Direct and Inverse Proportionality (Variation)

There are two kinds of proportionality (some call these problems “variation” problems, but I’m sticking with proportionality) problems that you might see on the SAT: direct and inverse. I’m going to cover both here since I’m in the business of preparing you for any eventuality, but you should know that the the former is much (more…)

Run-on Sentences and Fragments (featuring The YUNiversity!!!)

A quick note before we begin: I’m positively elated to have teamed up with Tumblr all-star The YUNiversity for this post! Everybody knows that eye-popping visuals are a great boon to students trying to learn otherwise dry material, and nobody does them better. If you like the illustrations he provided for this post, you simply must make (more…)

A strong vocabulary is necessary, but not sufficient, for a high CR score.

Credit: the very talented Mike R. Baker I’ve already covered the importance of a good vocabulary, and I hope that you’ve been clicking the red vocabulary links on this site as you meander through. They’re meant to teach you a few good words, and to show you that strong vocabulary doesn’t have to be shoehorned (more…)

Keep probability questions as simple as you possibly can. Please.

Disclaimers: 1) Probability problems are some of the SAT’s most difficult, but they’re also some of the most rare. There’s a pretty decent chance you won’t see a very hard question like this on your test, so prioritize your prep time; don’t worry too much about this stuff until you’ve really nailed the basics. Ironically, this (more…)

Backsolve, or figure out a much more difficult way to solve these backsolve problems.

It’s important to be ever-cognizant of the fact that on a multiple choice test, one of the 5 answers has to be right. Because of this, it’s sometimes possible to answer a question correctly by starting at the end, and ending at the start. Most in the prep world call this “backsolving,” and it’s even more (more…)

Figure drawn to scale? Guesstimate that ish.

Here’s an important thing to remember: all figures on the SAT are drawn to scale unless indicated otherwise. In other words, if it doesn’t say “Note: figure not drawn to scale,” underneath it, it is drawn to scale. Most figures on the SAT are drawn to scale, which means it’s a good idea to guesstimate whenever (more…)

Right Triangles

So, I trust by now you know what’s going on with regular triangles, and with angles in general. Right triangles get a post all to themselves because they’re special, and have some rules of their very own. Let’s dig in, shall we? Ancient Greece was awesome. First, let’s briefly review the Pythagorean theorem. You know (more…)