---------- PART I - About The SAT Math Test ----------
I want to break down the whole SAT math test and show you what it’s composed of, what it tests, and how to ace to it. The first thing to realize is that the SAT math test has changed its focus to mainly test students on algebra and problem-solving using real-world scenarios. The majority of it covers Basic Algebra and Advance Algebra. Therefore, most of the concepts in these two divisions of math are fair game. And there are a lot of concepts. But, the good news is that you’ve already learned all or most of these concepts in school. The new SAT has really become aligned to your school curriculum. It basically covers most of Grade 11 Math and a tiny bit of Grade 12 Math.
Here are the main categories on the SAT Math Test:
From this table, we can see that the additional topics only make up for 10.34% and the rest of the topics account for 89.66% of the total questions in the math section. This is very key for us to know, as it will guide our strategy for the math section.
---------- Calculator and No-Calculator Portions----------
The math test will be Section 3 and Section 4 of the whole SAT and will consist of portions where you will be allowed to use a calculator and portions where you will NOT be allowed to use a calculator. Don’t let this scare you, as most of the questions will be solvable without calculators. The calculator will mainly be for questions which give you ugly numbers with decimal places or things like the quadratic formula. In general though, the questions in the no-calculator portion will be solvable more faster than the questions in the calculator portions.
---------- Types of Questions ----------
The majority of the questions in each section will be multiple-choice, accounting for 80% of all the questions. Each multiple-choice question will have four options to choose from, with only one correct or best answer. Remember, that there will be NO penalty for guessing wrong. So, make sure to answer each and every question.
The other type of question is the grid-in response question (20% of the total questions), which is basically a question without answer choices for you to choose from. For this type of question, you have to come up with the answer and write it in appropriately on the answer sheet. Again, NO penalty for getting wrong answers. One major thing to note for this is that you must write your answer in the grid-in boxes provided and also fill-in the appropriate bubbles underneath – otherwise, you won’t get the credit!!
---------- Heart of Algebra ----------
The point of this category is to see if you can demonstrate both procedural skill and a thorough understanding of linear equations, linear functions, and linear equalities. This is accomplished by asking you to solve straightforward questions or challenging questions. Remember that a lot of these concepts can and will be asked in many different ways. So, it’s a good idea to practice with as many questions as you can to get an idea of how to solve the same concepts in different contexts.
Here, we have outlined these concept: It is important to note that many Heart of Algebra questions will ask to solve for the following:
- Define one or more variables
- Determine the algebraic relationship between the variables
- Solve for the required variable
- Interpret the results to answer what the question is specifically asking
There will be a total of 19 questions for this category – 11 for the Calculator portion and 8 for the No-Calculator portion.
---------- Problem Solving and Data Analysis ----------
This section tests your ability to understand and represent data. This means that you have to pay attention to things such as units, measurements, ratios, trends, and principles of statistics. Some questions may be as simple as reading a value off of a graph, whereas, other questions may ask you to calculate something, like the probability of occurrence of a particular event. You will definitely have to know how to read data from line graphs, bar graphs, histograms, box-and-whisker plots, scatterplots, and two-way tables (categorical data).
Here is a table of all the concepts covered in this section:
For some concepts, you simply have to understand them, rather, than calculate them. For example, you will not be expected to calculate standard deviation, but, will be expected to know that a large standard deviation means the data is more spread out from the mean. You will NOT be asked to calculate standard deviation, margin of error, or confidence intervals. But, you must understand what these concepts mean. Another important thing to note here is that in statistics, confidence intervals other than 95% can be used, but the SAT questions will always use 95% confidence levels.)
There will be a total of 17 questions for this category – all for the Calculator portion.
---------- Passport to Advanced Math ----------
This category is all about understanding the structure of expressions and being able to manipulate them to solve for different variables. This also means that you have to understand what the variables represent. Basically, this section tests concepts that build on the concepts tested in the Heart of Algebra category. You are further expected to know the basics of equations, functions, and polynomial algebra. Yes, this means that all those things you hate – fractions, radicals, and exponents – are all tested!
Here is a table with all the concepts tested in this section:
The SAT Math test uses the following Cartesian plane assumptions for any graph on the xy-plane:
- The axes are perpendicular and the scales are linear.
- The values on the horizontal axis increase as you move to the right.
- The values on the vertical axis increase as you move up.
Note that this means that you CANNOT assume that the size of the units or measurements on the two axes is the same (unless the question specifically states that they are).
When you begin your prep for the SAT math section, make sure you master Heart of Algebra before moving on to this section.
There will be a total of 16 questions for this category – 7 for the Calculator portion and 9 for the No-Calculator portion.
---------- Additional Topics ----------
This section covers topics in geometry and trigonometry. It also covers complex numbers. The good thing here is that a lot of the geometry formulas are provided for you, so, you don’t have to memorize a lot. Remember, that this section only makes up about 10% of the total Math test (6 questions out of 58). So, don’t go spending more time prepping on this section than the other sections!
Here are the concepts:
One important thing to note in this section is that figures ARE drawn to scale unless explicitly stated otherwise (which is totally opposite from the Old SAT).
There will be a total 6 questions for this category – 3 for the Calculator portion and 3 for the No-Calculator portion.
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