The sat math section potx

Part 1: Five-Choice Questions

The five-choice questions in the Math section of the

SAT will comprise about 80% of your total math score.

Five-choice questions test your mathematical reason￾ing skills. This means that you will be required to apply

several basic math techniques for each problem. In the

math sections, the problems will be easy at the begin￾ning and will become increasingly difficult as you

progress. Here are some helpful strategies to help you

improve your math score on the five-choice questions:

■ Read the questions carefully and know the

answer being sought. In many problems, you will

be asked to solve an equation and then perform

an operation with that variable to get an answer.

In this situation, it is easy to solve the equation

and feel like you have the answer. Paying special

attention to what each question is asking, and

then double-checking that your solution answers

the question, is an important technique for per￾forming well on the SAT.

■ If you do not find a solution after 30 seconds,

move on. You will be given 25 minutes to answer

questions for two of the Math sections, and 20

minutes to answer questions in the other section.

In all, you will be answering 54 questions in 70

minutes! That means you have slightly more than

one minute per problem. Your time allotted per

question decreases once you realize that you will

want some time for checking your answers and

extra time for working on the more difficult prob￾lems. The SAT is designed to be too complex to fin￾ish. Therefore, do not waste time on a difficult

problem until you have completed the problems

you know how to do. The SAT Math problems can

be rated from 1–5 in levels of difficulty, with 1

being the easiest and 5 being the most difficult. The

following is an example of how questions of vary￾ing difficulty have been distributed throughout a

math section on a past SAT. The distribution of

questions on your test will vary.

1. 1 8. 2 15. 3 22. 3

2. 1 9. 3 16. 5 23. 5

3. 1 10. 2 17. 4 24. 5

4. 1 11. 3 18. 4 25. 5

5. 2 12. 3 19. 4

6. 2 13. 3 20. 4

7. 1 14. 3 21. 4

From this list, you can see how important it is

to complete the first fifteen questions before get￾ting bogged down in the complex problems that

follow. After you are satisfied with the first fifteen

questions, skip around the last ten, spending the

most time on the problems you find to be easier.

■ Don’t be afraid to write in your test booklet.

That is what it is for. Mark each question that

you don’t answer so that you can easily go back to

it later. This is a simple strategy that can make a

lot of difference. It is also helpful to cross out the

answer choices that you have eliminated.

■ Sometimes, it may be best to substitute in an

answer. Many times it is quicker to pick an

answer and check to see if it is a solution. When

you do this, use the c response. It will be the mid￾dle number and you can adjust the outcome to

the problem as needed by choosing b or d next,

depending on whether you need a larger or

smaller answer. This is also a good strategy when

you are unfamiliar with the information the

problem is asking.

■ When solving word problems, look at each

phrase individually and write it in math lan￾guage. This is very similar to creating and assign￾ing variables, as addressed earlier in the word

problem section. In addition to identifying what

is known and unknown, also take time to trans￾late operation words into the actual symbols. It is

best when working with a word problem to repre￾sent every part of it, phrase by phrase, in mathe￾matical language.

–THE SAT MATH SECTION–

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