formats

LSAT Reading Comprehension: Timing the Hard Passages

Published on January 4th, 2012 by in LSAT
reading

If you have taken some practice LSAT tests, you’ve probably noticed that there always seems to be one nightmarish passage on every reading comprehension section.

The LSAT is designed that way: of the four passages on any reading comprehension section, one is redonkulously difficult, one is cake, and the other two are somewhere in between.

What’s the best way to handle the LSAT reading comprehension passage from hell? Skip it. Put it off until the end.

As with every other section of the LSAT, on the reading comprehension section you should try to get all of your easiest points first, putting off more difficult questions until the end. All LSAT questions count for one point, so why waste time on hard, low percentage questions when you could be spending the same amount of time snatching up easy points?

The last thing you want to do on any LSAT section is put so much effort into hard questions that you run out of time before you even get to look at the easy questions that dangle from the LSAT like low-hanging fruit.

For this reason, the ugly passage is particularly insidious when it appears first on the section. Students who blindly do the LSAT reading passages in order get bogged down right away. They find themselves ten minutes into the section, still trying to work out the convoluted language of the first passage. They are suddenly hit with the terrifying realization that the section is almost half over and they only have three answers bubbled in! They suffer a crazed panic that can lead to insanity or even medical school.

Don’t let it happen to you. Instead, as soon as you spot a difficult LSAT reading comprehension passage, calmly move on to the next one. Remember to reserve nine minutes at the end of the section to go back to the difficult passage. With practice, you will be able to quickly and easily spot the evil passages to skip- here are some warning signs that a passage is difficult:

  • Rather than being divided into short paragraphs, the passage contains large blocks of unbroken text.
  • The passage is packed with unfamiliar vocabulary words.
  • The sentences are long and winding with layers of complex clauses.
  • The subject matter is abstract, intangible, and difficult for you to easily summarize.
  • After reading the first few sentences, you can’t fathom what the main idea could possibly be or where the passage is headed.
  • The passage is longer than the others.
  • When you turn the page to the passage, you faintly hear a Lady Gaga song being sung by a demonic chorus.

Of course, some of this is subjective- certain passages that other students consider medium-difficulty may be extremely hard for you, perhaps because you have an aversion to the subject matter or for some other reason. Many students find the dual passage inherently difficult. Feel free to put off whichever passages you think will be the most trouble, so you can front-load the easy points.

Sign up for our Email Newsletter

 
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
comments  1 Comment »
formats

DePaul Rep Verbally Attacks Pencil Nerd

Published on January 3rd, 2012 by in Uncategorized
chairs

DePaul Rep and anti-SAT zealot Jon Boeckenstedt apparently has nothing better to do than blog about yours truly.

Once again, Boeckenstedt accuses me of supporting the use of objective academic tests in college admissions only because I “make my living” from test prep. I don’t- in fact, I have not worked in test prep in over two years (although I may soon be doing some part-time tutoring for a great company, but I will hardly be making a living from it). But Boeckenstedt never lets the truth interfere with his distorted worldview:

“I’m not anti-test. Tests do measure some things. But they don’t predict anything of much value by themselves, or even in addition to high school GPA. If you have done any research at all, you know this. But I doubt you have, and I doubt you are truly interested in the truth.”

I have provided links to research showing that SAT scores correlate with first year grades just as well as high school GPA, and that using both together produces a substantial improvement in prediction. Having students take a test on math, reading and writing actually measures how much they know and how good they are as students… go figure…

If you actually READ the research studies, you will see there is a key issue in methodology that makes all the difference. Most studies have a glaring flaw- they don’t adjust for the fact that students are first divided into narrow bands of SAT score (the very independent variable you are testing) by enrolling in particular colleges before they earn their first-year GPA, which obscures the relationship.

In other words, students were sorted into Harvard (or wherever) to begin with because they scored within a particular SAT score range. Within that narrow band, a kid who scored 2350 might not get a better first-year GPA than a kid who scored 2200 (or a kid who scored 1200 and went to Podunk U.). Studies that don’t adjust for this are worthless.

