Tag: SAT Video Fridays
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SAT Vocab Monday: Really Hard SAT Words
Even if you are, say, 50-years old, you probably remember that there were these terribly difficult words on SAT that you’d never seen before. That kind of dread doesn’t dissipate with the decades. So, yes, the SAT has long been making life difficult with these tough words. Perfidious “Et tu Brute” can be loosely translated…
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SAT Video Friday – All Squared Away
Sometimes we want to force an equation on to every problem with unknowns. However, catch yourself if you suddenly hit a wall. What does that feel like? You are desperately scrambling to write some kind of equation and all you get are a bunch of scribbles and the sinking feeling that nobody could solve this…
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SAT Video Friday – An Equilateral Nightmare
Oh, the dread ratio. Especially on geometry questions! How dare they not give us numbers!? Actually, sometimes ratios can make things easier. The same goes for percents. If you are only looking for the percent by which one thing is bigger than another, the actual numbers don’t matter. Just choose easy-to-work-with number(s). The ratio of…
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SAT Video Friday – Mr. Right Triangle
Always pay attention to the level of difficulty of a question, which you can figure out based on how close to the end of the section a question is. If it is just seems way too easy, it might very well be a trap. So watch out for the first thing that jumps out at…
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SAT Video Friday: A Radical Cube
Every now and then you’ll see a cube on the SAT in which a dotted line connects vertices on other ends of the cube. Your job is to find that line. This usually requires that you have to use the Pythagorean theorem twice (talk about cumbersome!). Luckily, I’m here to the rescue. When ever you…
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SAT Math Friday: Work Rate Questions
Paul and Mike are painting their backyard fence. If Paul takes 6 hours working at a constant rate to finish the fence, and Mike takes 4 hours, how long would it take them working together to finish painting the fence? This question is called a work rate question and it actually, once in awhile, comes…
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SAT Math Friday: Extreme Triangles
Every now and then, the SAT uses a property of triangles that throws most for a loop. I like to call these triangles “Extreme Triangles”. So let’s imagine an isosceles right triangle. Remove the hypotenuse and you’ll get two line segments that meet at a right angle. Now, take the vertical segment and pull it…
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SAT Math Friday: Fun with Functions
Functions can be daunting. Where do you plug in the number? Do you plug the equation in the function or the function in the equation? All of this might make you just want to unplug from the SAT altogether. But don’t despair. Let’s do a quick introduction to functions before ending with a challenge question.…
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SAT Vocab Friday – Harry Potter Book 2
You may be the biggest Harry Potter fan ever, or you may have never read a single page of this saga of a boy wizard. I’m guessing, like 99% of people, you are somewhere in between. Well, even if you are a big fan of the series, you may not have known that each of…
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[redirected] SAT Math Friday – Coordinate Plane Challenge
Every now and then, the SAT gets really diabolical and throws a coordinate geometry question without the coordinate plane. To make matters worse, the question is usually difficult to begin with—even if you had the plane. The key is to translate the information by drawing out a mini-coordinate plane. Remember, this is a timed test,…