SAT Math Overview

The Math section tests your ability to solve problems using algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and other mathematical concepts learned in high school. It's worth noting that it does not cover any especialy advanced material, since they want most Juniors and Seniors taking the test to have been exposed to all the material being tested. You will never need to apply concepts from calculus or pre-calculus (although occasionally they may offer you an alternative approach to solving problems). The most advanced problems cover concepts like trigonometry, exponential functions (but not logarithms), quadratic functions, graphing circles, etc.

While this was covered earlier, it's worth mentioning again in case you skipped to here or forgot. The Math section consists of 2 modules, each of which is 32 minutes long and has 22 questions. This averages out to 87 seconds per question, but don't concern yourself with this statistic, since different questions will vary greatly in how long they take to solve.

While the Reading & Writing section is made up entirely of multiple choice questions, the Math section is made up mostly of multiple choice questions, but with some "student-produced response" questions mixed in. Student-produced response questions are questions where you type in the exact answer, which can be entered either as a decimal or as a fraction (but it can't be a mixed fraction).

Whereas the Reading & Writing section groups questions together by question type, the Math section at first glance seems much more random. But there is a pattern to how they order the questions, it's just not by grouping similar questions. The math questions are ordered by difficulty, with the easiest questions first, and the hardest questions at the end. While you might not find that every single question is obviously tougher than the one before it, you'll definitely notice a general trend of the questions getting harder as you go. On average, you'll probably have to spend more time per question on the harder questions, but it's worth noting that harder does not alway equate to taking longer to solve. It just means that fewer students are likely to get it right. In many cases there are tricks or shortcuts that can help you solve them quickly. But in other cases, the only way to solve them is to grind it out. We'll dive deeper into strategies later, but note that you might want to take into account that this easier to harder trend can affect how you might want to pace the questions

As mentioned above, student-produced response questions are questions where you type in the exact answer. The app will accept up to 5 characters, and will accept decimal answers (like 1.5), as well as fractions (like 3/2). However, the app will not accept mixed fractions (like 1 1/2). If the decimal form of the correct answer requires more than 5 characters, then you'll need to either round or truncate the answer to 5 characters. For example, if the correct answer is 2/3, or 0.6666666666..., then you can enter it as 0.667 (rounded), or as 0.666 (truncated). Note that these are 5 characters when you include the decimal point. It would also be acceptable to enter .6667 or .6666 (without the leading 0 before the decimal). And of course, you can enter the fraction form as well (2/3).

Yes! In fact, not only can you use one calculator, you can use two! The testing app (called Bluebook) has Desmos built in, and you can also use your own calculator. If you aren't familiar with Desmos, it's a free online graphing calculator that you can use to graph functions, solve equations, and more. We'll have more tips on using Desmos later, but I recommend you playing around with it here.

Below are the 4 Math domains that College Board uses to categorize questions, along with College Board's description of each domain, and our own description of what it covers.

• Algebra
  • College Board: Tests your understanding of linear relationships
  • PrepU: Basically, any situation or function that can be depicted by a graph of a straight line (think y=mx+b). Note that in the real world of math, the term algebra can refer to a lot more than this.
• Advanced Math
  • College Board: Tests your understanding of nonlinear relationships
  • PrepU: Mostly quadratic functions (parabolas) and exponential functions
• Problem-Solving and Data Analysis
  • College Board: Tests your understanding of proportional relationships, percentages, and probability + using data to analyze and solve problems.
  • PrepU: Covers statistics, probability, percentages, ratios, and interpreting different types of graphs/charts
• Geometry and Trigonometry
  • College Board: Tests your understanding of concepts central to geometry and trigonometry
  • PrepU: Pretty self-explanatory

We've listed the skills that College Board identifies under each domain below, but we really won't be using this categorization scheme in our own guide.