You can twist statistics and cite misleading studies to your heart’s content, but any honest person who has worked with kids and worked with the SAT (and I have tutored/taught thousands over the years) knows that the test is a fair assessment of academic skill.

“You suggest that I have an agenda. I don’t… I’m only trying to do what is best for students: To find a way to select those who are going to be successful at my university.”

Actually you have stated your agenda very clearly, and it is no secret. 52% of your 2010 incoming class consisted of what DePaul calls “mission students,” defined as “a first generation college student, low income, an underrepresented student of color or a student from the City of Chicago.”

Your mission may be well meaning, but let’s not lie to your loyal reader and say that you merely want to find the best students- if you did, you wouldn’t ask about the students’ race and income but would instead give them an objective academic test- something like, say, the SAT.

The mission should be to fix the public school system- to give every student a quality education and the skills to compete on a level playing field. The answer is not burying your head in the sand, pretending that disparities don’t exist, and writing absurdly disingenuous blogs about how objective academic tests don’t really measure much and that a student with a 3.5 GPA from one of America’s worst schools is a better student than a kid with a 3.0 from one of America’s top High Schools.

But instead, you believe that some kids just aren’t capable of competing and need to be socially promoted into DePaul’s freshman class:

“People here know that if you have at the core of your identity changing lives or helping people move from situations of bad to better, you have to give them an opportunity. You can’t judge them the same way as everyone else.”
-Jon Boeckenstedt

Sorry, I believe you can “judge them the same as everyone else,” and that DePaul really needs to examine some of the assumptions and stereotypes underlying this policy.

“To that point about our motivation: We’re reporting all the scores of all the students who enroll; but if we wanted to inflate scores, there are far easier ways to do it…”

Oh really? You are reporting scores for all of the students who enroll? I was under the impression that DePaul is test optional, and that students do not have to take the SAT at all to go to DePaul. So are you now requiring that all enrolled students sign up for and take the SAT after they are accepted so that you have a score for every student in your freshman class, which you then diligently report? Or is this just another lie from Jon Boeckenstedt?

“Whatever.”

Congratulations- this was your most intelligent argument.

 
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
comments  No Comments »
formats

Was SAT Cheater Sam Eshaghoff a Hero, Saving Lives?

Published on December 30th, 2011 by in SAT
sam_eshaghoff

Sam Eshaghoff, the SAT impersonator busted on Long Island, will appear on 60 Minutes this week. Rather than being contrite, Eshaghoff seems proud that he was able to “save kids’ lives,” by giving them high SAT scores.

This point of view shouldn’t surprise you. It is the same sort of Occupy-Wall-Street mentality that competition is illegitimate- that every kid is just as deserving of a high SAT score as the academically-privileged 1% who earn a top score.

Based on the clip of the interview released by CBS, Eshaghoff still sees the SAT test itself as the villain, and himself as the good guy:

“A kid who has a horrible grade-point average, who, no matter how much he studies is going to totally bomb this test. By giving him an amazing score, I totally give him… a new lease on life. He’s going to go to a totally new college… be bound for a totally new career… new path in life.”

It is a mentality that is fed by the likes of Jon Boeckenstedt, Joseph Soares, Robert Schaeffer, and thousands of other anti-SAT activists who use distorted statistics and lies to attack the SAT (and all objective standardized tests) as untrustworthy, biased, and unfair.

Even companies that make money from the SAT routinely attack the exam. Open any Princeton Review SAT book and you will find all sorts of ranting against the evil SAT, including the absurd mantra that the SAT doesn’t really test anything “other than the ability to take the SAT.”

60 Minutes will no doubt repeat the standard anti-test lie that the SAT “doesn’t predict first year grades any better than High School GPA.” This is completely false, and believing it requires ignoring contrary studies, ignoring the fact that the SAT is meant to be used in addition to GPA, and ignoring glaring design flaws in the studies that support it. But the lie has been repeated so often that most people blindly accept it (like the idea that the worst day of the year for domestic violence is Superbowl Sunday).

