below.

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Tips and Strategies for data interpretation questions:

Read the passage before looking at any questions. Reading the question(s) first may mislead you when you’re examining the passage. Although it may seem like you’re targeting your reading, the chances you’ll make a mistake are much greater if you read the question(s) first.
Carefully examine any chart, graph or table. Make sure you know what information the chart, graph or table is relaying. Carefully examine the title and what the x- and y-axes represent. And try to analyze the information in the chart, graph or table.
Don’t be afraid to take notes and/or write out the math. You should never try to compute a data interpretation question without writing down the figures. Although it may take a few seconds longer, the chances you’ll correctly answer the question are much greater if you write out the math.
Look for patterns. If numbers and figures come easily to you, look to see if you can see a pattern in the data. But even if you think you know the answer because there’s a pattern, do the math just to be sure.

Now, keep these tips and strategies in mind as you examine the following example:

What is the average (arithmetic mean) height, in inches, of the 5 students’ mothers?

60
62.5
65
70
72

After you examine the graph carefully, you should notice that the y-axis has the height of each student’s mother in inches. That means you will only refer to the information on the y-axis, as the x-axis (height of father) is not relevant to this question. With this in mind, we see that two mothers are 60 inches tall, one is 65 inches tall, and the other two are 70 inches tall. To find the average, we need to add all their heights together and then divide by 5, the total number of mothers. Let’s do the math:

60 + 60 + 65 + 70 + 70 = 325 (all heights together)

325 ÷ 5 = 65 (average height—or arithmetic mean—of the mothers)

Now that we’ve done the math, we can see that C is the right answer!

(There’s another, faster way to solve this problem. If you’re good at noticing patterns, you would’ve seen that the average of the two mothers at 60 inches tall and the other two mothers at 70 inches tall would’ve been 65 inches. This is the same height as the other remaining mother, meaning the average height for all the mothers would be 65. Looking for patterns like this can save you time when completing data interpretation questions, but if you’re stuck, just do the math to get the correct answer.)

Data interpretation questions on the SAT require you to read and examine any charts, graphs or tables closely. Getting enough test prep, which you can get in Grockit’s interactive games, will ensure you’re ready for any data interpretation questions that come your way on test day.

Grockit can target your study plan to improve your SAT score

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SAT Math: Exponents and Roots

By jordan schonig posted March 7, 2011

Exponents, or powers, are numbers that tell us to how many times to multiply a number by itself. For example, 2⁶= 2x2x2x2x2x2. You might read this as “two to the sixth power,” and our answer would be 64. For the SAT Math, you’ll really want to know how to manipulate expressions with exponents. There are many rules that dictate how we manipulate expressions with exponents, so let’s get started.

Adding and Subtracting Exponents

When adding algebraic expressions that have the same bases and exponents, I can add their coefficients:

o X³+X^{3 =}=2 X³

o 3X⁵+2 X⁵=5x⁵

Remember that you can only add the coefficients when the base and exponent are the same. Adding and subtracting will never result in a change in exponent (e.g. 2 X³+2 X³does not equal 4x⁶)

Multiplying and Dividing Exponents

When multiplying expressions or terms that have the same base, just add the exponents.

o X³ * X^{3 =}=X⁶

When dividing numbers or terms with the same base, subtract the exponents.

o X⁷ / X^{4 =}= x ³

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SAT Math: Translations & Function Graphs

By vivian kerr posted February 25, 2011

Function questions often involve graphs, and require students to identify which graph represents a given function or how changing a function will affect its graph. Let’s review a few keywords that relate to functions and then take a look at some sample function questions!

Vertical line test – The graph of a function should only hit one point on a vertical line drawn anywhere on the graph. If the vertical line hits multiple points, the graph does not represent a function.

f(x) – A function is simply a unique way of writing an equation, except instead of coordinate pair (x,y), functions use the pair (x, f(x)). What is inside the parentheses always replaces the x-coordinate, and whatever equals f(x) always replaces the y-coordinate.

Domain and range – The possible values of x are referred to as the domain, and the possible values of f(x) are referred to as the range.

Here’s another SAT math question for more practice! Read more »

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Elementary Probability on the SAT and ACT

By amanda chen posted May 31, 2010

Probability questions on the SAT basically test if you know one concept – the definition of probability.

Probability = Number of times a certain event might occur/Total number of events that might occur

So if a question tells you that there are 120 dorm rooms and 24 of them are painted yellow, the probability that a freshman is placed in a yellow dorm room is 24/120 = 1/5 because there are 24 yellow rooms that the freshman could be placed in, out of a total of 120 rooms.

Reverse probability

To make things difficult, the question might ask you a reverse probability question. For example, if there are 120 dorm rooms and Amy has a chance of 1/6 being placed in a blue room, then how many blue rooms are there? Using the formula above, if there is a one in six chance of getting a blue room, that means that the number of blue rooms out of the total number of rooms is 1/6. Since there are 120 rooms in total, then 1/6 = blue rooms / 120. This works out to 20 blue rooms.

Try to solve this ACT math question!

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