Dec 27 SAT & ACT Question of the Day

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 it to check your work on the first word.  Resilient means tough; it has the same root as resistant.

For SAT sentence completion questions that have two blanks, my tip is that you should predict a word for each blank and use the prediction that feels better to you (in this case, the first blank) to eliminate answers before looking at the other blank.  Doing so will always save you time and it sometimes finds the right answer without worrying about the second word.

What does the ACT have for us today?

http://www.act.org/qotd/

Not bad if you are careful with the signs (+/-).  It’s quickest and easiest if you subtract 6 from both sides of the equation and then you only have to worry about x² – 7x= 0.

It’s easy enough to see that plugging in 0 for x will solve the equation since 0 times anything is 0.  Now the only issue is does one of the negative answers work.  -6 and -4 are silly since x-squared has to involve 7 in order for -7x to get us to 0.  Plugging in -7 gives us 49 for x-squared.  However, when you subtract (7 times -7), you are subtracting -49 which is a plus!  49 + 49 isn’t 0.

You can think your way to this answer very quickly.  Of course, you can do the algebra as it is explained by the ACT folks on their website.

Be sure to do a free registration for my website and I’ll email you the explanation every day.

I hope you find my quick tricks for math helpful.  If so, let your friends know about my blog.  You’ll find all of my tips and tricks in my ACT and SAT programs.  Hopefully, I’ll see you in class or on the Internet.

The Wizard