So where does that leave, Sam Eshaghoff? If you have been indoctrinated into the anti-SAT propaganda, then there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with helping kids cheat on an illegitimate test that would otherwise be cheating those kids out of the college admittance and future success to which they are entitled. From this perspective, Sam Eshaghoff really was a hero, saving kids’ lives.

Apparently the criminal justice system agrees. For all of District Attorney Kathleen Rice’s tough talk, Eshaghoff got a plea deal in which he will avoid any jail time. He will be sentenced to tutor low-income kids in SAT prep, so he can continue his life-saving work.

 
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
comments  7 Comments »
formats

Make Insanely Hard SAT, GRE, & GMAT Word Problems Easy With Common Multiples

Published on December 28th, 2011 by in GMAT, GRE, SAT
mathsmall

They are the types of math problems that chase you around with an ax through your most terrifying nightmares. When you see one on the SAT, GRE, or GMAT you want to scream with frustration and discombobulation.

They are SAT, GRE, or GMAT word problems that involve the intersection of one thing happening every nth time and a second thing happening every yth time. But these word problems are actually child’s play if you know one simple rule about common multiples.

Here’s an example:

In the town of Lindenberry, the Town Council meets every 4 days. The School Board, a separate organization, meets every 6 days. Neither group ever cancels a scheduled meeting for any reason. Last year the Town Council and the School Board both held meetings on January 1. How many more times last year did both the Town Council and the School Board meet on the same day?

Seem difficult? It’s actually a problem you could solve on you SAT, GRE, or GMAT in about thirty seconds if you know the rule.

Obviously the problem involves multiples. The Town Council is meeting every 4 days. So it will meet after 4 days, after 8 days, after 12 days, etc. There is no need to write this out on your SAT, GRE, or GMAT, but just to illustrate I will write out the first few multiples:

4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52…

The School Board meets every 6 days. I will write out the first few of those multiples:

6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54…

Notice the multiples the two lists have in common: 12, 24, 36, 48. What do you think will be the next one they have in common? If you guessed 60 then you see the pattern- the common multiples are multiples of 12. Here’s the broader rule:

The common multiples of any two numbers are all multiples of the first (smallest) common multiple.

We could have stopped after finding 12. Once you find the first common multiple, you know all the others. In our problem, the Town Council and the School Board hold meetings on the same day every 12 days.

Since there are 364 more days in the year after the January 1 meeting, and common meetings will happen every 12 days, the total number of common meetings for the rest of the year is 364/12 times. That is 30.3333. You can disregard the decimal portion because that represents only a portion of the days to the next common meeting. So, over the full year, there are 30 more common meetings.

The rule can be tested in many different ways on the SAT, GRE, and GMAT, but you no longer must live in fear of these types of word problems based on common multiples.

 
Tags: , , , , , , ,
comments  3 Comments »
formats

Law School Denied Accreditation For Low LSAT Scores Sues ABA

Published on December 23rd, 2011 by in LSAT
school1

The ABA is finally acting responsibly to protect law students- and getting sued for it.

As reported by the National Law Journal, The Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law is suing the ABA under antitrust laws for denying its bid for accreditation.

In its third year of operation, the law school’s first class had an average LSAT score of 149, and the next two classes averaged 147- well below the overall mean for all LSAT test takers. The ABA denied accreditation based in part on the rule that “A law school shall not admit applicants who do not appear capable of satisfactorily completing its educational program and being admitted to the bar.”

The school argues that eight other accredited law schools have lower average LSAT scores, and therefore Lincoln Memorial University is being arbitrarily victimized by the ABA.

But the school is missing the point entirely. The eight law schools that take students with even lower LSAT scores were probably accredited when the legal industry was still viable- when there were jobs available even for graduates of the lowest-tier law schools. But right now, the sad reality is this:

America does not need more lawyers.

