<p>[q]While I would suggest to spend a bit of time looking at the problem before jumping to the dictionary, the result is the same. The key is to try to UNDERSTAND how the test works, to see WHY a minimum of TWO answers will be OBVIOUS bad choices, and why there is only ONE correct answer. Knowing the correct answer allows a student to uncover the relationships between the problem and answer choices. [/q]</p>
<p>Hi xiggi, i have met the opinion of making the right choice in questions related to vocabulary on the basis of knowing the test<code>s structure, patterns etc several times in this thread and i</code>m curious if i<code>ve misunderstood you. here are two questions from the March SAT, in which i made mistakes because of not knowing words proposed to be answer choices. i spent a little time on analyzing this questions and i couldn</code>t see anything to help me in answering the question. so, could you please illustrate your train of thought while answering this questions on the basis of patterns, test structure etc?</p>
<p>1) In young children, some brain cells have a ------- that enables them to take over the function of damaged or missing brain cells.</p>
<p>JackAss (your name for yourself, not mine), you're looking for a magic bullet that isn't really there. These questions pretty much come down to you either knowing the vocab words or you don't. </p>
<p>Sure, you should realize that since these are engineered to be hard questions that few people get right (they were #4 of 5 and #5 of 5 on the March test), you should be very suspicious of relatively well-known words like "fragility" and "acronym," but beyond that you gotta know the definitions. "knowing test structure and patterns" also refers to recognizing that "retraction" is a trap, because, although "retraction" is a word often used in the context of political parties and beliefs, it makes no sense in this sentence. </p>
<p>Again, the point is that you have to be very careful on the hardest sentence completions (which are ALWAYS placed as the last few) and you should probably lean towards the vocab words that seem the most obscure to you. I know this is counterintuitive.</p>
<p>Ok, I started working in this thing, did a section in CR, and unless I'm completely blind, there's no explanation section, just an answer key. How am I supposed to learn from my mistakes?</p>
<p>Studyhall.com offers explanations or, if you're willing to dig into your wallet, you can purchase the testmasters book with complete explanations.</p>
<p>Studyhall.com only has free explanations for 10RS. If you want explanations for the Blue Book (Official SAT Study Guide), you have three options: The College Board online course, the Testmasters explanation book, or Studyhall.com's "Beat the SAT in 24 Hours" service.</p>
<p>^ wow! thank you for these sites!! I was looking for explanations for the red book.</p>
<p>does anyone know the difference between the bluebook link above and the testmaster solution book? Is the testmaster book more comprehensive or..?</p>
<p>The studyhall.com answers are pretty perfunctory, though that may be all you need. The testmasters book has a more thorough discussion of each choice. I haven't looked at it carefully enough to say whether it reveals any strategy ideas; it is set up as a list of answers.</p>
<p>The Test Masters solutions book does not always point out good strategies for dealing with the math questions. For questions on which plugging in numbers might be a good approach, for example, Test Masters usually makes no mention of it, but instead shows the "straight" approach to solving the question. It does explain all the choices fairly thoroughly, but don't count the book to reveal lots of strategies.</p>
<p>Back that.
Besides not demonstrating SAT strategies, the book often does not provide a possible shortcut to answering the math question, giving instead, as Godot pointed out, the most direct (school math style), ineffiecient solution.
I mentioned on the other thread before that answering questions that way almost certainly guarantees not finishing the math section on time.</p>
<p>My problems are verbal and writing, and the testmasters book is on target for these sections. But some of the best math strategy in the testmasters course (which I took) is not mentioned in the solutions book. I asked my testmasters tutorial instructor about this, and he said in September Test Masters is releasing their 2nd edition of the Official SAT Study Guide Solutions, which has better explanations on the math among other major improvements.</p>
<p>I dunno ....wait for the 2nd edition of the solutions.</p>
<p>Also, consider Grammatix and Rocket Review and Grubers.</p>
<p>Hey Xiggi! I'm new here, but after seeing your awesome sat tips, I want to ask you advice on the CR section. I am a terrible reader and a slow one too! I have been scoring 650-700 on the CR, but I know I can score better if I have more time to think. I am aiming for 750+ on the October SAT and I want advice on reading quickly and efficiently. Also, I always have trouble picking answers for the CR section since there are at least two answer choices that seem right. How do I discriminate the two (or three) answer choices and pick the right one? Are looking at the questions first and then underlining the lines mentioned in the questions more efficient than simply reading the passage then answering the questions? Do I have to read the whole passage to answer the questions? Thanks.</p>