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Introduction
Just like going to the senior prom or getting a driver’s license, the SAT is one of those milestones in the life of a high school student. I wish I could say it was as much fun as those other things, but if I did, you probably wouldn’t believe anything else I say in the rest of the book.
But any way you slice it, the SAT is still there, scheduled for some Saturday morning a few weeks or months from now. Most colleges require you to submit an SAT score as part of your application process. So because there’s no getting around it and it’s not going away, your best bet is to do some preparation and get the best possible SAT score you can.
That’s where this book comes in. The entire book you have in your hot little hands right now is devoted to refining the math skills you need most to succeed on that all-important SATurday.
About This Book
A lot of SAT prep books divide their attention among all three sections of the SAT: English, math, and the writing sample. This is fine as far as it goes, because you probably want to boost all three scores. But in this book, I focus exclusively on math, math, and more math to help you achieve the best score you can on this — what can I say? — most often dreaded part of the test.
The SAT covers a variety of areas, including algebra, geometry, trigonometry, functions and graphs, and statistics and probability. This book focuses on those SAT topics and helps you get used to problem-solving so that you can turn facts and formulas into useful tools.
I wrote this book to give you the best possible advantage at achieving a good score on the math portion of your SAT. There’s no shortcut, but most of what you need to work on comes down to four key factors:
Knowing the basics inside and out
Strengthening SAT-specific math skills
Practicing answering SAT questions
Time yourself taking SAT practice tests
For that last point, almost every example and problem here is written in SAT format — either as a multiple-choice question or as a student-produced grid-in question. Chapters 3 to 15 contain math skills that are essential to the SAT. And to give you that test-day experience, this book also includes two practice tests, with access to an additional online practice test. That’s hundreds and hundreds of questions designed to strengthen your “SAT muscle,” so to speak.
This book also has a few conventions to keep in mind:
New terms introduced in a chapter, as well as variables, are in italics.
Keywords in lists and numbered steps are in boldface.
Any websites appear in monofont.
For multiple-choice questions, that's a letter from (A) to (D). For grid-in questions, I write the answer as you’d fill it in on the test. So as a test answer, I give as 7/9 or .777 or .778, which are all acceptable ways to write it on your answer sheet.
Foolish Assumptions
This is an SAT prep book, so my first assumption is that you or someone you love (your son or daughter, mom or granddad, or perhaps your cat) is thinking about taking the SAT sometime in the future. If not, you’re still welcome to buy the book.
My second assumption is that you’re currently taking or have in your life at some point taken an algebra course, even if you feel like it’s all a blur. Now, I wish I could tell you that algebra isn’t very important on the SAT — oh, a mere trifle, hardly a thought. But this would be like saying you can play NFL football without getting rushed at by a bunch of 250-pound guys trying to pulverize you. It just ain’t so.
But don’t worry — this book is all about the blur and, more importantly, what lies beyond it. Read on, walk through the examples, and then try out the practice problems at the end of each chapter. I can virtually guarantee that if you do this, the stuff will start to make sense.
Icons Used in This Book
In this book, I use these four icons to signal what’s most important along the way:
Beyond the Book
In addition to what you’re reading right now, this book comes with a free access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that includes tips to help you prepare for the math sections of the SAT. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and type SAT Math