category: sat

  • [redirected] sat math friday – coordinate plane challenge

    every now and then, the sat gets really diabolical and throws a coordinate geometry question without the coordinate plane. to make matters worse, the question is usually difficult to begin with—even if you had the plane. the key is to translate the information by drawing out a mini-coordinate plane. remember, this is a timed test,…

  • sat vocab friday – super confusing words

    many people learning english claim that our language is illogical. they’ll usually point the finger at spelling, saying that the laws are so irregular that they are not of much use. you might agree with them—somewhat. but in general, you’ve grown up spelling most words, so it’s not that big of a deal. but now—with…

  • best strategies for sat reading comprehension

    below you’ll find a list of the absolute best sat reading tips out there to help you crush the new sat, starting with our top 5 strategies for the test. keep reading on for our advice on how to avoid common wrong answers on the sat, special tips for the vocabulary in context questions, and…

  • [video post] sat scoring and pacing

    in these last several pages, you’ve probably learned several surprising facts (and i’m not just talking about the fact that someone would actually name a bunch of smart kids “termites”, after “term”an, of course). not to be outdone on the “surprise index” is the following tidbit: every question on the sat is worth the same…

  • how long should i study for the sat?

    this is a big question. the answer depends who you are as a student: where do you want to attend college? how big of a score improvement are you looking for? how do you study? let’s break it down:

  • how is the sat learnable?

    you know how if you take most of the summer off, hanging out and what not, that in those first few weeks of school your brain is, ah, sort of slow? well, that’s not surprising. your brain hasn’t gotten a mental workout and so has lost the edge it had when you were preparing for…

  • [video post] what’s on the sat?

    the sat exam is a popular college admission test that allows universities to compare your knowledge to the knowledge of other college applicants, in a standardized manner. the sat tests reading, writing, and math in a way that requires students to apply knowledge learned in the classroom in a new way. up until this point,…

  • [video post] a history of the sat

    there are few three-letter combinations that evoke such a potent mix of fear and disgust,  (or, in sat-speak, trepidation and revulsion). first off, the sat has a troubled history, one that reaches as far back as the 19th century—depending on whom you ask. then there is the unavoidable reality of the sat: if you want…

  • sat math: the fundamental counting principle

    knowing this rule–or principle as it is called–will make certain questions on the sat much, much easier. before i tell you the rule though, let’s take a look at the following scenario. jane has white socks, red socks, and black socks (she must be a baseball fan!). additionally, she has four different shoes: tennis, basketball,…

  • sat reading comprehension – parallel reasoning

    a really difficult type of question on the sat has you take a scenario discussed in the passage and choose which of five hypothetical scenarios it is closest to. as you probably guessed, these five hypothetical scenarios make up the five answer choices. the passage below is already quite tricky, and the question below it…