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. If you are seeing this in my blog, do the SAT Question of the Day by clicking on this link:
http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-question-of-the-day?questionId=20130911&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.)
The answer is D. Don’t forget my strategy: identify the topic, predict words, then find an answer. The SAT folks provide one way to look at the topic but many students won’t know the word “vignette” and others won’t know “discrete,” so they will miss this question using the SAT explanation. Indeed, only 55% of over 6,000 students have gotten it so far.
However, when you don’t know the “SAT words”, look for other words that you do know. You probably know “binding” and “parts.” They tell us the reader has to connect the sections in the book. Isn’t that much easier? Only D makes sense.
This question reminds me of something you need to keep in mind on test day and that is my Test-Taking Pillar #6: Don’t Be Intimidated by the Seemingly Difficult. The test writers have a way of making something that isn’t so difficult appear difficult. (Even their explanation this morning was based on knowing difficult words when it could have been based on simpler words.) My program will teach you how to simplify the test by Demystifying the SAT and ACT (the program’s title). Take a look at the videos and the other resources. They will help.
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. (If you’ve read the following two paragraphs before, skip down two paragraphs to where I start with “The answer is …) The ACT staff will no longer allow me to display their webpage in a frame. I wish they would use their time to improve the ACT Question of the Day page rather than worry about issues like whether I help you to easily navigate the Internet by using a frame. They do a better job in some respects than the SAT. However, they could easily do a few minor tweaks and have a much better Question of the Day page than the SAT. Right now they are lagging behind.
For example, the ACT staff does not put a date on their questions so if you click one of my archived blogs, you’ll get today’s ACT question and my original explanation. Sorry. The SAT staff has dated their questions; so, their archive is helpful. If you click on an archived explanation for the SAT, you’ll see the original SAT question no matter how old it is! Wonderfully helpful. The ACT folks simply don’t do that for you even though they could.
The answer is D. Well, here’s some pretty easy math if you remember “isosceles.” (See page 48 in Demystifying the SAT and ACT and “Special Triangles” on the geometry video, #7.) You remember there are 180 degrees in a triangle. Subtract 22 from 180 and you get 158 for the sum of the other two. Because those two angles are equal in an “isosceles” triangle, just divide 158 by 2 and you get the right answer, 79.
Did you know that “isosceles” triangles show up on the ACT (and SAT)? You need to get a list of the math concepts that show up on both tests. That way you won’t have to study math that doesn’t show up. Your preparation will be focused on just the right things. Then you need figure out which of those topics you know and don’t know. (Hey, Bartow High students, didn’t you just hear me say this on Tuesday when I visited the first day of your class?!) Take my free diagnostic: https://maxthetest.com/free-help/math-diagnostic. When you get your results, you’ll see a list of the math topics that show up on the tests AND you’ll find out which ones you’ll need to review! Get to work.
Have a great “hump day.” I’m looking forward to meeting students in the class that starts this afternoon at BHS. See you later.
To my students all over the world, I’d like you to remember that you need stay focused; keep your eye on the prize; test day will be here sooner than you think.
Wizard
