Relativism (On the skinning of cats*)

* I don’t advocate violence towards cats (or other animals). “There’s more than one way to skin a cat” is a phrase that I used to hear all the time growing up, but that I now realize (having received some mortified stares at its utterance) that it’s not as common as I thought it was. (more…)

Blue Book Breakdown: Test 2 Math

This is straight out of the PWN the SAT Math Guide, except I’ve deleted the page number references and inserted links to certain techniques. View the breakdown of Blue Book Test 1 here. § p # Techniques and concepts Diff. 2 452 1 Patterns 1 2 452 2 Ratios  1 2 453 3 Read the (more…)

Blue Book Breakdown: Test 1 Math

I broke down every Blue Book test when I wrote the Math Guide. In the book there are page numbers instead of links, obviously. The idea here is that you can take a test, and use the results from that test to really identify some weaknesses. Then you drill those weaknesses before taking another test. (more…)

Why it’s important to check your work

Sometimes, you make mistakes. I don’t care who you are, what your GPA is, or what your SAT scores are. Sometimes, you make mistakes. If you’re the kind of student who is able to finish sections before time is called, it’s pure hubris not to use that opportunity to check your work. An anecdote: yesterday (more…)

The Thermometer Experiment

Source. You know how when people are trying to raise money, they’ll make big fake thermometers and then color them in as they get closer to their goals? I’m sure you’ve seen these things around. They’re ubiquitous. I was just thinking the other day how it’s not a bad idea to approach the SAT with (more…)

SAT prep roadmap for self-studiers

As I see it, SAT prep has two main objectives: Discover the most efficacious ways to solve common problem types. Become proficient at recognizing opportunities to use those techniques in the wild. It’s important that you devote equal time and effort to both. In other words, if you only take practice tests repeatedly, or if (more…)

Counting: Oh, the possibilities

Source. One technique-able counting problem type that you might come across on the SAT is what I’ll call a “possibilities” problem*. It might involve cards (but not playing cards – the SAT doesn’t like those), or pictures being lined up on a wall in different orders. Your job will be to determine the number of (more…)

The counting questions that are really just listing questions

An unfortunate truth about the SAT is that while many questions can be answered with snappy tricks (many of which can be found on these pages), not all of them can. Most “counting” questions (and probability questions, for that matter) fall into this category. Yes, I’m serious. Most. Basically, if you don’t see within 15 (more…)

One kind of counting question

The SAT will throw two common kinds of “counting” problems your way. I’ll handle one of them in this post. The other kind, well, I’ll get to it when I get to it. 🙂 I like to call this kind of problem a matching problem. It’ll usually involve a bunch of people who all need (more…)

Actually read the question.

I’ll be honest: I hate that I’m actually devoting space on this site to reminding you to read each question very carefully, but I am because I’ve worked with enough kids to know that errors due to misreading (and misbubbling — ARGH!) are unspeakably common. Rest assured that, if there’s a way a question could (more…)

A bit of practical advice about maximizing your SAT math score

I’ve covered this before at length, but it’s important to remember that, in general, you’ll increase your score more by making fewer silly mistakes than you will by getting more of the hardest questions right.  I’ve always left the actual calculations and decision making in your court, though. Well, the decision making is still in (more…)

Do you have a process?

I had an interesting conversation with a colleague last night about the importance of having a process. The gist of his argument was this: it’s all well and good to understand what a run-on sentence is (for example), but there are lots of kids who know, objectively, what one is, and still miss run-on questions (more…)