There just aren’t enough jobs out there. The unemployment offices are littered with graduates from upper-tier law schools. Does anyone truly believe that graduates of the Duncan School of Law, even if they do pass the bar exam, have any hope of making a living as lawyers?

How could any sane person look at this economy and this industry and conclude that what we really need is another bottom-tier law school to stuff more JDs- ones that can’t even come close to getting an average score on the LSAT, mind you- into a ridiculously overcrowded marketplace?

In my view, this is a consumer rights issue. The ABA is stepping in to prevent Lincoln Memorial University from bilking consumers out of tens of thousands of dollars and three years of their lives in exchange for an utterly worthless degree that won’t give them a lawyer’s chance at heaven of finding a decent job.

Good for the ABA!

 
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
comments  No Comments »
formats

Are Weddings The Ultimate LSAT Game?

Published on December 20th, 2011 by in LSAT
weddings

Is it possible that Kim Kardashian staged her wedding not as a publicity stunt, but as a way of studying for her LSAT so she could follow in her father’s footsteps and become a lawyer?

It makes sense when you consider that weddings serve as a perfect example of the three major types of LSAT games.

Of course, every LSAT game doesn’t fit nicely into three categories. There are other, rarer types- like mapping or procedural games, there are combination games, and then there are the completely bonkers, anomalous games from hell that defy categorization.

But chances are at least three of the four games you’ll see on your LSAT test will be one of the following basic types (or some combination of these types):

Ordering- LSAT ordering games, as you might have guessed, ask you to put things in order. Eight runners finish a marathon in a particular order. Six students are arranged according to their SAT scores. Nine baseball players are put into a batting order, from first to last.

You get the picture- LSAT ordering games involve taking a single group of entities and putting them in order.

Matching- In LSAT matching games, you have two separate sets of entities (people, things, or characteristics) and you must match them to each other. For example, you might have six different cars and three different colors that you must match to the cars. Perhaps you must match diners to meals, or singers to songs.

The hallmark of LSAT matching games is that you are linking two (or more) different sets of entities.

Selecting- LSAT selecting is when you have one group of entities and you must pick out some of them. Out of five basketball players, two will be chosen as captains. A teacher chooses ten students out of a class of 15 to be in the school play. A man selects four types of flowers for a bouquet, from among a case with 8 different flower types.

In LSAT selecting games, you pick a few out of a larger group. LSAT students invariably ask, “isn’t this just a kind of matching game where you are matching a set of entities to the categories ‘picked’ or ‘not picked’?” The answer is yes- selecting is really just a type of matching, but it is useful to think of selecting as a distinct LSAT game.

Weddings? Weddings illustrate all three types of games beautifully.

First, the happy couple must decide who to invite to the wedding. They can’t possibly invite everyone they know. Instead, they must pick a certain number (say 100) from among the larger group of all their friends, acquaintances, and family members. This is the LSAT game of selection.

Next, the invited guests must be assigned to tables in the reception hall. Perhaps there will be ten tables set up. You now have two distinct sets of entities- tables and guests- and you must link them. This is a quintessential LSAT matching activity.

Finally, once you have matched the guests to their table, you must put out placards to indicate specifically where each guest will sit around the table. In other words, you must arrange the guests in order around the table. This is an LSAT ordering game.

After the reception, of course, the newly married couple goes off to enjoy their wedding night. This game does not fit into one of the major categories (although there are certainly elements of mapping and procedure). I’ll let you figure out the rules of this last game on your own.

Sign up for our Email Newsletter

 
Tags: , , ,
comments  No Comments »
formats

Who vs. Whom On The SAT

Published on December 19th, 2011 by in SAT
owl2

It doesn’t come up often on the SAT writing, but knowing the difference between “who” and “whom” might just get you a few extra points.

First I will tell you the difference between the two words, then I’ll give you a simple trick to ace these questions on the SAT writing multiple choice. But if you want a fuller explanation of this or any other grammar point, you should visit the spectacular home of my secret crush, grammar girl.

