if you find yourself scrambling before the finish line, channel your inner super mario and follow these tips to get as many points as you can before time runs out.

1. figure out what order to read the passages before you take the test.

the act reading passages is divided into four genres: literary narrative, social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences. the act will always present the passages in that order, so you should have a game plan before you start the reading section. if you like reading articles about how artists get inspired or how music influenced culture, start with the humanities. if you like scientific explanations behind the mysteries of space or why fish have electric sensors, start with natural sciences.

if you aren’t sure what order you should take it, or even if you think it doesn’t matter what order you take it, try this: time yourself the next time you take a practice  act reading section. start the clock when you begin reading a passage, mark the time when you’ve finished reading the passage, and stop it when you finished answering the questions. you may surprise yourself with how you spend your time. next time, start reading the passages that take you the least time to complete and save the passages that take up more time for last.

2. go for the low hanging fruit.

the less you have to go back and reread the passage, the more time you save. one way to do this is to read through all the answer choices before going back to the text. odds are good that you can eliminate one or two (sometimes three) wrong answer choices using your memory alone.

in terms of specific act reading question types, you should start with the ones that specifically reference certain lines or paragraphs. after you’ve eliminated wrong answer choices based on your memory, go back to the text and see if you can find the best answer. since you’ve read all the answer choices and eliminated some of them, you know what you should be looking for. these questions tend to be easiest to answer, but be sure to read a little before and a little after to get the full context of the line. after that, you can answer the rest of the questions as they come.

however, save any question that has not in all capital letters until the end of the passage. for example: “which of the following is not a claim the author makes?” the question provides you with three correct statements and one incorrect statement, and you have to pick the incorrect one. these questions are often super detail-focused, so you will need to flip back and forth between the answer choices and the passage, checking off which of the four answer choices is supported by the passage. these questions take up the most time, so save them for the end.

3. don’t get too invested in your passage.

so i was reading a sample prose passage about a violinist rehearsing one of mozart’s concertos. i play violin, so i was thinking in my head, “oh yeah i’ve been there” or “you have no idea what you’re talking about, you ma’am are lying.” i was really invested in the passage, and you know what happened? i spent 1 more minute reading than i needed to because i got distracted by my thoughts.

time is precious with the act reading, so think of yourself as a robot: you have no opinions or outside knowledge beyond what is fed to you in the passage. if the passage talks about the the author’s support of donald trump for president, resist the urge to disagree with the author. you only care about the examples, arguments, and logic contained within the passage. for example, if a question asks you, “what was the result of donald trump hosting saturday night live during his campaign?”, do not rely on your own knowledge of how terrible an episode it was. focus strictly on what the text gives you. the more you keep this distance between you and the passage, the quicker you will be able to read through it and the more time you have to blaze through the reading section.

4. save the double passage for last.

the past few acts have featured double passages. instead of reading a single passage about 100 lines long, you will read two passages about 50-60 lines each. once you’re familiar with the format though, you’ll see why we save them for last.

the first thing you should do is read the first of the two passages. once you’ve finished reading passage one, skip down to the questions and start answering the questions that only deal with passage one. they are clustered at the beginning of the passage’s questions. when you start seeing questions that deal with passage two, go back and begin reading the second passage. when you’ve finished reading passage two, hop back down to the questions and begin answering all the questions that deal specifically with passage two. the last 3-4 questions of the double reading passage will ask you to compare and contrast different aspects of passages one and two. since you’ve already answered several questions about each individual passage, you should be able to answer most of these based on your memory alone.

if you’re saving this passage for last, that means you probably only have a few minutes left on the clock. if time is called in the middle of you reading passage two, it’s not the worst thing in the world since you’ll at least have 3 or 4 questions answered on your sheet that dealt with passage one. it’d be worse if time was called in the middle of reading a long passage and you had zero questions answered.

look to mario as a role model for dealing with the act reading section. when he goes to the bonus room at the beginning of the stage, he racks up a lot of coins early on without wasting a lot of time. as a test taker, you want to do the same thing: rack up as many correct answers as you can without wasting a lot of time. each of these strategies is devoted to minimizing the amount of time you need to answer correct questions. you may not be able to get through the entire reading test before time is called, but you can take comfort in the fact that you’ve got 30+ answers down on your answer sheet that you feel confident in.

