Strategies for SAT II Mathematics

For students aiming to score high, he/she will need to know the advanced topics such as standard deviation, probability and quadratic equations for the Math section and effective reading techniques.

Once you learn the fundamentals of Mathematics, you will learn strategies and techniques to apply your knowledge to complicated SAT questions.

Though the SAT Subject Mathematics is not so difficult test and you are already familiar to the contents yet you need to practice more and morre for the concepts and strategies. You must be able to apply strategic concept to solve hard questions which provides you the required confidence and fluency.

• Strategies Home
• Test Taking
• Difficulty Level
• Using Calculator
• SAT II Mathematics Home
• Guesing
• Scoring Well
• Dealing Questions

Should you guess on SAT II Math IC? We’ll answer this question by posing a question of our own:

G. O. Metry is holding five cards, numbered 1–5. Without telling you, he has selected one of the numbers as the “correct” card. If you pick a single card, what is the probability that you will choose the correct card?

One out of 5, or ¹⁄₅, of course! And that’s precisely the situation you’re in when you blindly guess the answer on any SAT II Math IC question: you have a 1 in 5 chance of getting the question right. If you were to guess on 10 questions, probability says you’ll get two questions right and eight questions wrong.

• Two right answers earns you 2 raw points.
• Eight wrong answers gets you –2 raw points (8 × – ¹/₄ points).

Those ten answers, therefore, net you a total of 0 points. And that’s exactly what ETS wants. They designed the test to make blind guessing pointless.

But suppose you’re faced with this question:

• If x + 2x = 6, what is the value of x?
• A. -2
• B. 2
• C. 3
• D. 0
• E. 1

Let’s say you have no idea how to solve this problem. But you look at the answer choices, and realize that 0 multiplied by any number equals 0. If you plug that into the equation, 0 + 2 × 0 cannot add up to 6 . You can eliminate “ 0 ” as a possible answer, and now have four choices from which to choose. Now is it worth it to guess? Yes. Probability states that if you are guessing between four choices you will get one question right for every three you get wrong. For that one correct answer, you’ll get one point, and for the three incorrect answers, you’ll lose a total of ³/₄ of a point: 1 – ³/₄ = ¹/₄. If you can eliminate even one answer, the odds of guessing turn in your favor: you become more likely to gain points than to lose points.

The rule for guessing on the Math IC test is simple: if you can eliminate even one answer-choice on a question, you should definitely guess.