SAT Math: How To Reach That Glorious 800?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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Hello all!,

First-time poster here!

So, I’m studying for the SAT using Princeton Review. I’m starting off with the Math section, because I figured it’d be the easiest to study for. I originally took the test the end of my sophomore year with and got an 1870 (CR: 580; M: 620; W: 670), but I really want a 2400. My test is in June, and I wanted to ask for some advice as to how to perfect my math score, or any other part of the test.

Before, I used to fall into the whole gimmicky approach to getting the right answer, but I’ve realized that that approach is caring more about the prospective score, and not the learning. I see it as cheating the test. I want to understand each problem conceptually, and not have to play this guess-game most test books advocate.

I encountered this problem in the Princeton Review 2015 Cracking the SAT:

A watch loses x minutes every y hours. At this rate, how many hours will the watch lose in one week?

I have no idea how the solution was even approached (Answer: 14y/5x). The methodology used was (guess what?) guessing.

I really don’t want to have to take my chances with this test. It feels illegitimate to use the proposed solving methods. Does anyone have any advice as to how to reach an 800, without having to use all this trickery? Any other advice on the other sections would be greatly appreciated as well!

Best,

Anthony

P.S.: Also, can anyone solve the problem by explaining?

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Lose x minutes every y hours
<–> lose x/y minutes every 1 hour
<–> lose 168x/y minutes every week (1 week = 168 hours)
<–> lose 168x/60y hours every week (60 minutes equals 1 hour).

168x/60y simplifies to 14x/5y.

Guessing/picking numbers is sometimes a good strategy if you are not very good at algebra, and even on some difficult math problems (e.g. significantly harder than SAT), picking numbers and trying small cases can let you more easily recognize some pattern, then you can prove that the pattern works. When I took the SAT, I almost never used this strategy (I might have used it on a couple problems to check my answer, but not in abundance).

Usually when a prep book advocates picking numbers to replace variables, you can almost always solve the problem in general like the way I showed above. In the above solution, just treat x and y as if they were constants.