Notes

Math:The Art of Creating Your Own Variable
1. Come up with your own numbers. If you can’t....
2. Steal or eliminate the answers and use them. If you can’t....
3. Come up with your own variables or equations. If you can’t....
Advice: The hardest part of solving any SAT math problem is figuring out what you’re trying to solve in the first place.
you must have strong algebra skills to do well on the SAT math section, but converting problems into algebraic equations is the first step in being able to solve them.

we need to find a certain, exact value. Since we can’t make it up, we replace it with a variable and then create an equation around it!

if you want to make one number in an average set as large as possible, all the other numbers must be as small as possible!***

Critical Reading

Do not EVER pick “right” answers - kill all the wrong answers instead!
1. Define what the answer should look like.
2. Kill the four choices that look the least like your definition.
3. Circle the one that you haven’t killed.

From now on, when you solve each critical reading problem, I want you to go through the following process:
1. Come up with your answer by plagiarizing.

2. Go through all the answer choices, A-E, and kill all the absolute, utter crap. If it's "decent," leave it alone. If it's "meh," leave it alone. But if it's horrible, cross it out.

3. When you're done with your first round, look at the remaining answer choices, A-E, and, two at a time, start comparing them, figuring out what's different about them, and KILLING THE ONE THAT HAS AN OBJECTIVE, WRONG ELEMENT TO IT. Whether it's some tiny detail that's wrong, whether it's irrelevant, or whether it's totally off the mark, it doesn't matter. Just remember: it will be WRONG. Fact.

4. Take the "surviving" answer choice from step 3 (if there is one), compare it to the next answer choice on the list, and keep moving, killing everything until you have one "last man standing."
When deciding whether a word or answer is wrong, ask yourself (honestly) whether you could USE THE WORD AS A DIRECT SYNONYM FOR THE ONE YOU CAME UP WITH. If not, kill it.

WHAT BLANK RULE: The only answer that isn’t wrong will be the one that allows you to "fill in the blank!"

THE “BUT” RULE:If you’re ever trying to figure out why an answer is wrong, and you use the word “but” in your explanation, you KNOW that the answer choice is wrong. Instantly. KILL IT.

VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT:
1. Come up with your own answer.

2. Kill anything that is obviously ridiculous or total garbage.

3. Take anything left after step #2 and try to kill it by plugging it back into the sentence as a synonym.

4. Read the entire sentence, front to back, with the new word in place of the original. This is extremely important, since you won’t be able to see exactly how “out of context” the new word seems unless you read the entire sentence.


Every single answer choice given in vocabulary in context problems is a possible definition of the word in some context, but NOT in the context that THEY'RE ASKING YOU ABOUT!!!


1. SENTENCE IMPROVEMENT
1. Do NOT pick the right answer. Kill all four of the wrong answers instead.
A) Sweep through, read all the answers by ACTUALLY READING THEM IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ENTIRE SENTENCE, and kill the total crap.
B) Kill remaining answers by COMPARISON OF DIFFERENCES.
2. ERROR ID
1. Read the entire sentence in your head as quickly as possible, from start to finish. The ENTIRE sentence3. PASSAGE IMPROVEMENT
The SAT usually puts “weird” stuff up front, and wrong stuff at the end.
2. You see something you really don’t like===================Can you IMMEDIATELY think of a replacement? In less than 0.5 seconds?

A) Yes. Then this answer is wrong. Circle it and move on.

B) No. The answer is not wrong. You might not like it, but it’s not wrong. Keep looking for something else.

3. Look at each answer choice, A-D, and ask “what COULD be wrong with it?”

PASSAGE IMPROVEMENT;
1. Do NOT read the passage first. The passage in this section is absolutely meaningless crapola. It’s garbage. You will learn nothing from it, it’s terribly written, and none of the details will help you to answer the questions.

There are times when you might be forced to read full paragraphs, or to skim the entire passage (for instance, a question might ask something like: “in light of the entire passage’s content, what’s the best order for these three items...”). But only read the passage if you have to.

2. Use the EXACT same elimination and comparison process that you used for the sentence improvement questions to answer these questions.