the post running out of time on the act reading appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

physics sat?

there’s a reason why i saved this sat subject for last in my sat science series: i don’t like it. i know it’s weird, since i like science and i love math, but physics never appealed to me. thankfully though, the physics test is the most straight forward of the three science sats. just like the other science sats, the first 10-15 questions are classification sets, where the test gives you a word bank of five answer choices and you match each question with one of the five choices. the remainder of the test’s 75 questions are traditional 5-answer multiple choice questions.

the college board gives you a handful of practice questions, but beyond reviewing your physics notes, what else can you do? well, you can start with…
 

tip 1: get good at spatial thinking.

how good are you at drawing free body diagrams from scratch? surprise, the physics sat doesn’t care! a lot of the questions will be accompanied by a diagram that the test takers made just for you. like so:

(a) -4 kg·m/s
(b) -1 kg·m/s
(c) 0 kg·m/s
(d) 1 kg·m/s
(e) 4 kg·m/s

there are mechanics questions that ask you about acceleration and displacement. there are optics question that ask you about lenses and the images they create. there are electricity and magnetism question about charges, currents, and forces. but the common thread to all these physics topics is understanding how their diagrammed. look for the initial conditions they give you and translate the question so you know exactly what you’re looking to answer.

tip 2: understand linear, inverse, and quadratic relationships.

almost everything on the physics test can be described by a formula. and there are about 695841859649* different formulas and variations out there. but luckily, you don’t need to memorize them all. but what you should understand are how two variables are linked with one another. take this question.

(a) p/4
(b) p/2
(c) p
(d) 2p
(e) 4p

a lot of the questions on the test ask you to double this, triple that, and halve that other thing. instead of going into your memory bank and trying to fish out the exact formula that ties voltage (the thing you’re changing) and resistance (the thing that’s constant) to power (the thing you’re measuring), it’s easier for me to think about how they relate to one another.

for one thing, i know ohm’s law, which says that voltage has a linear relationship with current and resistance. that means that if i double the voltage but keep resistance the same, i’ll double the current. likewise, i know the power law (or whatever it’s called, i’m not actually sure) which says that power has a linear relationship with voltage and current. if i halve the voltage but keep current the same, i’ll halve the power.

you have two linear relationships that link these variables together, so what happens if you double voltage but keep resistance constant? notice how you are multiplying one linear relationship by another, and that will get you to the correct answer.

finally, don’t forget that quadratic relationships can also be inverse. think about the formula for gravitational force or electrical force. if you double the distance between two objects while keeping their masses/charges the same, you reduce the force by a factor of 4. likewise, if you halve the distance between them, you quadruple the force.
 

tip 3: brush up on your chemistry.

the majority of physics classes usually shake out like this. you study the laws of motion and energy in the first half and then the laws of electricity and magnetism in the second half. you sprinkle in some of the leftover topics, like sound waves and optics, somewhere in between.

however, there are a few topics that your physics class may not cover, possibly because you might have covered them in chemistry. i’m talking about things like heat transfer, radioactive decay, and subatomic particles. the sat puts these topics on both the physics and chemistry sat, so make sure to review these as well.

hang in there. you’ll make it through.

answers to example questions
tip 1: a, -4 kg·m/s
tip 2: e, 4p
 

the post tips for the sat physics subject test appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

monday-thursday

review instead of study. you know what your strongest and weakest sections are, and you also probably know what types of questions in those sections you tend to get wrong. if your weakest section is math, spend some time on topics that you struggle with, but balance it out with problems that you do okay on. don’t forget that magoosh has plenty of tips and tricks devoted to each of the five test sections (english, math, reading, science, and writing).

if there’s a specific topic you don’t know how to handle on the test and you can’t find the answer on our blog, show it to one of your teachers and ask if they have some time to meet after school this week to help you out. what you don’t want to do is cram new material. you’ve spent several weeks preparing for this test, so the best thing you can do is review what you’ve learned.

sleep well. you might think you only need to get a good night’s sleep right before the test day, but that’s not true. you want to get into the habit of sleeping at a regular and reasonable time every night this week. it’s like when a kids try to go to sleep early on christmas eve so they can wake up super early on christmas day and get to their presents earlier. chances are that they stayed awake all night due to their own excitement and anxiety. don’t be like those kids. get into a regular sleep schedule starting today so you don’t become overexcited friday night and unable to sleep.
 

