SAT For Dummies Book + 4 Practice Tests Online

The SAT is administered annually to more than 2 million students at approximately 6,000 test centers located in more than 170 countries. The test is used to measure a student’s readiness for college, as well as to interpret overall academic performance in relation to the national applicant pool. Nearly every college in America accepts the SAT or SAT Subject Tests as a part of its admissions process. In addition to admission, many colleges use the SAT for course placement and/or scholarship consideration.

The previous edition was written for the revised exam released in 2016. This edition will feature content tailored toward this revised exam with the benefit of the authors’ experience teaching it. New and revised content includes:

• English/grammar section: Revised question topics
• Reading section: Focus on the question patterns (the way questions are paired)
• Math sections: Simple approaches to seemingly tricky questions, as well as more focus on the high-level topics that appear
• Essay: An effective, tried-and-true method that is targeted to the rubric

Ron Woldoff is the founder of National Test Prep and has taught SAT, ACT, PSAT, GMAT, and GRE prep courses at Arizona high schools and universities. Geraldine Woods taught high school English for more than four decades and is the author of more than 50 books, including College Admissions Essays For Dummies.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: Getting Started with the SAT 5

Chapter 1: What to Expect with the SAT 7

What About the ACT? 7

So What’s on the SAT? 8

Signing Up Before Sitting Down: Registering for the SAT 9

How to register 9

When to take the test 9

Special Needs Considerations 10

Learning disabilities 10

Physical issues 11

Financial help 11

Making the SAT Work for You as a Foreign Student 11

Examining Your Mind: What the SAT Really Looks For 12

Scoring on the SAT 13

Types of scores 13

Score reporting 14

Chapter 2: Strategies for Success 15

Starting Early: The Long-Term Phase 15

Moving Along: The Medium-Term Phase 16

Getting Closer: The Short-Range Phase 17

Planning It Out: What to Do the Night Before Your SAT 18

It’s All You: What to Do the Morning of Your SAT 18

Bringing the right stuff 18

Taking control of the tension 19

Starting off 19

Focusing during the test 20

Pacing yourself 20

It Isn’t You: Testing Under Adverse Conditions 21

Part 2: Mastering the SAT Reading Test 23

Chapter 3: Getting Acquainted with the SAT Reading Test 25

Understanding the Reading Section 25

Managing Your Time with Key Strategies 26

Getting Each Question Right, Quickly, With More Key Strategies 27

Answering the Best-Evidence Questions 28

Putting the Strategies to Use 29

Starting with the line-number questions 29

Continuing with the detail questions 30

Ending with the inference and main idea questions 30

Taking On the Reading Passages 32

Distancing with social studies 32

Blinding me with science 34

Saving the literature for last 36

Chapter 4: Where It Counts: Practicing the SAT Reading Test 39

Social Studies Passages 40

Passage I Answers 43

Passage II Answers 46

Science Passages 47

Passage III Answers 49

Passage IV Answers 52

Literature Passage 53

Passage V Answers 55

Part 3: Conquering the Writing and Language Test and Writing a Killer Essay 57

Chapter 5: Gearing Up for the SAT Writing and Language Test 59

Getting to Know the Writing and Language Test 59

Managing Your Time with Simple Strategies 60

Answering the easy questions before the hard questions 60

Using the 9-minute rule 60

Nailing the Common Questions 61

Starting with grammar and punctuation 61

Getting vocabulary in context 62

Writing with style, logic, and organization 63

Killing It Softly: The SAT Grammar Review 65

Verb matching 65

Easing verb tension 66

Parallel writing 67

Casing pronouns 67

Using punctuation 68

Wording up 68

Answer 71

Taking It Further 71

Chapter 6: Getting It “Write”: Practicing the Writing and Language Multiple-Choice Test 73

