{"id":912,"date":"2013-03-08t10:00:06","date_gmt":"2013-03-08t10:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/?p=912"},"modified":"2018-10-24t03:21:07","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24t10:21:07","slug":"strange-symbols-in-sat-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/strange-symbols-in-sat-math\/","title":{"rendered":"strange symbols in sat math"},"content":{"rendered":"

just to make sure that everybody knows the college board is sneaky, they insist on putting weird, non-mathematical symbols into sat math sections. of course, they maintain that this is all in spirit of testing your school studies (it\u2019s not really, and that\u2019s probably why they\u2019re planning on eventually changing the test<\/a>).<\/p>\n

whadda you mean you don\u2019t understand what the little picture of the potato is for? you didn\u2019t learn that in algebra?<\/p>\n

the big problem is that a lot of test-takers look at symbols like that\u2014more often a heart or an arrow, really\u2014and think that there\u2019s some established mathematical meaning to it. it\u2019s tempting to imagine some advanced calculus you\u2019re just not privy too and assume the question is there for the really high-scorers.<\/p>\n

but that\u2019s not it.; the sat is just up to its typical shenanigans.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

when the symbol is a variable<\/h2>\n

the easiest symbols questions actually just use the shapes in place of variables. you might see something like this:<\/p>\n

\"{42+\"\"ssism_img1\"<\/a>\"*6}\/3=sqrt{28}\"<\/p>\n

if that\u2019s the case, just exchange x<\/i> for the twilight sparkle symbol and carry on as normal.<\/p>\n

it might be a little more complicated, though.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

when the symbol is a process<\/h2>\n

in this case, the symbol is really a lot<\/i> like a function. it\u2019s just shorthand for some process. you need to get rid of that shape, and in order to do that, you need to set up an equation in the pattern that the sat uses to define that shape.<\/p>\n

for example:<\/p>\n

for all positive integers <\/i>y, let\u00a0\"ssism_img1\"<\/a>y be defined as <\/i>\"{y^3}\/2\". what is the value of <\/i>(\"ssism_img1\"<\/a>\"2\")\"{}^2\"?<\/i><\/p>\n

in that case, just put in 2 for y<\/i> using the same pattern, careful to remember to include the exponent around the whole thing.<\/p>\n

\"({2^3}\/2)^2\"<\/p>\n

then, follow the rules to combine exponents<\/a> and it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

short and sweet<\/h2>\n

even the most difficult symbol problems usually boil down to replacing information. doesn\u2019t matter what the symbol is\u2014just plug in whatever other numbers or variables the question gives you to make it a more mundane looking math question, and you\u2019ll be just fine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

just to make sure that everybody knows the college board is sneaky, they insist on putting weird, non-mathematical symbols into sat math sections. of course, they maintain that this is all in spirit of testing your school studies (it\u2019s not really, and that\u2019s probably why they\u2019re planning on eventually changing the test). whadda you mean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[54,81],"ppma_author":[24883],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nstrange symbols in sat math - magoosh blog | high school<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/strange-symbols-in-sat-math\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"strange symbols in sat math\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"just to make sure that everybody knows the college board is sneaky, they insist on putting weird, non-mathematical symbols into sat math sections. of course, they maintain that this is all in spirit of testing your school studies (it\u2019s not really, and that\u2019s probably why they\u2019re planning on eventually changing the test). whadda you mean […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/strange-symbols-in-sat-math\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"magoosh blog | high school\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/magooshsat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-08t10:00:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-10-24t10:21:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/files\/2013\/03\/ssism_img1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"lucas fink\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@magooshsat_act\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@magooshsat_act\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"lucas fink\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"article\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/strange-symbols-in-sat-math\/#article\",\"ispartof\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/strange-symbols-in-sat-math\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"lucas fink\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/#\/schema\/person\/c06e6a007d0b81117c00610ed88b6c7d\"},\"headline\":\"strange symbols in sat math\",\"datepublished\":\"2013-03-08t10:00:06+00:00\",\"datemodified\":\"2018-10-24t10:21:07+00:00\",\"mainentityofpage\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/strange-symbols-in-sat-math\/\"},\"wordcount\":380,\"commentcount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"sat functions\",\"sat math section\"],\"articlesection\":[\"sat\"],\"inlanguage\":\"en-us\",\"potentialaction\":[{\"@type\":\"commentaction\",\"name\":\"comment\",\"target\":[\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/strange-symbols-in-sat-math\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"webpage\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/strange-symbols-in-sat-math\/\",\"url\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/strange-symbols-in-sat-math\/\",\"name\":\"strange symbols in sat math - 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