My Two Biggest Tips for the SAT/ACT Math Section

Hello everyone! In this week’s blog post, I go over my two biggest tips for the SAT and ACT Math Sections. Read on to learn more!

The SAT Math section is split into sub-sections: the non-calculator section, and the calculator section. The non-calculator section consists of 20 questions to be completed in 25 minutes, all without the use of a calculator. The calculator section consists of 38 questions to be completed in 55 minutes, with a calculator. The ACT Math section consists of 60 questions to be completed in 60 minutes, and the use of a calculator is permitted.

Both tests cover a range of math concepts, from algebra to trigonometry to pre-calculus, and test your ability to manipulate concepts to answer questions. While the SAT does give you a bit more time to complete the questions, you only have about 1 minute per question for the ACT. That being said, you will be able to complete simple questions in less than a minute, and take more time for harder questions.

There are many different approaches that students take when it comes to the math section of these tests. Some students skim through the test and do questions in an order of increasing difficulty. Others do random questions throughout the test, and many just follow the chronological order of questions. There really is no certain approach that will help you do better on the test – a lot of it depends on which method works best for you.

Math is different for everyone, and everyone takes a varying amount of time to complete questions. Make sure you approach the test in a manner that helps you answer the greatest number of questions both efficiently and accurately. I’ll be going through my two biggest tips for the ACT/SAT math section.

Tip #1: Practice, Practice, Practice

One of the most beneficial things you could do while preparing for the SAT/ACT Math section is to practice. You should still review the content, but practice as many questions as you can. Make sure you do many practice tests and do questions that come from official sources, like the College Board or ACT Website.

A lot of the math that the SAT/ACT tests on is fairly basic, and only about 9th/10th-grade level. What makes these questions hard, is that they manipulate basic concepts to ask you questions that test your understanding. A simple way to get through these types of questions is to do repeated questions. You’ll get used to the format and type of questions, allowing you to score higher.

Tip #2: Plug in the Answer Choices

It’s good that most of the SAT/ACT Math section is multiple choice. If you’re having trouble figuring out how to do a question, then you can simply plug in the answer choices and see which one is right. This works even better if it’s an algebra question, where you can just plug in a value for “x” and see if it fits in the question.

Sometimes, this method will work for harder questions, as long as you are able to understand how you should use the answer choices. To have this understanding, you should work on practicing several questions.

I hope you all found this post useful! Please feel free to contact me with any questions!

Until next time, bye!