About Bob Alexander
Bob has been a professional educator starting with teaching biology, becoming a school administrator, and then working as an education lobbyist in Washington, DC. He got his start in national testing by becoming a consulting test writer, later joining Kaplan as a director, and finally starting his own business in 1995. He has written numerous books, consulted for school districts and colleges, developed his website and been featured on a DVD set. He offers SAT and ACT prep classes and tutors individuals and small groups of students in central Florida.
http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-question-of-the-day?src=R&questionId=20121230
This is a pretty simple SAT question; lots of students are getting it right.
The key to the question is the word although. You have to watch out for what I call "key words and phrases." Be sure to underline them when you see them since they often signal changes in "direction" or "charges" (positive/negative). This is a good example. We start out with an unknown charge describing whoever "him" is and the second part of the sentence tells us the charge is n... Read More »
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http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/answered-question-of-the-day
The College Board's explanation is a perfect example of why I get up every morning and write another explanation. As many of my students say, "Their explanations are harder to follow than their questions!" While they don't always obfuscate (perplex), sometimes they do confuse the situation with their answers, there are certainly easier ways to get the right answer (A) than the first explanation.
They put you on the right track by telling you to substitute a coordinate point but w... Read More »
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http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/answered-question-of-the-day
This is a great question to use to learn about a couple of the patterns that show up on both the SAT and ACT every time the test is administered. First, watch out for idioms and colloquialisms. "because of" is an idiom and needs to be avoided at all costs. There are a few more that I discuss in my SAT and ACT course. Second, the maxim "shorter is better" is never more true than on the SAT and ACT grammar and composition questions. If you keep those two general rules in mind, you'll nail... Read More »
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http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/answered-question-of-the-day
As usual, the solution to this SAT Sentence Completion question is found in the topic. What does the sentence tell us about the subject (edelweiss)? It is tough when it comes to extreme temperatures. The first clause says how it appears is an illusion, so the blank needs a word that means the opposite of tough. The only possible answer is B since none of the other first answers is the opposite of "able to survive..." You don't even need to worry about the second word except to use ... Read More »
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http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/answered-question-of-the-day
This is a great question to use as a review of a key principle on the SAT and ACT. There's a pattern for the number of degrees in geometric figures. There's 180 degrees in triangles, 360 in quads, 540 in five-sided figures, etc. Each time you add a side, you add 180 degrees. The formula is: # of degrees = 180 (n-2) where n is the number of sides. In this case, 180 for the triangle plus 360 for the quad gives us 540, answer C.
Let's see what the ACT folks have in store for us today.... Read More »
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