Dr. Steve's SAT Math Problem Thread for the Revised SAT

@MITer94 I think there’s a little more to it than that. This problem involves more than 2 steps. Regardless of which method you choose to solve this, you will have to manipulate the equations algebraically first. If you choose to use your graphing calculator you will need to solve both equations for y (and also if you solve by substitution). If you choose to use the elimination method or Gauss Jordan reduction, you will have to bring all the variables to the left. On the current version of the SAT you would always need only 1 or 2 steps to solve the problem.

So this problem is testing

(1) algebraic manipulation
(2) finding the unique solution to a system of equations
(3) evaluating an expression at a given point

I don’t think that there has been an SAT problem that required all 3 of these skills in 1 problem. If there is one, it would most likely be a rare Level 5 problem. If you have one I would be really curious to see it.