<p>Hey guys! As you may or may not know, the old SAT and the Red Book included Quantitative Comparison questions for the math section. If you are not familiar with this type of question, please look at the following sample:</p>
<p>
[quote]
</p>
<p>(n+3)^2 - 9 = y</p>
<p>n>0
[/quote]
That is the question.</p>
<p>These are the choices:</p>
<p>
[quote]
n^2 (first column)</p>
<p>y (second column)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Here are the instructions:
[quote]
You mark...
A if the quantity in Column A is greater.
B if the quantity in Column B is greater.
C if the two quantities are equal.
D if the relationship cannot be determined from the information given.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>(BTW the answer is B)</p>
<p>Here are my questions:</p>
<ol>
<li>Will doing these questions help with the current SAT?</li>
<li>Is it worth doing these questions to help with the current SAT?</li>
</ol>
<p>Any comments, stories, and experiences are welcome.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Doing those types of problems may help in an indirect way. </p>
<p>This problem required you to know several math concepts that pertain to the current SAT such as the fact (a+b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^2. </p>
<p>In answer is in fact B because by simply expanding the binomial on the left, you get (n^2 + 6n + 9) - 9 = y</p>
<p>That can be simplified to n^2 + 6n = y. </p>
<p>Clearly, n^2 is smaller than y; you have to add 6n to n^2 to get y. But what is n is negative? That’s covered by, since the problem explicitly states that n>0.</p>
<p>Bottom line: Depends on the problem. I haven’t seen enough quantitative comparison problems. </p>
<p>This particular problem involves binomial expansion, which is commonly found on the new SAT. Doing binomial expansion problems certainly won’t hurt :)! </p>
<p>In addition, this problem involves a little bit of number sense; if the problem didn’t state that n>0, then the answer would be D.</p>
<p>^ All true, but I’m not convinced that practicing these problems is an efficient use of time. You can explore the same concepts IN THE WAY THEY ARE CURRENTLY TESTED by practicing with more recent material. Blue Book, on-line course, QAS – anything college board. </p>
<p>(As a tutor, I miss the old comparison questions. They were easy to prep for. Oh, well…)</p>
<p>They might help give you an intuitive understanding of the problems on the new SAT involving exponents and everything…but considering that you’re allowed to use calculators, I doubt it’s worth the time. Just practice the modern kinds of problems.</p>
<p>Thank you guys for the responses.</p>
<p>Are there any people who have actually tried doing these questions in preparation for the SAT?</p>
<p>Other opinions are are still welcome.</p>
<p>Anyone want to chime in?</p>
<p>Where are you guys?</p>
<p>Well, the old-SAT questions really don’t have that much correlation other then a few over-running questions/concepts on both. But those are a few, so I wouldn’t personally (no offense) advise you to waste time on the old-sat questions.</p>
<p>Personally, I feel as though the questions mirror the “I, II, and III types of questions where they ask you which one is true”. Is anyone with me on this?</p>
<p>Only in the sense that you have to look for counterexamples that go against your number instincts (if you forget to consider fractions, negatives…)</p>
<p>But I would have to have used up all of my other resources before I would bother doing this. In fact, if you are working with old sats that still have these, I would recommend that you focus on the REST of the tests. But again, there are more recent, more relevant materials to be working with.</p>
<p>What exactly do you mean by:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>^He means - “have you seriously exhausted all of the new SAT study material?”</p>
<p>No, I agree with eclectic studying though.</p>
<p>^ Nothing wrong with the “eclectic” approach, as long as you are not too pressed for time. In fact, if you have time, I recommend any of a number of puzzle books by Martin Gardner and any of a number of logic books by Raymond Smullyan. The fact is that the more experience you have solving puzzles, the better. (Any one remember the SAT problem about the boxes of socks and how many you have to select to be guaranteed a matching pair?) I can’t prove it, but my hunch is that a couple of hours working with Martin Gardner’s puzzles would be a better use of time than spending them on those quantitative comparisons :)</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice pckeller!</p>