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In addition to testing your grasp of basic mathematical principles and
formulas, standardized exams test your flexibility. This means that many
math questions are really more about your thought process than
they are about your mathematical knowledge. When you're dealing with the
most difficult math questions, you need to stop viewing every question
as purely academic. Instead, you should view these questions as opportunities
for you to get creative with what you know.
For example, many geometry diagrams are designed to make unthinking test
takers believe that the question is primarily about a certain geometric
figure, say a square, when in fact the question may very well be about
a different figure type, say a triangle. This can only be recognized by
looking beneath the perceptual features of the question stem to find the
'real question' that is being posed.
Or, a question may require that you use the formula for slope without
ever asking explicitly that you do so. In a case like this, the test is
trying to see which test takers are creative enough to realize that the
question, though not explicitly labeled as such, is really a slope problem.
In addition, many questions are constructed so that multiple approaches
are possible but only one of those approaches is likely to lead to the
correct answer in two minutes or so. The other approaches, while mathematically
valid, will take more time and thus disadvantage test takers who employ
them.
So as you're following this module, and in any other practice sets
you may do, pay attention not only to the specific mathematical content
of every question but also to the way these questions are constructed
and designed.
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