friday

do not study on friday night. do not study on friday night. do not study on friday night.

again, you’ve already put in a lot of hours in studying for this test. you don’t need to study, review, memorize, or anything like that tonight. you don’t want to jeopardize your sleep schedule. what you need to do is relax in your own home. take a bath. read a fun book. meditate. do whatever you need to do to keep calm, since you want to be as refreshed as you can be on test day.

pack your act bag. since you’re already not doing anything on friday night, you should make sure you have all your act things in your bag. if you end up waiting until saturday morning, you increase the chances of forgetting something or arriving late to your test center. it’s better to get it out of the way while you’re calm. you’ll want to make sure you have the following packed and ready to go:

– paper copy of your act registration ticket (which you can get from act’s website)
– photo id (driver’s license/permit, school id, or act identification letter, visit this website for more details on acceptable forms of identification)
– at least three sharpened #2 pencils with good erasers (side note: test the eraser if it’s a new pencil, since some new erasers need to be broken in like a pair of shoes, but also i’m weird)
– your calculator, along with a set of new batteries (you probably know if your calculator is act-approved, but double check this website just to be safe)
– small snack and water (to eat during that break between math and reading, cheetos not recommended because orange fingers are gross)

don’t forget to set your alarm. you’re supposed to arrive at 8:00 am, so make sure you plan enough time to wake up, eat breakfast, get ready, and drive over to the test center. you may want to set it even earlier so that you arrive at the center at 7:45, just to be on the safe side.

saturday

wake up after you wake up. you’ve probably set your alarm super early compared to when you’re used to waking up on a normal saturday morning (or afternoon if you’re a particularly late sleeper). you don’t want to be groggy when you walk into the test center, so do whatever you need to do to get alert. take a shower, go for a run around the block, sing your favorite song, you do you. you’ll want to wake up your mind too so that your brain’s warmed up by the time it sees the first english question. do a few easy math problems or read something in the newspaper. something easy but gets your brain warmed up so you’re ready to go when you read the first english question.

pro tip: review your act cheat sheet

eat some breakfast. you don’t need to go to denny’s and order pancakes, eggs, bacon, and a glass of orange juice, but you should at least eat something. in addition to the time it takes to complete the english section (1 hour) and the math section (1 hour), you have to deal with the general testing procedure. your break might not come until 10:30 or 11:00 am, depending on how efficient your proctor is. it’s better to eat something before you go than risk a hunger attack in the middle of the test.

get to the test center with time to spare. take some time to look up the location of where you’re taking the test, and figure out the best route to get there. make sure your car has a full tank of gas. maybe even ask a parent to drive you so that you have extra time to relax in the morning. if it takes 20 minutes to get there from your house, leave 40 minutes before the test starts. it’s important to give yourself some wiggle room so you don’t get thrown by unexpected delays.

breathe.
 

last minute act resources

we may not be able to tell you exactly which questions you’ll come across, but the format and general content of the exam is not at all mysterious. to ease your nerves, take a look at some of these helpful posts:

act practice
top ten things to avoid doing on your act test day
act strategies: the pacing drill guaranteed to improve your score

any questions, concerns, or feelings that you need to get out into the open? leave us a comment below and we’ll get back to you asap!

the post your checklist to saturday’s act appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

tip 1: review your biology notes

there’s no way around it: biology is a subject that rewards memorization. there are so many vocabulary words associated with molecules, cells, organs, organisms, and ecosystems that it’s difficult to come up with a standardized method to organize them. but if you’re already planning on taking this test, that means you’ll have a year of biology under your belt. review your old notes and use whatever method of memorization works best for you.

tip 2: thinking both big and small (a.k.a. e and m)

the biology sat is actually split into two different tests: one that focuses more on ecology (biology-e) and one that focuses more on molecular biology (biology-m). both tests share the first 60 questions in common, which will be a grab bag of classification sets* and multiple choice questions from all fields of biology. then, questions 61-80 will be about topics in ecology, while questions 81-100 will be about topics in molecular biology. you do not answer all 100 questions. if you’re taking the ecology version, you fill the lines 61-80. but if you’re taking the molecular biology version, you skip lines 61-80 and fill in lines 81-100.

