1. And General Test Information
SAT Math Sections
And General Test Information

2. What will I need on test day?
Make sure you have the following with you when you arrive for the SAT:
Your admission ticket
Your photo ID
Two No. 2 pencils (not mechanical)
A watch in case you don’t have convenient sight of the clock (not your cell phone as you won’t be able to have it out)
Your calculator
A sweater or jacket (you don’t want to freeze throughout the test!)
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3. How should I prepare for the test?
Besides completing this course (which is a great starter), you should consider:
Going to bed early the night before the test. Not “crazy” early (you don’t want to wake up a 4 a.m. on test day!), but early enough to get at least eight hours of sleep.
Eat breakfast so that you don’t get hungry during the test, but don’t overeat or you’ll get sleepy.
Map out the route to the testing center if you are unsure. Make sure that you leave with plenty of time to get there and check-in before test time. You don’t want to be squealing tires into the testing center! You’ll be more relaxed during the test if you start your day off without “running late” stress.
Know what to expect for the test. (Hopefully, this course will take care of that!)
Practice, practice, practice! I’ll be sharing ways to practice throughout this course, but the Internet is full of great resources for practice as well. If you spend some time in the months and weeks before the SAT in practicing it, you will go in much better prepared and confident.
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4. How is the SAT organized?
The SAT consists of nine multiple choice sections (with some grid-ins in math) and one writing section.
Multiple Choice
3 math sections (two are 25 minutes long and another is 20 minutes, one will contain some grid-in questions)
3 critical reading sections (two are 25 minutes long and another is 20 minutes)
2 writing skills sections (one is 25 minutes and the other is 10 minutes)
1 bonus experimental section (25 minutes long) – This section does not count toward your score, but you won’t which section is the experimental one so you have to try your best on all sections. This experimental section could cover any of the three multiple choices areas: math, critical reading, or writing skills.
Writing Section
There is one 25-minute essay section.
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5. Should I guess on multiple choice if I don’t know the answer?
Well, it depends. On the SAT, you earn one point every time you get a question right. On the other hand, you lose ¼ of a point when you get an answer wrong. With this is mind, it is to your benefit to try to eliminate answer choices if at all possible.
In general, if you can narrow your answers down to two choices, it is probably worth it for you to guess. If you truly have no idea among the four answer choices, you might want to skip that question. Be careful, though! By skipping an answer on your test answer sheet, you risk accidentally getting offline in filling in your answers!
Ultimately, it takes four wrong answers to “undo” the point you earned for one right answer, so, narrowing down and guessing is probably worth it.
You should ALWAYS put an answer for the grid-in questions because wrong answers on grid-in questions have no penalty.
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6. Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles / freedigitalphotos.net
SAT Strategies
Monitor your answer sheet!
Double-check each time to make sure that you are on the correct line.
Fill your bubbles completely, erase mistakes completely, and make sure to check for and erase any stray marks.
Manage your time!
Practice the SAT (you’ll have a chance as part of this course but you can always continue on your own) so that you understand the pace that is required to finish each section on time.
While you don’t want to eat up time by watching the clock, do stay aware of how much time you have left by checking every few minutes. If you see that you are running short on time, you might want to skip around and look for easier questions to answer first. Just remember that you have to stay in the current section of the test.
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7. Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / freedigitalphotos.net
More SAT Strategies
Use your test booklet as a tool!
In your text booklet (not your answer sheet!), circle the question number of any question that you skip. That way, if you have time at the end, you can go back to those questions to see if you can narrow down the answer choices further.
Show your math work right on or next to the question. This will make it easier for you to pick back up on a question that you want to come back to at the end.
If there is a question that you think you can get with a little more time but that you choose to skip or guess at for now, put a star next to it so that you will recognize it if you finish on time to go back through the questions in that section.
Stay fresh!
If you find yourself zoning out, tilt you head back and close your eyes for seconds and take a few long, deep breaths. Then go back to your test.
When the test administrator tells you that you may stand or stretch during a break, DO IT! If you take advantage of breaks, it will help your brain to stay turned on for longer.
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The Math Sections
The questions in the math sections are broken down like this:
20 multiple choice questions in a 25-minute session
8 multiple choice questions along with 10 grid-in questions in a 25-minute session
16 multiple choice questions in a 20-minute session
The math questions are in order from easiest to most difficult. Try to move through the easier questions more quickly to allow yourself enough time on the more challenging ones.
Think about it: If the questions are generally ordered from easiest to most difficult, and you find that the answer to one of the last questions was very quick and easy…you might need to rethink it. Perhaps you overlooked something in the problem?
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9. Grids on the SAT look like this grid.
The Math Grid-Ins
Some rules and suggestions for the grid-ins:
Make sure to bubble in your answer. The bubbles will be scored by computer, so, if you don’t bubble, you don’t earn points. (You don’t have to write anything in the boxes at the top, so, if you are in a crunch for time, don’t bother. However, if you have time, writing your answer in the boxes might help you avoid careless errors.)
None of the grid-in answers are negative. If you get a negative answer to a grid-in question, you have made a mistake.
Some grid-in questions might have more than one right answer. You will have to choose one. If your answer is a range of numbers, like anything from 1 to 5, just pick any number in the range and grid it.
You cannot grid-in mixed numbers. If you get a mixed number answer, you will need to convert it to a decimal or an improper fraction in order to grid it.
Leave empty columns blank.
You do not need to reduce fractions, so don’t waste your time.
Do NOT put a 0 before a decimal point.
Don’t round! If your decimal answer won’t fit the boxes, just bubble as many numbers in the decimal as you can get to fit in the box and drop the rest.
You do NOT lose points for wrong answers on grid-in questions, so never leave a grid-in blank.
Always start your grid-ins from the left-most box. This way you’ll grid the correct number of digits in a decimal if you have a long decimal.
Grids on the SAT look like this grid.
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10. Strategies Specifically for the Math Sections
These strategies might help you improve your score on the math sections:
Draw pictures.
If a picture with a question says “drawn to scale,” then the picture is an accurate representation of the problem. If not, you might want to redraw the picture yourself. Otherwise, you will at least want to keep in mind that your answer might be right, even if it doesn’t look like it fits the picture correctly.
On multiple choice, you might want to try each of the answer choices to see if you can eliminate any.
You might benefit from trying some numbers in the place of variables in a problem.
Don’t write down or do more than the problem requires.
Watch your units!
Use your calculator when you need to, but, if you can do a problem faster without it, then do it!
Slow down and pay attention to definitions if a problem includes a strange symbol.
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