1. SAT Math Tips & Tricks NMH Upward Bound Summer Academy Junior Seminar Wednesday, June 25, 2014

2. Order of difficulty  Questions on the SAT are organized from easy to medium to hard in each section  Each question is worth the same number of points  Guessing is penalized ¼ point  Answer the easy ones first!  It’s often a good idea to leave the last five in each section blank unless you are CERTAIN of the answer  Leaving last 5 blank in each section and getting all the others right will give you a 650 on the math section which is an excellent score

3. POE: Process of Elimination  Sometimes, you can answer a question (often an easy question) just by eliminating the answers that are obviously wrong.  “Obviously wrong” include:  numbers that are far too small to be the answer  numbers that are far too big to be the answer  often (but not always) numbers that appear in the problem  answers to medium or hard questions that come from simple calculations

4. POE Example A B C 1 x too small! Maybe? Maybe? x It’s in the problem! x Too big!

5. PITA: Plugging in the answers  Many algebra and some geometry questions can be answered by plugging the answers into a given equation or expression.  If there are both numbers and variables in the problem, it is very likely that PITA will lead you to the right answer.  Try 0 and 1, if they are among the answer choices, first. They are easy to evaluate. From there, go from the easiest to the hardest figure to plug in  positive before negative and whole numbers before fractions and decimals

6. PITA Example

7. Tables, Charts and Graphs  Charts and tables can be used for many kinds of problems, but are particularly useful when a ratio is present  If an algebra problem makes reference to a line or a parabola without a picture, graph it!

8. Table Example There are 250 in 10 th grade students at Dequindre High School. All 10 th graders must take French or Spanish, but not both. If the ratio of males to females in 10 th grade is 2:3, and 80 of the 100 French students are male, how many female students must take Spanish? The ratio is 2:3, so the total ratio is 2 + 3 = 5. Divide the total number of students by the total ratio and you get 50, which is the ‘multiplier.’ 2 50 = 100 males and 3 50 is 150 females. With that information you can fill in all the blanks. 130 is the answer. GIVENFrenchSpanishTotal Male80 Female Total100250 GIVENFrenchSpanishTotal Male8020100 Female20130150 Total100150250