you have a sense of which biology topics you prefer. the college board has practice versions of both tests, so you can see for yourself which types of questions you more enjoy answering.

when you register for the test, you don’t need to specify whether you’re taking the e or m version of the biology sat. you make that decision on test day and mark it on your test’s answer sheet. keep in mind that you only have 60 minutes to answer 80 questions. you will want to know going into the test which section you want to take so you don’t waste any time.

however, you need to know both ecology and molecular biology to get a perfect score. the 60 questions that the biology-e and biology-m test share will contain both types of questions. the shared questions won’t go into as much detail as the section-specific questions, but they’re still there. don’t neglect reviewing how dna is structured just because you’re taking the ecology test.

here’s a couple of sample questions: two from the shared section, one from the ecology-specific section, and one from the molecular biology-specific section.

shared, question 1
which of the following correctly explains how a favorable genetic trait can increase in frequency in a population?

(a) lamarck’s principle
(b) natural selection
(c) adaptive radiation
(d) genetic recombination
(e) segregation of alleles

shared, question 2
atp is produced during which of the following processes?

i. photosynthesis
ii. aerobic respiration
iii. fermentation

(a) i only
(b) ii only
(c) i and iii only
(d) ii and iii only
(e) i, ii, and iii

e-specific, question 3
which of the following individuals is most fit in evolutionary terms?

(a) a child who does not become infected with any of the usual childhood diseases, such as measles or chicken pox
(b) a woman of 40 with seven adult offspring
(c) a woman of 80 who has one adult offspring
(d) a 100-year-old man with no offspring
(e) a childless man who can run a mile in less than five minutes

m-specific, question 4
which of the following most accurately reveals common ancestry among many different species of organisms?

(a) the amino acid sequence of their cytochrome c
(b) their ability to synthesize hemoglobin
(c) the percentage of their body weight that is fat
(d) the percentage of their body surface that is used in gas exchange
(e) the mechanism of their mode of locomotion

tip 3: it’s more than a game of memory

yes, a lot of the questions will fall into the “you either know it or you don’t” category. but there will be some questions that will be ask you to think like a scientist. you’ll have to interpret data from an experiment and draw the right conclusion. there aren’t a lot of those types of questions on the biology sat, but they do appear.

in addition to the review questions provided by the college board, there’s also another source you can brush up on this skill that may catch you by surprise: the act.

the act has a science section, but rather than test you on academic knowledge (like the science subject sats do), they test you on scientific logic. they give students some background reading, experimental setups, and tables and graphs galore. you can see some of those examples in their practice guide.

granted, the act provides much more background knowledge than what the biology sat does. however, the basic data analysis skills are similar between the two tests. give science passages i and ii a shot and see how well you do.

and now for something completely different.

the post tips for sat biology subject test appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

what time does the sat end?

short answer: you should expect to stay there until around 12:00 pm if you don’t plan on writing the essay, around 1:00 pm if you do. you should read this post if you want to know all the details about what test day is like.

however, you should be a little flexible with your time. maybe your proctor is a pro at this kind of thing, and knows how to assign seats, hand out forms, and do all kinds of proctor-things very efficiently, so you’re out right on time. maybe your proctor is doing it for the first time and flubs reading some instructions, or ends up being a little more lenient with when breaks end. these little things can add up, so you might be out around 1:30 pm.

having an inexperienced proctor is an unlikely scenario, but you should plan on it anyway. if you want to make plans, make them with the expectation that you’ll be leaving the test center around 1:30 pm. adjust accordingly if you don’t plan on taking the essay. but you really should just go ahead and write the sat essay.

what time does the act end?

short answer: you should expect to stay there until 12:00 pm if you don’t plan on writing the essay, around 1:00 pm if you do. you should read this post on what time the act starts if you want to know all the details about what test day is like.

yes, i did pretty much just copy/paste that paragraph, but everything that’s said about the sat pretty much applies to the act. they test you on different topics, but the overall structure of both tests is very similar. you have your multiple choice questions for the first 3 hours, with breaks, and then an optional essay at the end.

you should also plan on having an inexperienced proctor if you want to make plans for the rest of that day, like we did above.
 

what if i qualify for extended time? when will the test end then?

