THREE -3- Reasons Your Entire Family Needs SAT Math!
MONDAY: Your calculator Tuesday: The Grid Problems Wednesday: Square root-all you need
1) SAT Math questions often follow everyday logic allowing elimination of wrong answers immediately on standardized tests and in life tests, as well.
Using the strategy I use for what I call ‘racecar’ questions is not helpful on most math questions, but eliminating some incorrect answers IS very helpful.
Try a game for the day—with a one-minute timer.
Look at today’s example below for an example.
2) Learning to use a calculator, especially a science and graphing calculator, is a special skill that helps in many other areas of life.
Teacher’s confession: I admit that I have been one of the teachers who felt that calculators can hold you up on tests because so many students I tutor slow down to try to figure out how to use the calculators to do problems they have no idea how to solve—or, worse, they spend too much time using the calculators on problems they already know how to check without help in calculation.
With the help of the Princeton Review, I now believe I have been prejudiced by the fact that I did not use calculators on standardized tests when I was in school and by the fact that I tutor Algebra to students who are studying for standardized tests; but I am, foremost, an English and language arts teacher, and a Gifted, Reading, and Exceptional Ed teacher. My tutoring is about bridging the content areas. I have not ‘played’ with calculators in math classes with teachers who use them daily. But I am going to use this to your advantage by choosing only the top tips and techniques for using calculators. Come back on Monday.
MONDAY: USING YOUR CALCULATOR ON SAT TUESDAY: THE GRID PROBLEMS
3) Spend some time with your family working some problems using logic. Logic is math. Logic is the trail of what is true. If A is true and B is true, C may or may not be a conclusion from these two premises. This is the mathematical way to measure an argument, even a political argument. You may not be able to find what is true, but you will be able to eliminate what is not proved.
For example: You may say: A. Many students drive to school. (A may be true.) B. When a student drives to school, his or her parent can take a different route to work. (B may be true). C. Buying a student a car for school is a family benefit. (This conclusion, while somewhat justifiable by the two premises given and supportable by some popularity—or whatever the case may be—is NOT a mathematical conclusion. Furthermore, the two premises have not been proven by the information here.
But you can prove A and B premises. You can see by these premises and a possible conclusion that public opinion and campaigns—not to mention advertisements—are often based upon so-called ‘logic’—often false logic.
Today’s math question for the point. There is NO REASON TO MISS this question. It is from a past SAT test, and it is featured in the 2010 Princeton Review.
This math question counts one point and so does a question that is many times more difficult. Take a few seconds and get this one right:
If you buy a clothing item that cost 20% more last week when it was not on sale, and you are buying it on sale for $100, how much did it cost before?
A. $140
B. $70
C. $120
D. $125
E. $82
Okay, now did you throw out B and E right away? Hello. It is cheaper now—not more expensive, right. So are you diving to C. Wait up!
It’s
D. Don’t miss this point. Some of the other math is soooo complicated. This is yours.
Maybe a quick use of your calculator is in order here, but I do a lot of taking ten percent and doubling that for twenty percent. I often tip twenty percent—not that my bill would be $80!
But my constant practice helps to visualize in reverse. To be paying $80 after a discount of 20%, the old price was $125. (You should try it next after eliminating the obviously wrong ones because the 100 and 120 are just too enticing 125x.20 =25. So subtract $25 from $125 and you have $100 as the original.