In a nutshell, “who” is a subject and “whom” is an object. In other words, use “who” when the word is performing an action. For example, “Who likes pizza?” Use “whom” when the word is being acted upon. For example, “I crashed into whom?”

“Whom” can also be used as the object of a preposition. For example, “After whom will I be speaking?”

The classic trick (I didn’t invent this- it’s been around forever) you can use on the SAT for determining whether to use “who” or “whom” is to replace the word with he/him. If “he” sounds right, you should use “who;” If “him” sounds right, you should use “whom.” Here’s an example:

Who/whom do you think will win tonight’s big game?

Which sounds better- he or him?

Do you think he will win tonight’s game?
Do you think him will win tonight’ game?

“He” sounds better, so you should use “who.”

Feel free to use the links below to share this post with whomever you choose…

 
Tags: , , , , , ,
comments  No Comments »
formats

Official GMAT Review App: Better Than an Ebook

Published on December 17th, 2011 by in GMAT
app

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Official GMAT Review physical book is exceptional- head-and-shoulders above any other official standardized test review book on the market. Now this spectacular book is available for the iPhone/iPad in the form of an interactive app, for what amounts to the same price as the book itself.

The Good- The Official GMAT Review app for iPad or iPhone makes studying for the GMAT more convenient. Rather than lugging around a bulky GMAT book, you can just whip out your iPhone and do some practice sentence correction questions while you are waiting on line at the bank; or try some reading comprehension questions when you have some downtime at work; or bang out a data sufficiency answer while stopped at a red light (But please use this product responsibly- If you are out studying for the GMAT with a group, make sure you have a designated driver).

One of the neatest features of the Official GMAT iPad app is the scratch paper option. It pulls up a sheet of graph paper that you can write on in order to solve math problems. You can grab the question into your scratch paper in order to interact with the question, answers, or accompanying figures. The app also comes with a simple, built-in calculator so there is no need for ancient tools like a pencil or paper. You never have to put down your iPad, even for math questions.

You can choose between a timed test mode, or a study mode which allows you to review the answers and explanations to each question immediately afterwards.

In addition to the practice GMAT questions, you get a the same math and grammar review that’s in the physical book, word-for-word. In fact because all of the questions, explanations, and reviews are taken directly from the physical book, I like to think of this entire app as essentially an interactive ebook

The Bad- The biggest complaint most people have about the Official GMAT Review app is a perceived lack of value for the $5 cost. Unfortunately you only get 50 practice GMAT questions to start with- ten each of problem solving, data sufficiency, sentence correction, critical reasoning, and reading comprehension.

Obviously you can’t study for the GMAT with just 50 practice questions. To get any use whatsoever out of this app as a serious study tool, you will have to shell out $10 a pop for extra, 250-question packs.

But if you think about it, the pricing is about right. To get all 800 questions contained in the physical book, you would need to buy three question packs ($30), in addition to your starter pack ($5), so the total cost ($35, but if you couldn’t calculate that on your own, you shouldn’t attempt the GMAT) is actually about the same as the physical book.

The problem is that they aren’t exactly up front about this- The App Store description does not inform you that it only comes with 50 questions. I can understand why people would be annoyed by paying $5 for an app that is useless without at least one $10 in-app purchase. A more honest approach would be to include all 800 questions up front and sell the app for $35. But who am I to question their pricing model- after all, they are the business experts.

The extras in the official GMAT Review app are underwhelming. You can look at some very basic stats to see how you performed on various sections. You can see the rankings of top-ten performers on each section, though I can’t imagine any earthly reason why you would want to know that “sakuraba74,” “dreamcar,” and “robin-hod” are the top three ranked scorers in the GMAT app. You can also visit the Official GMAT facebook, twitter, web site, or blog directly from the app, which is particularly useful for those accessing the app on a device that doesn’t come equipped with a web browser, like the iEtch-a-Sketch.

