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Introduction

Just like going to the senior prom or getting a driver’s license, the SAT is one of those milestones in the life of a high school student. I wish I could say it was as much fun as those other things, but if I did, you probably wouldn’t believe anything else I say in the rest of the book.

But any way you slice it, the SAT is still there, scheduled for some Saturday morning a few weeks or months from now. Most colleges require you to submit an SAT score as part of your application process. So because there’s no getting around it and it’s not going away, your best bet is to do some preparation and get the best possible SAT score you can.

That’s where this book comes in. The entire book you have in your hot little hands right now is devoted to refining the math skills you need most to succeed on that all-important SATurday.

About This Book

A lot of SAT prep books divide their attention among all three sections of the SAT: English, math, and the writing sample. This is fine as far as it goes, because you probably want to boost all three scores. But in this book, I focus exclusively on math, math, and more math to help you achieve the best score you can on this — what can I say? — most often dreaded part of the test.

The SAT covers a variety of areas, including algebra, geometry, trigonometry, functions and graphs, and statistics and probability. This book focuses on those SAT topics and helps you get used to problem-solving so that you can turn facts and formulas into useful tools.

I wrote this book to give you the best possible advantage at achieving a good score on the math portion of your SAT. There’s no shortcut, but most of what you need to work on comes down to four key factors:

 Knowing the basics inside and out

 Strengthening SAT-specific math skills

 Practicing answering SAT questions

 Time yourself taking SAT practice tests

For that last point, almost every example and problem here is written in SAT format — either as a multiple-choice question or as a student-produced grid-in question. Chapters 3 to 15 contain math skills that are essential to the SAT. And to give you that test-day experience, this book also includes two practice tests, with access to an additional online practice test. That’s hundreds and hundreds of questions designed to strengthen your “SAT muscle,” so to speak.

This book also has a few conventions to keep in mind:

 New terms introduced in a chapter, as well as variables, are in italics.

 Keywords in lists and numbered steps are in boldface.

 Any websites appear in monofont.

 For multiple-choice questions, that's a letter from (A) to (D). For grid-in questions, I write the answer as you’d fill it in on the test. So as a test answer, I give as 7/9 or .777 or .778, which are all acceptable ways to write it on your answer sheet.

Foolish Assumptions

This is an SAT prep book, so my first assumption is that you or someone you love (your son or daughter, mom or granddad, or perhaps your cat) is thinking about taking the SAT sometime in the future. If not, you’re still welcome to buy the book.

My second assumption is that you’re currently taking or have in your life at some point taken an algebra course, even if you feel like it’s all a blur. Now, I wish I could tell you that algebra isn’t very important on the SAT — oh, a mere trifle, hardly a thought. But this would be like saying you can play NFL football without getting rushed at by a bunch of 250-pound guys trying to pulverize you. It just ain’t so.

But don’t worry — this book is all about the blur and, more importantly, what lies beyond it. Read on, walk through the examples, and then try out the practice problems at the end of each chapter. I can virtually guarantee that if you do this, the stuff will start to make sense.

Icons Used in This Book

In this book, I use these four icons to signal what’s most important along the way:

This icon points out important information that you need to focus on. Make sure you understand this information fully before moving on. You can skim through these icons when reading a chapter to make sure you remember the highlights.

Each example is a formal SAT-style question followed by a step-by-step solution. Work through these examples and then refer to them to help you solve the practice problems at the end of the chapter.

Tips are hints that can help speed you along when answering a question. See whether you find them useful when working on practice problems.

This icon flags common mistakes that students make if they’re not careful. Take note and proceed with caution!

Beyond the Book

In addition to what you’re reading right now, this book comes with a free access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that includes tips to help you prepare for the math sections of the SAT. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and type SAT Math For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.

You also get access to three full-length online practice tests. To gain access to the online practice, all you have to do is register. Just follow these simple steps:

1 Register your book or ebook at Dummies.com to get your PIN (go to www.dummies.com/go/getaccess).

2 Select your product from the drop-down list on that page.

3 Follow the prompts to validate your product, and then check your email for a confirmation message that includes your PIN and instructions for logging in.

If you do not receive this email within two hours, please check your spam folder before contacting the Technical Support website at http://support.wiley.com or by phone at 877-762-2974.

Now you’re ready to go! You can come back to the practice material as often as you want — simply log on with the username and password you created during your initial login. No need to enter the access code a second time.

Your registration is good for one year from the day you activate your PIN.

Where to Go from Here

This book is organized so that you can safely jump around and dip into every chapter in whatever order you like. You can strengthen skills you feel confident in or work on those that need some attention.

If this is your first introduction to SAT math, I strongly recommend that you start out by reading Chapter 1. There, you find some simple but vital SAT-specific information that you need to know before you sit down with pencil in hand to take the test.

If you’d like to start out by getting a sense of how ready you are for the SAT, skip forward to Chapter 16 and take a practice test. When you’re done, check out Chapter 17 to see how many questions you got correct, and to read through the answer explanation for every question you got wrong.

However, if it’s been a while since you’ve taken a math course, read Chapter 2, which covers the pre-algebra math-skills you need to know before you proceed to the more difficult math later in the book. Chapters 3 and 4, which cover algebra expressions and equations, can get your math brain moving again, and you may find that a lot of this stuff looks familiar as you go along.

Finally, if you read through a few chapters and feel that the book is moving more quickly than you’d like, go ahead and pick up my earlier book, Basic Math & Pre-Algebra For Dummies (John Wiley & Sons). There, I adopt a more leisurely pace and spend more time filling in any gaps in understanding you may find along the way.