Passage I 73

Passage I Answers 77

Passage II 78

Passage II Answers 81

Passage III 82

Passage III Answers 84

Passage IV 85

Passage IV Answers 89

Chapter 7: Preparing for the Essay 91

Deciding Whether to Actually Write the Essay 91

Knowing the Assignment 92

Knowing What the Essay Scorers Look For 92

Getting Started 94

Identifying Other Writing Techniques in the Passage 96

Appeals to logic, authority, and emotion 96

Diction and tone 96

Organization 97

Other techniques 97

Trying Out a Sample Essay Question 98

The question 98

The answer 99

Scoring your own essay 101

Examining graded responses 101

Chapter 8: Practicing Essays 105

Practice Essay I — Momentum: Igniting Social Change 105

The question 105

The answer 107

Scoring your essay 108

Practice Essay II — Addressing Mathematical Innumeracy 109

The question 109

The answer 110

Scoring your essay 112

Practice Essay III — Nonsexist Language 112

The question 112

The answer 114

Scoring your essay 115

Part 4: Owning the SAT Math Tests 117

Chapter 9: Meeting Numbers Head-On: The SAT Math Tests 119

Starting with Formulas 120

Just Gridding 121

Getting Familiar with the Math Tests 122

Chapter 10: Numbers and Operations 125

Starting with the Basics 125

Checking out types of numbers 125

Remembering the order of operations 127

Simplifying Numbers and Operations 127

Simplifying prime numbers 128

Simplifying percents 128

Simplifying ratios 130

Simplifying conversions 132

Simplifying exponents 133

Simplifying square and cube roots 138

Simplifying imaginary i 140

Simplifying projections 143

Chapter 11: Algebra and Functions 147

Solving for X 147

Solving for x with a number 147

Solving for x with a y 148

Solving for x in a radical 149

Solving for x in a fraction 149

Solving for x in a reciprocal fraction 151

Solving for More Than One X 152

Solving an absolute value 152

Solving a quadratic 154

Solving the difference of squares 157

Solving an expression 159

Setting Up Equations 161

Setting up a story 161

Setting up a sum of numbers 162

Setting up interest 163

Setting up rates of change 166

Graphing Coordinate Geometry 168

Graphing a line 169

Graphing two lines 171

Graphing an inequality 174

Graphing a parabola 175

Graphing a circle 178

Graphing a function 181

Chapter 12: Geometry and Trigonometry 185

Drawing Basic Shapes 186

Drawing angles 186

Drawing triangles 189

Drawing rectangles and squares 194

Drawing trapezoids and parallelograms 194

Drawing circles 197

Drawing overlapping shapes 198

Drawing parts of circles 199

Drawing 3-D Shapes 201

Drawing rectangular solids and cubes 201

Drawing cylinders and cones 203

Drawing spheres 204

Solving Trigonometry Problems 205

Solving right triangles with SOH CAH TOA 206

Solving unit circles and radians 208

Solving trigonometric equations 211

Chapter 13: Statistics and Probability 213

Defining the Mean, Median, and Mode 213

Defining the mean 213

Defining the median and mode 214

Defining the range 215

Defining Probability 216

Measuring Graph Data 217

Measuring bar graphs 217

Measuring circle or pie charts 218

Measuring line graphs 218

Measuring scatter plots 219

Measuring multiple graphs 220

Part 5: It’s All You: Taking Practice SAT Exams 223

Chapter 14: Practice Exam 1 225

Answer Sheets 227

Section 1: Reading Test 229

Section 2: Writing and Language Test 240

Section 3: Math Test - No Calculator Allowed 249

Section 4: Math Test - Calculator Allowed 253

Section 5: The Essay 262

Chapter 15: Practice Exam 1: Answers and Explanations 265

Answers for Section 1: Reading Test 265

Answers for Section 2: Writing and Language Test 271

Answers for Section 3: Math Test — No Calculator Allowed 275

Answers for Section 4: Math Test — Calculator Allowed 279

Answer Guidelines for Section 5: The Essay 286

Reading 286

Analysis 287

Writing 288

Scoring your essay 288

Answer Key 289

Chapter 16: Practice Exam 2 291

Answer Sheets 293

Section 1: Reading Test 295

Section 2: Writing and Language Test 305

Section 3: Math Test - No Calculator Allowed 314

Section 4: Math Test - Calculator Allowed 318

Section 5: The Essay 325

Chapter 17: Practice Exam 2: Answers and Explanations 327

Answers for Section 1: Reading 327

Answers for Section 2: Writing and Language Test 333

Answers for Section 3: Math Test — No Calculator Allowed 337

Answers for Section 4: Math Test — Calculator Allowed 341

Answer Guidelines for Section 5: The Essay 347

Reading 347

Analysis 347

Writing 348

Answer Key 349

Chapter 18: How Did You Do? Scoring Your Practice SAT 351

Finding Your Reading and Writing Score 351

Finding Your Math Test Score 355

Finding Your Killer Essay Score 357

Recording Your Final Scores 357

First practice exam 357

Second practice exam 357

Third practice exam 358

Fourth practice exam 358

Part 6: The Part of Tens 359

Chapter 19: Ten Mistakes Other Test-Takers Make That You Won’t 361

You Won’t Forget Your Wristwatch 361

You Won’t Bubble Everything at the End 362

You Won’t Let Your Calculator Batteries Die 362

You Won’t Run Out of Steam 362

You Won’t Forget Snacks and Water 362

You Won’t Work the Reading Test Straight On 362

You Won’t Rush Through the Questions 363

You Won’t Get Stuck on a Question 363

You Won’t Choke on the Essay 363

You Won’t Change Your Morning Routine 364

Chapter 20: Ten Ways to Get the Most from the Practice SATs 365

Practice an Entire SAT in One Sitting 365

Practice Not Making Mistakes Under Pressure 365

Practice with Others in the Room 366

Practice as a Dress Rehearsal 366

Practice Your Competitive Edge 366

Practice Your Test-Taking Strategies 367

Practice Using the Bubble Sheet 367

Practice Finding Your Areas of Focus 367

Review the Practice SAT Answers and Explanations 367

Review the Practice SAT with Other Students 368

Index 369