on the sat: depending on the sections that you requested extra time on, add that amount to the test. if you requested 50% extra time on all sections of the test, expect to be there 4 hours and 30 minutes if you don’t plan on writing the essay, 5 hours and 45 minutes if you do.

on the act: the act is interesting in that you get one block of extended time to spend on all the sections, including the essay. if you requested 50% extra time, you will get just over an extra 1 hour 45 minutes to spend as you will. you could choose to spend only 10 more minutes on the math section, but an hour on the reading passages. you do whatever you feel you need to do.

there are a lot of different cases for extended time. if you have further questions, contact the sat, act, or your guidance counselor for more information.
 

okay, but when does it end? when does it end, jon?!?!

standardized testing can be like a dark tunnel with no end. you spend months preparing, and hours taking both the practice test and real test. but maybe something didn’t sit right when you were taking the test, and you immediately know that you could do a lot better. like 100 points better on the sat. or 3 points better on the act. so you gear up for another round of prep. schedule a retest whenever you can and continue practicing.

however, if it’s june of your junior year and you want to re-test, be cautious. the regular testing season is over, and the next exam will be either september or october of your senior year. college applications need to be sent in january or february, possibly even early november if you plan on applying early decision. if you’re going to retake the act or sat, make sure you do it by the beginning of your senior year, no later than early october. you don’t want test prep to interfere with keeping up your gpa or writing a strong college essay.
 

the post what time do the sat and act end? appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

in the latest installment of “jon explains subject tests he took over 15 years ago,” we hit on the chemistry sat subject test today. it’s one of my favorite subjects, because things elegantly fall into place once you have the fundamentals down. and let’s be honest, some of those chemical reactions are pretty cool to watch. like combining potassium perchlorate and a 5 pound gummi bear.

(if you can’t read the text it says on the bottom of the gif, it says, “this is awesome, but don’t do this at home. ever.” be safe folks.)

the chemistry sat subject test though…not fun. luckily, it’s relatively straight forward to study for.

i’m assuming that you are either taking chemistry this year, or have at least one year of high school chemistry under your belt. the test basically covers everything you learn in a first-year chemistry class. (although you’ll likely feel more comfortable if you’re in or have taken ap chem.) your best bet in terms of prepping for the content the test expects you to know is to review your old notes and tests.

the format of the test is different than you might expect. it’s multiple choice for the most part (i’ll get into that a bit later), so you don’t need to worry about coming up with the exact correct answer to 3 sigfigs entirely on your own. but before you start reviewing, read these tips so you know how the test is structured and what you should be on the lookout for. as always, i’ll be taking questions from the college board’s website.

let’s get started, shall we?

tip 1: math is easy on the chem sat, but super easy to mess up.

repeat after me. you are not allowed to use a calculator on the chemistry sat subject test. you might have used it for your tests and homework, but you are forbidden from whipping it out on test day. but this is also kind of a good thing, because the college board is not as sadistic as you think they are. since you’re not allowed to use a calculator, they made the math really easy. take question 9 in the multiple choice section (albeit with a slight modification).

the hydrogen ion concentration of a solution prepared by diluting 50 ml of 0.10 m hno₃ with water to 0.5 l of solution is:

(a) 0.0010 m
(b) 0.0050 m
(c) 0.010 m
(d) 0.050 m
(e) 1.0 m

this is a straightforward solution dilution problem. maybe you used the m₁v₁ = m₂v₂ formula for figuring out the concentration of the hydrogen ion. or you went and figured out how many moles of hydrogen ions there were in hno₃ and recalculated the concentration based on the new volume.

did you notice that the two volumes of solutions aren’t in the same units? that’s something you have to take into account. also, what about all these zeroes? it’s super easy to lose a zero or add one zero too many when you’re working with decimals.

for a question like this, your first instinct should be to make sure everything you’re working with a consistent set of units. then, i’d convert whatever you can into scientific notation, especially if it has a lot of zeros. in this case, i would convert the initial 50 ml into 5 x 10^-2 l and then work out my formulas. remember that you add exponents if you’re multiplying powers of 10, and that you subtract exponents if you’re dividing.
 

tip 2: have a game plan for the first 40 questions of the chemistry sat subject test.

so remember how i said that the test is multiple choice, for the most part? here’s where we get into that. the test has three different types of questions. you have your typical multiple choice questions, like the example shown above. you also have classification sets questions and relationship analysis questions.

