The SAT Math Test consists of 54 questions in three sections. Forty-four of the questions are regular, multiple-choice questions. Ten of the questions are more like the math problems you solve in school. These questions do not provide choices; you must work out the answer to these “student response” questions and “grid-in” your result into special boxes on your answer sheet. Unlike your math tests in school, however, you will not receive any “partial credit” for your work. More Good News: They Provide Most of the Formulas You Need Here are the instructions you’ll find on each section of the SAT Math Test: Directions: You may use any available space in your booklet for scratch work, but only your answer sheet will be graded. When you have determined the answer to a question, fill in the corresponding oval on your answer sheet. Notes:
You probably know most or all of these formulas already, but spend a minute to review this information so you do not waste precious seconds on the actual exam doing so. The only important facts in the instructions are the formulas; the “notes” will not change significantly. The Bad News: The SAT Math Test Camouflages Simple Concepts If the math on the SAT is so basic and it is you may be wondering how anyone can find it difficult. One of the big reasons that students have trouble on the SAT Math Test is that the test writers do an excellent job of transforming very simple math concepts so that these concepts are barely recognizable. But the real reason students have trouble is that the SAT tests their knowledge very differently from the way you’re used to being tested in school. Never let an unfamiliar term on an SAT math problem bamboozle you. The test writers often stumble in their efforts to remove ambiguities from problems that only a mathematics professor would quibble withcreating needless confusion for hundreds of thousands of SAT students. One of my favorite terms in this regard is “non-overlapping,” which just refers to figures that share at most a line in common.