The Ugly- One aspect of the iPad app design is appallingly bad. In landscape mode the app features a navigation area on the left side of a split view. But when you switch to portrait, there is no way to pull up the navigation- there isn’t even a back button. The only way to get anywhere else is to switch back to landscape. But my app shouldn’t be telling me how to hold my iPad!

When you create a split-view controller on an iPad app you should provide a button to pull up a pop-over navigation panel in portrait mode. I don’t blame the Official GMAT Review app- this is something that should have been checked by Apple before this app was approved for the App Store. If Apple isn’t going to uphold its own standards for app interfaces, then they might as well just start selling Androids.

Overall Pencil Nerd Rating: 7 out of 10

Sign up for our Email Newsletter

 
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
comments  No Comments »
formats

SAT II Test Dead After Being Dropped By University of California?

Published on December 14th, 2011 by in SAT
graves

The SAT II subject tests are no longer an admissions requirement for applicants to the University of California system. The change is part of a new UC admissions formula, which proponents say is geared towards expanding diversity on University of California campuses.

But opponents argue that the change is an outrageous and discriminatory attempt to reduce the number of Asian-American students, who make up approximately 40% of undergraduates in the UC system.

According to Ling-chi Wang, former UC Berkeley professor, the new formula will mostly benefit white applicants:

“I like to call it affirmative action for whites… I think it’s extremely unfair to Asian-Americans on the one hand and underrepresented minorities on the other.”

The most controversial element of the new admissions formula was reducing the very top students who automatically qualify for admissions from the top 12.5% of students statewide to the top 9%. Meanwhile, students can now gain automatic admissions by being in the top 9% of their individual High School, as part of the “Eligibility in the Local Context” program.

Dropping the SAT II was also controversial in some quarters, as some claim that the SAT II subject tests were more fair to low income and minority students than the SAT. But others claim that dropping the SAT II requirement “will result in more ethnic and income diversity in entering classes without any loss of academic quality.” That’s because the SAT II tests are an additional barrier to admissions and, the theory goes, are highly coachable, which benefits wealthier students who can afford SAT II test preparation.

It’s hard to tell whether this is just wishful thinking, but Fairtest- an organization that you can generally tell is being disingenuous when one of its spokesperson’s lips are moving or fingers are typing- seems to believe that this could mean the death of the SAT II subject tests nationwide. According to Fairtest, over 37% of all SAT II subject tests were given in California in 2008, and outside of the UC system, only six dozen other admissions offices require the SAT II tests.

Could the loss of the UC system make the SAT II no longer financially viable and spell the death of the SAT II? Probably not. The top-ten schools- including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, CIT, MIT, Dartmouth, and Duke- require SAT II tests if students submit SAT scores rather than ACT scores.

Even at schools that don’t require the SAT II- like Stanford- they are still recommended and potentially helpful to an application. Take the University of California system as an example. Despite dropping the SAT II as an across-the-board admissions requirement, the SAT II is still recommended for all applicants at UC Irvine and applicants to certain programs- primarily math, science, and engineering- at Berkeley, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, and Santa Barbara.

So high school students and anti-test zealots around the country can stop celebrating- for now, the SAT II subject tests are still alive and well.

 
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
comments  No Comments »
formats

Top 5 SAT Math Guessing Strategies

Published on December 9th, 2011 by in SAT
guess

In case you missed the memo, you should absolutely guess on the SAT- freely, boldly, and aggressively. Here are five great strategies to help you make smart guesses and grab some free points on SAT math:

1.) On hard questions, cross out the obvious answer- The big SAT test prep companies built empires on teaching students this basic truth: on hard SAT questions, you can eliminate answers that are too simple.

How can you tell if the question is hard? All SAT math sections start out easy and get progressively harder. On SAT sections with both multiple choice and student-produced responses, each question type goes from easy to hard. Let’s say the following question is in the last third of an SAT question set:

17.) How many integers between 50 and 100 have at least one digit that is an 8?