the first 25 questions you’ll encounter are classification sets. the test gives you a set of five answer choices and then asks you a couple of questions. for example, questions 10-13 in this section:

(a) ar
(b) o
(c) s
(d) ti
(e) u

10. has electrons in f orbitals
11. has the electron configuration 1s²2s²2p⁶3s²3p⁴
12. has the same number of electrons as ca²⁺
13. is the least chemically reactive

for each question, you pick an answer choice from the five they give you. when you answer these questions, you’ll notice that not every answer choice they give you will be used. also, you may notice that some answer choices are used more than once. the test is playing off your urges to use all the choices once before repeating. aside from these little tricks, these are pretty easy to answer.

the next 15 questions are the relationship analysis questions. these are the questions test takers are most uncomfortable with because they’re the most unfamiliar. in addition, the bubbles you fill in are at the very end of your answer sheet, starting at question 101.

for each question, you’re given two statements and you’ll be asked if each one is true or false. then you have to figure out if statement ii is the reason if statement i is true. for example:

i. the rate at which sugar dissolves in water increases with stirring because
ii. stirring exposes the surface of a solute crystal to a less concentrated layer of solution.

statement i is true, so you bubble in t in the first column. statement ii is true, so you also bubble in t in the second column. finally, statement ii is the reason why statement i is true, so you also bubble in ce.

where this gets a little tricky is when both statement i and statement ii are both true, but statement ii doesn’t cause statement i, like in this example here:

i. potassium has a lower first ionization energy than lithium has because
ii. potassium has more protons in its nucleus than lithium has.

both statements i and ii are true, but statement ii isn’t the cause of statement i. therefore, you would only bubble in t in the first column and t in the second column. you leave the ce bubble blank. note that if either of the statements are false, or if both statements are false, then you can ignore the ce bubble entirely. you only care about the ce bubble if both statements i and ii are true.

after you’ve answered the last relationship analysis question, you start your traditional multiple choice questions. pay attention to the number that the multiple choice questions start, since they pick up immediately after the classification sets. the multiple choice questions usually start on the second column of your answer sheet, at question 26, . however, there have been some cases where they don’t start exactly at the second column, so keep your eyes peeled.
 

tip 3: you’re going to have to memorize some chemistry things.

like i mentioned before, the chem sat only gives you a periodic table with atomic masses. everything else you will have to conjure up from your memory. you won’t have to remember specific numbers, like the electronegativity of oxygen or the ionization energy of lithium, but you will have to be able to look at an element’s position on a table and predict whether it’s ionization energy or electronegativity will be high or low.

in addition to periodic trends, you’ll also need to know your polyatomic ions and your solubility rules down cold. you should also have a rough idea in your head what metals are strong oxidizing/reducing agents, versus those that are weak. they probably won’t ask you a question as straight forward as “which of the following compounds are insoluble?” but they may give you two starting reactants and ask you if all the products of the reaction are soluble or not.

it’s a lot to take in, but i’ve got faith in you. just channel jesse pinkman and repeat this to yourself over and over again.

answers to example questions:

tip 1: c (0.010 m)

tip 2: e (u), c (s), a (ar), a (ar)

the post tips for taking the chemistry sat subject test appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

tip 0: read this post on how to take the math 1 test.

there are differences between the math 1 and math 2 subject tests. however, a lot of the strategies i wrote about studying for the math 1 test will carry over to the math 2 test. look over those tips and try out some of the practice problems to get a head start on prepping for the math 2 exam.
 

tip 1: get friendly and freaky with functions.

there are a lot of questions about functions on the test. of the 28 questions that the college board provides, 11 of them are related to functions. and those questions usually go far beyond the usual “if f(x) = 2x + 1, what is f(3)?” variety. you should know the definitions of domain and range and understand how to apply them to any particular function the test throws at you (see question 15). you should know how to graph functions and find their maximum and minimum values (see question 9). and, you should know how to find a function’s inverse, or how to define a function given its inverse (see question 25).

in addition, there are also function word problems that you need to understand how to solve for as well. take question 21:

in january 1990 the world’s population was 5.3 billion. assuming a growth rate of 2 percent per year, the world’s population, in billions, for t years after 1990 can be modeled by the equation p=5.3(1.02)^t. according to the model, the population growth from january 1995 to january 1996 was:

