Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Icons Used in This Book 2 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Part 1: Getting Started with the SAT 5 Chapter 1: What to Expect with the SAT 7 What About the ACT? 7 So What''s on the SAT? 8 Signing Up Before Sitting Down: Registering for the SAT 9 How to register 9 When to take the test 9 Special Needs Considerations 10 Learning disabilities 10 Physical issues 11 Financial help 11 Making the SAT Work for You as a Foreign Student 11 Examining Your Mind: What the SAT Really Looks For 12 Scoring on the SAT 13 Types of scores 13 Score reporting 14 Chapter 2: Strategies for Success 15 Starting Early: The Long-Term Phase 15 Moving Along: The Medium-Term Phase 16 Getting Closer: The Short-Range Phase 17 Planning It Out: What to Do the Night Before Your SAT 18 It''s All You: What to Do the Morning of Your SAT 18 Bringing the right stuff 18 Taking control of the tension 19 Starting off 19 Focusing during the test 20 Pacing yourself 20 It Isn''t You: Testing Under Adverse Conditions 21 Part 2: Mastering the SAT Reading Test 23 Chapter 3: Getting Acquainted with the SAT Reading Test 25 Understanding the Reading Section 25 Managing Your Time with Key Strategies 26 Getting Each Question Right, Quickly, With More Key Strategies 27 Answering the Best-Evidence Questions 28 Putting the Strategies to Use 29 Starting with the line-number questions 29 Continuing with the detail questions 30 Ending with the inference and main idea questions 30 Taking On the Reading Passages 32 Distancing with social studies 32 Blinding me with science 34 Saving the literature for last 36 Chapter 4: Where It Counts: Practicing the SAT Reading Test 39 Social Studies Passages 40 Passage I Answers 43 Passage II Answers 46 Science Passages 47 Passage III Answers 49 Passage IV Answers 52 Literature Passage 53 Passage V Answers 55 Part 3: Conquering the Writing and Language Test and Writing a Killer Essay 57 Chapter 5: Gearing Up for the SAT Writing and Language Test 59 Getting to Know the Writing and Language Test 59 Managing Your Time with Simple Strategies 60 Answering the easy questions before the hard questions 60 Using the 9-minute rule 60 Nailing the Common Questions 61 Starting with grammar and punctuation 61 Getting vocabulary in context 62 Writing with style, logic, and organization 63 Killing It Softly: The SAT Grammar Review 65 Verb matching 65 Easing verb tension 66 Parallel writing 67 Casing pronouns 67 Using punctuation 68 Wording up 68 Answer 71 Taking It Further 71 Chapter 6: Getting It "Write": Practicing the Writing and Language Multiple-Choice Test 73 Passage I 73 Passage I Answers 77 Passage II 78 Passage II Answers 81 Passage III 82 Passage III Answers 84 Passage IV 85 Passage IV Answers 89 Chapter 7: Preparing for the Essay 91 Deciding Whether to Actually Write the Essay 91 Knowing the Assignment 92 Knowing What the Essay Scorers Look For 92 Getting Started 94 Identifying Other Writing Techniques in the Passage 96 Appeals to logic, authority, and emotion 96 Diction and tone 96 Organization 97 Other techniques 97 Trying Out a Sample Essay Question 98 The question 98 The answer 99 Scoring your own essay 101 Examining graded responses 101 Chapter 8: Practicing Essays 105 Practice Essay I -- Momentum: Igniting Social Change 105 The question 105 The answer 107 Scoring your essay 108 Practice Essay II -- Addressing Mathematical Innumeracy 109 The question 109 The answer 110 Scoring your essay 112 Practice Essay III -- Nonsexist Language 112 The question 112 The answer 114 Scoring your essay 115 Part 4: Owning the SAT Math Tests 117 Chapter 9: Meeting Numbers Head-On: The SAT Math Tests 119 Starting with Formulas 120 Just Gridding 121 Getting Familiar with the Math Tests 122 Chapter 10: Numbers and Operations 125 Starting with the Basics 125 Checking out types of numbers 125 Remembering the order of operations 127 Simplifying Numbers and Operations 