About the Math Section

Hi, welcome to the SAT math section, in this episode we're just going to give a little context so you know what to expect on the SAT math and then the other episodes we'll give you the strategies you need to feel really comfortable in approaching the test. So here's what you should know, first of all there three sections and that two of them are going to be 25 minutes long and one will be shorter at 20 minutes. Within those you're going to see two question types multiple choice which is something you're probably used to and grid-in which is a little different and I'll show what to expect in a moment. Lastly the content runs again from basic arithmetic up to algebra one, geometry and basic algebra two.
Let's look at all this now in little more detail. So between having formulas at the beginning of each section and having your calculator along the way you should be pretty well covered. Now let's look at the content a little bit. The SAT as I mentioned previously runs from basic arithmetic and math skills through to algebra one, geometry and a little bit of algebra two. Incidentally geometry is going to be pretty limited in its scope there are not going to be any proofs so that's nice and the same is true of algebra two you might have to deal with graphs in some general sense, fractional exponents and negative exponents but not too much beyond that. As for the math breakdown it's going to look a little like this maybe 25 percent basic math, 30 percent algebra one, 25 percent geometry and the rest algebra two. Now this is just a guideline for a couple of reasons first of all a given problem can blend the skills from different parts of math and in addition sometimes what makes an SAT problem hard is not that it comes from geometry but that it's asking something tricky almost like a brain teaser. So it's worth having an awareness of this but don't you know feel like you have to spend 30 percent of your study time on algebra one and 25 percent on geometry this is just to give you a flavor of what to expect on the test.
Let's sum that up with the bottom line. So in brief here is what you should know about the SAT math. First off there are going to be three sections; two of them 25 minutes long and one of them 20 minutes long. On those sections you should expect to see two questions types mostly multiple choice but there will be also ten of those grid-ins along the way and lastly the content will range from basic math skills all the way up to fairly basic geometry and basic algebra two and that my friends is the SAT math section.