(a) 106,000,000

(b) 114,700,000

(c) 117,000,000

(d) 445,600,000

(e) 562,700,000

hey! this looks a lot like one of those “real-life application” questions at the end of the textbook chapter that you skip over because ain’t nobody got time for that. make time for them now, since these type of questions will pop up in the math 2 test. luckily, this question gave you the function, so it’s up to you to figure out for what values of t you want to evaluate. once you have that, you’re pretty much good to go.

tip 2: seek out the right triangle.

in addition to there being a lot of function questions, there are also going to be a lot of geometry questions. taken together, functions and geometry will be about ⅔ of your test, maybe even more. they will link together different aspects of basic geometry, like finding the volume of a 3d solid, and coordinate geometry, like finding the area of a shape with vertices at (x1, y1) (x2, y2) etc. that’s square one.

#geometryjokes #sorrynotsorry

then, they will throw things like question 7 at you:

a right circular cylinder has radius 3 and height 3. if a and b are two points on its surface, what is the maximum possible straight-line distance between a and b?

(a) 3√6

(b) 3√5

(c) 6

(d) 3√3

(e) 3√2

chances are pretty good that if you’re given a geometry question without an obvious pathway or formula for solving it, you’re going to want to find a right triangle somewhere. you’ll have to visualize 3d shapes in a slightly different way. you may even have to rotate them around in your mind to spot the right triangle. but rest assured it’s there. if you’re stuck, here’s a little hint that might help you out.

as a side note, sohcahtoa will be one of your best friends for coordinate geometry problems. check out questions 18 and 22 and you’ll see why.
 

tip 3: don’t forget about the small things.

while studying functions and practicing geometry will get you pretty far in the math 2 test, there are still a good chunk of questions left over. unfortunately, pretty much anything you learned in algebra, geometry, trig, and even pre-calc and statistics are fair game. fortunately though, the questions that they will ask are relatively straight forward and basic, like question 19.

for a class test, the mean score was 65, the median score was 71, and the standard deviation of the scores was 7. the teacher decided to add 5 points to each score due to a grading error. which of the following statements must be true for the new scores?

i. the new mean score is 70.
ii. the new median score is 76.
iii. the new standard deviation of the scores is 12.

(a) none

(b) i only

(c) ii only

(d) i and ii only

(e) i, ii, and iii

you don’t need to bust out any weird regression formulas, or even know the exact formula for calculating standard deviation. however, you do need to understand what happens when you change your data set. with this question, what actually happens to your stats when you add 5 points to everything?

a lot of these questions test you more on mathematical concepts than on actual calculations. don’t stress out about studying these topics in a great amount of depth. however, there are a lot of topics that fall into this category, including (but not limited to): statistics, probability, sequences, limits, vectors, and matrices.

it’s pretty enlightening to see how all these different math concepts play with one another. try and find links of your own and you’ll get a better understanding of how numbers behave. and it gives me an excuse to use this gif.
 

 
good luck!

answers to the practice problems above:
tip 1: c (117,000,000)
tip 2: b ( 3√5)
tip 3: d (i and ii only)
 

the post tips for sat subject test math 2 appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

with that out the way, here’s a couple of tips to keep in mind in order to get the best score you can. i’ll be referring to specific practice questions taken from the college board’s website, so take a look at them as you read along.

tip 1: get comfortable with a different type of word problem.

let’s be honest. there were math questions on the regular sat that were more like short stories. you had to read through a paragraph, make sure that you extracted the right information, and assembled that information in the right order to get to your answer. while you won’t see many of those longer questions on the math sat, you still have to make sure you’re setting up the problem right with less information. for example:

marigolds are to be planted inside a circular flower garden so that there are 4 marigolds per square foot. the circumference of the garden is 20 feet. if marigolds are available only in packs of 6, how many packs of 6 flowers are needed?

