December 2014 ACT Discussion Thread

<p>@testtaker09 I would explain the answer to you, but I can’t.
I’m not quite sure how to explain your error without being too specific… But this question should help you understand where you went wrong.
Consider triangle ABC, where angle CAB has a measure of 150 degrees. If angle ABC has measure y degrees and angle BCA has measure z degrees, what is y + z? What is tan(y + z)?</p>

<p>tan(y+z)= (tany+tanz)/1-(tany)(tanz)</p>

<p>that’s the tan(y+z) formula. Its a sum and difference identity. Its not as simple as adding the tan of y plus tan of z or adding y + z and finidng the tan of that.</p>

<p>This is from an old CC post, the December 2013 curve:
ENGLISH:
36: -0, -1
35: -2, -3
34: -4
33: -5, -6
32: -7
31: -8
30: -9
MATH:
36: -0
35: -1, -2
34: -3
33: -4
32: -5
31: -6
30: -7, -8
READING:
36: -0
35: —
34: -1
33: -2
32: -3, -4
31: -5
30: -6
SCIENCE:
36: -0, -1, -2
35: -3, -4
34: -5
33: —
32: -6
31: -7
30: -8</p>

<p>@testtaker09 IDK you are still not seeing it yet. If y + z = 30 degrees, what is tan(y + z)? There is a magical algebra concept being used here. It is called SUBSTITUTION. </p>

<p>The question asking about the area between the two shaded lines was difficult for me. I had to use calculus and solve it. I got 21 anyone else get anything close to that?</p>

<p>@meandmycat‌ </p>

<p>There is no way -8 on science will be a 30.
That’s way too generous.
Other than that I think your prediction is reasonable</p>

<p>You could have just made 12 tiny triangles but yeah that’s what I got</p>

<p>@FriendlyChemist‌ this was my first time taking the test but that curve seem reasonable. Considering I’m pretty smart and this is a standardized test they need to compensate if someone at my level felt they barely got 3/4 of them right. I was doing great IMO up until that section. </p>

<p>@Urabus‌ @xxjmodxx‌ I just drew a square that encompassed the shaded region, and two triangles that were not shaded. Square[area]-two triangles not shaded[area]=Shaded[area].</p>

<p>You didn’t have to know any formulas. 2cos(pi/2 - b) = 2. pi/2-b must equal 0 or 2pi, thus b must equal pi/2 or (-3pi/2). Likewise, 2sin(a) = 2. a must equal pi/2. a + b can either be pi/2 + pi/2 [pi] or pi/2 + (-3pi/2) [-pi]. The only answer choice that matched with one of these answers was pi. There was no need for any trig formulas, only basic knowledge of sin and cosine.</p>

<p>semitransparent or semi transparency for the aero-gel question? Could you guys explain answer?</p>

<p><em>reads</em> OH THANK GOODNESS.Apparently the hard questions that I guessed on were right. <em>sigh of relief</em> I do agree that that one question with the whole cos (a + b) was extremely difficult though. </p>

<p>Reading over, I really fear now that I bombed the science. Some parts were odd to me but overall it felt like it was typical… so just my luck I was totally wrong. I mean, it definitely did feel more obtuse than normal but I stuck to reading the graphs and answering the questions and that seemed to work for me, finished with a few minutes to spare.</p>

<p>guys were there any Bs or Gs in the last 10 for math cause i just guessed the same later as i ran out of time</p>

<p>Same here. I got ~45 for the lighthouse’s distance problem and 4 students for that grade average problem.</p>

<p>I put down to establish the relationship between the two. @Tyler3418</p>

<p>When do scores come out?</p>

<p>@CaptJack If you’re lucky, less than 2 weeks (9 days to be exact).
If you’re unlucky, like me, it will probably be 8 weeks (or a retake) because there was an incident of cheating at my test center. </p>

<p>@Dynasty21 Semitransparent</p>

<p>@CaptJack Decemember 23rd</p>