A.) 5
B.) 13
C.) 14
D.) 15
E.) 50

You can probably immediately think of five numbers that fit the bill: 58, 68, 78, 88, and 98. But on a hard SAT question, it can’t possibly be that simple. Cross out choice A. You can also cross out choice E, which is just 100 minus 50, also way too simple.

With almost no work at all you have narrowed it down to three choices and stacked the odds in your favor. (The right answer is Choice C, 14. The numbers are: 58, 68, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, and 98).

2.) Measure the picture- On the SAT, unless a figure specifically states that it is not drawn to scale, you can assume that it is drawn to scale. Thus, if you don’t know how to get the answer through math, you can sometimes just measure the line, angle, or area you need in the picture.

Math diagram
15.) In the figure above, line ED = 2, and the area of Square ABCD is 25. What is the area of the shaded region?

A.)7.5
B.)12.5
C.)15.5
D.)17.5
E.)18.5

If you are at a loss for how to solve this problem using SAT math, you can use the fact that the figure is drawn to scale and measure from the picture. It looks like the upper half of the square is shaded in, plus a bit less than half of the remainder. If the whole square is 25, then the upper half of the square is 12.5. You can estimate that the rest of the shaded area is about 5.5, for a total of 18.

With very little work, you have narrowed your choices down to Choice D or Choice E. You now have a 50/50 shot at an SAT question that you have no idea how to solve mathematically.

3.) On questions involving two legs of a journey, eliminate the simple average- The SAT loves to give you average speeds for two separate legs of a journey and then ask you for the average speed for the entire journey. On these questions, you can automatically cross out the obvious average of the two legs:

22.) Jamie drove to the mall at an average speed of 20 miles per hour. She returned from the mall at an average speed of 30 miles per hour. What was her average speed, in miles per hour, for the entire trip to the mall and back?

A.) 10
B.) 15
C.) 24
D.) 25
E.) 50

The answer won’t be 25, so cross out Choice D. It is never just the average of the two legs.

If you use common sense, you can answer this question with no work at all! The average for the entire trip can’t be slower than both the average speed going there and the average speed going back, so you can eliminate Choices A and B. Similarly, the total average can’t be faster than the average for the two parts, so you can eliminate Choice E. Thus, the answer is Choice C, 24.

4.) Use your common sense- Contrary to what critics of the SAT may tell you, the SAT is not some inscrutable exam that is totally devoid of earthly logic. In fact, you can use your common sense to great effect on the SAT. Here’s an example:

13.) The ratio of male to female students at a certain school is 9:11. If there are 462 female students, how many male students are there at the school?

A.) 205
B.) 378
C.) 462
D.) 489
E.) 516

Let’s say you draw a blank on how to do ratios and can’t solve this mathematically. You can still apply common sense. If the ratio of male to female is 9 to 11, it means there are more females. Thus, the number of males must be smaller than 462. Therefore, you can eliminate Choices C, D, and E.

Now ask yourself- are the males a little smaller or a lot smaller than 462? The ratio, 9:11 is pretty close, so the males are only a little smaller. Choice B would be the smartest guess (and it is the right answer).

5.) Choose the answer that is most similar to the others- This tip is based on the observation that the SAT sometimes tries to camouflage the right answer by offering very similar wrong answer choices. In other words, the right answer doesn’t stand out from the crowd.

If you have nothing else to go on, you can try to gain a slight statistical edge by guessing the choice that is most similar to the others. For example, let’s say these are your choices:

A.) -5x + 3
B.) [-x]
c.) 243
D.) 3x + 2
E.) -X – 3

Here, A, D, and E are the most similar to each other, so if you are completely stumped on the problem, guess one of these.

WARNING- none of these guessing strategies works every time. Can they help you steal a few extra points? Sure. Will they get you into Harvard or raise your score by 300 points the way many SAT test prep companies and SAT critics would have you believe? Absolutely not. Your best bet for a great SAT score is to put in the hard work of learning the math skills you need to excel on the SAT.

 
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
comments  No Comments »
« Older Entries
 
© Pencil Nerd's Test Prep Blog
credit