(a) 6

(b) 13

(c) 14

(d) 20

(e) 22

this question, #22 on the college board, has a lot of info to unpack. what do we know? well, we know that we have a circle. we also know that the circle has a circumference of 20 feet. we want 4 marigolds per square foot, and we also know that marigolds come in packs of 6, so those are definitely going to factor in somehow.

notice how the question doesn’t give you the radius or diameter of the garden. it also doesn’t tell you outright that you need to calculate the area of the garden. but in order to properly solve the question, you have to work out those numbers for yourself. the questions on this test expect more from you mathematically than on the regular sat, so prepare yourself for that.

tip 2: be extremely careful when you move equations around.

question #8, from the college board:

in the xy-plane, the points with coordinates (0, -5) and (6, -2) lie on line l. line p contains the point with coordinates (-5, 0) and is perpendicular to line l. what is the x-coordinate of the point where lines l and p intersect?

(a) -6

(b) -5

(c) -4

(d) -3

(e) -2

like the marigold question, this has a lot of things to unpack. you’ll need to figure out some slopes, the equations of two lines, and the solution to a two-equation system. you’ll have to juggle around a lot of formulas around, and things can easily get shuffled around.

it’s the shuffle that leads to wrong answers. the math sat knows the things that trip people up. you subtracted two numbers but forgot that the second number had a negative sign. you swapped the numerator and denominator in your fraction. you confused the slope of line l with the slope of line p. each of the answer choices the question gives you probably one of the solutions you get if you do the math correctly, but use the wrong starting numbers.

the path to the right answer is filled with potholes, so it’s your responsibility to make sure you don’t fall into them.

hey, we’re halfway through! have a gif to celebrate.

tip 3: connect the dots between different topics and different approaches.

many of the math sat questions will test you on multiple topics at once. there’s also usually more than one way to solve a question. let’s look at question #23 from the college board.

the line with equation y = 7 is graphed on the same xy-plane as the circle with center (4,5) and radius 3. what are the x-coordinates of the points of intersection of the line and the circle?

(a) -5 and 5

(b) -1 and 1

(c) 1.35 and 6.65

(d) 1.76 and 6.24

(e) 2 and 6

so how would you tackle this problem? some of you may be more comfortable with the algebra side of things. you remember how you figure out the formula for a circle, and plug in what you know to solve for your x-coordinates. but some of you may be more visual thinkers and draw out the circle and the line. both ways are perfectly fine ways to solve the problem.

the math sat links pieces of math together in interesting ways, so don’t get locked into a set way of thinking. you may start out working on a coordinate geometry problem, but then the test makers will throw some algebra or sohcahtoa in for fun. your geometry knowledge isn’t completely isolated from your algebra or your trigonometry knowledge, so expect to mix and match all the different topics you learned in one way or another.

tip 4: practice without a calculator, but know your limits.

no, you didn’t do anything wrong. and no, i’m not trying to punish you. but if you want to improve your numeracy (think literacy, but with numbers), you should work out most of the test questions by hand. look at this question, #13 from the college board.

the function f, where f(x) = (1 + x)^2, is defined for -2 ≤ x ≤ 2. what is the range of f?

(a) 0 ≤ f(x) ≤ 4

(b) 0 ≤ f(x) ≤ 9

(c) 1 ≤ f(x) ≤ 4

(d) 1 ≤ f(x) ≤ 5

(e) 1 ≤ f(x) ≤ 9

the question can be solved with a graphing calculator. plot your function, look at our defined domain (-2 ≤ x ≤ 2), and then look at its range. but sometimes, your graphing calculator will plot it over a much wider domain, say from -20 ≤ x ≤ 20. then, you have to fiddle around with the graph’s settings and make sure everything still makes sense.

but this question is just as easy to solve on paper as it is with a graphing calculator. since our function involves squaring, we know that f(x) ≥ 0 at all points. likewise, we know that f(x) = 0 at x = -1. therefore, we know the lowest value in our range is 0, given our domain.

by practicing the problem without a calculator, you get a better feel of how domain, range, and functions all relate to one another. knowing all this, how would you figure out the maximum value by hand? i’ll leave that to you to figure out.

granted, there will be some questions that shouldn’t be solved by hand. those questions will be pretty obvious though, saying things like “rounded to the nearest hundrendth” or “least-squares linear regression.” grant yourself the serenity to accept the things you cannot solve on paper, the courage to solve the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

answers to the practice problems above:
tip 1: e (22)
tip 2: e (-2)
tip 3: d (1.76 and 6.24)
tip 4: b (0 ≤ f(x) ≤ 9)
 

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