If you are reading this in an email you received from me, do not click the link to sat.collegeboard.org below. Use the link to my website that is farther down on the email.
http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-question-of-the-day?questionId=20140508&oq=1 (This link takes you to today’s question. If you use my archive, you will see the question related to my SAT explanation for that date.)
Reading this blog is 10% about learning how to answer today’s questions and 90% learning how to apply strategies and analyze questions you may see on test day.
The answer is E. Checking out the topic of the sentence and structural clues, we see the colon which indicates the information after the colon is consistent with the information that comes before it. The information before and after the colon also has to be parallel. The topic (or information) after the colon tells us the paintings have aesthetic value which is parallel with beautiful. Then we are told the paintings are “used to facilitate meditation,” or they have a purpose (my prediction). “Functional,” Answer E, fits my prediction perfectly. None of the other answers are even close.
Let’s see what the ACT folks have for us today.
ACT Question of the Day: Use your “back” button to return to my website after reading the ACT Question of the Day.
They have used this question so many times over the course of the last year that I bet there is moss growing on the north side of the stake! It even appeared less than two weeks ago.
The answer is F. The description of Experiment 1 indicates there is one meter of the stick exposed. Then in Experiment 2, we are told, “the student repeated Experiment 1…” which tells us that one meter is exposed. So, the length of the vertical stick that is above the ground is constant. You can see from the data tables that everything else changes.
Remember that the “Science Test” is really a “science reading test.” All of the answers are going to be in the passages. You don’t have to remember any content from science class.
To get the questions correct, all you do is use the same strategy for the ACT Science Test that you used for the Reading Test: PICK. When you Insert answers to the questions back into the passage, check to see if they add to or disagree with the information you are given. When they do, just eliminate them. As in today’s question, Answers G, H, and J all disagree with the information in the passage; they cannot be correct. Yes, it is that simple.
QotD Words of “Wiz-dom”:
How are those AP exams going? Have you started getting ready for final exams? While you are doing your reviews for the tests, think about all you’ve learned this year. Congratulations on all that hard work that started early last fall. I’m betting there were some teachers who really helped you out this year. Say something special to them. Give them a “thank you” card. The gratitude of students is very important to teachers. They are certainly there for more than their pay check. You can provide the proverbial “frosting on the cake!”
Doing so will cheer you up too!
Bob Alexander, the “SAT and ACT Wizard”