127 Simplifying prime numbers 128 Simplifying percents 128 Simplifying ratios 130 Simplifying conversions 132 Simplifying exponents 133 Simplifying square and cube roots 138 Simplifying imaginary i 140 Simplifying projections 143 Chapter 11: Algebra and Functions 147 Solving for X 147 Solving for x with a number 147 Solving for x with a y 148 Solving for x in a radical 149 Solving for x in a fraction 149 Solving for x in a reciprocal fraction 151 Solving for More Than One X 152 Solving an absolute value 152 Solving a quadratic 154 Solving the difference of squares 157 Solving an expression 159 Setting Up Equations 161 Setting up a story 161 Setting up a sum of numbers 162 Setting up interest 163 Setting up rates of change 166 Graphing Coordinate Geometry 168 Graphing a line 169 Graphing two lines 171 Graphing an inequality 174 Graphing a parabola 175 Graphing a circle 178 Graphing a function 181 Chapter 12: Geometry and Trigonometry 185 Drawing Basic Shapes 186 Drawing angles 186 Drawing triangles 189 Drawing rectangles and squares 194 Drawing trapezoids and parallelograms 194 Drawing circles 197 Drawing overlapping shapes 198 Drawing parts of circles 199 Drawing 3-D Shapes 201 Drawing rectangular solids and cubes 201 Drawing cylinders and cones 203 Drawing spheres 204 Solving Trigonometry Problems 205 Solving right triangles with SOH CAH TOA 206 Solving unit circles and radians 208 Solving trigonometric equations 211 Chapter 13: Statistics and Probability 213 Defining the Mean, Median, and Mode 213 Defining the mean 213 Defining the median and mode 214 Defining the range 215 Defining Probability 216 Measuring Graph Data 217 Measuring bar graphs 217 Measuring circle or pie charts 218 Measuring line graphs 218 Measuring scatter plots 219 Measuring multiple graphs 220 Part 5: It''s All You: Taking Practice SAT Exams 223 Chapter 14: Practice Exam 1 225 Answer Sheets 227 Section 1: Reading Test 229 Section 2: Writing and Language Test 240 Section 3: Math Test - No Calculator Allowed 249 Section 4: Math Test - Calculator Allowed 253 Section 5: The Essay 262 Chapter 15: Practice Exam 1: Answers and Explanations 265 Answers for Section 1: Reading Test 265 Answers for Section 2: Writing and Language Test 271 Answers for Section 3: Math Test -- No Calculator Allowed 275 Answers for Section 4: Math Test -- Calculator Allowed 279 Answer Guidelines for Section 5: The Essay 286 Reading 286 Analysis 287 Writing 288 Scoring your essay 288 Answer Key 289 Chapter 16: Practice Exam 2 291 Answer Sheets 293 Section 1: Reading Test 295 Section 2: Writing and Language Test 305 Section 3: Math Test - No Calculator Allowed 314 Section 4: Math Test - Calculator Allowed 318 Section 5: The Essay 325 Chapter 17: Practice Exam 2: Answers and Explanations 327 Answers for Section 1: Reading 327 Answers for Section 2: Writing and Language Test 333 Answers for Section 3: Math Test -- No Calculator Allowed 337 Answers for Section 4: Math Test -- Calculator Allowed 341 Answer Guidelines for Section 5: The Essay 347 Reading 347 Analysis 347 Writing 348 Answer Key 349 Chapter 18: How Did You Do? Scoring Your Practice SAT 351 Finding Your Reading and Writing Score 351 Finding Your Math Test Score 355 Finding Your Killer Essay Score 357 Recording Your Final Scores 357 First practice exam 357 Second practice exam 357 Third practice exam 358 Fourth practice exam 358 Part 6: The Part of Tens 359 Chapter 19: Ten Mistakes Other Test-Takers Make That You Won''t 361 You Won''t Forget Your Wristwatch 361 You Won''t Bubble Everything at the End 362 You Won''t Let Your Calculator Batteries Die 362 You Won''t Run Out of Steam 362 You Won''t Forget Snacks and Water 362 You Won''t Work the Reading Test Straight On 362 You Won''t Rush Through the Questions 363 You Won''t Get Stuck on a Question 363 You Won''t Choke on the Essay 363 You Won''t Change Your Morning Routine 364 Chapter 20: Ten Ways to Get the Most from the Practice SATs 365.