The Sat I for Dummies® 2005 Book

	Introduction	1
	About This Book	1
	Conventions Used in This Book	2
	What You're Not to Read	3
	Foolish Assumptions	3
	How This Book Is Organized	4
	Icons Used in This Book	5
	Where to Go From Here	5
Part I	Surveying the Field	7
Chapter 1	Pouring Your Brain into Little Ovals - the SAT	9
	Sitting for the SAT Instead of ACTing Up	9
	Getting Set for the SAT: Registering for the Right Test at the Right Time	11
	Meeting Special Needs	12
	Measuring Your Mind: What the SAT Tests	13
	Scoring at the SAT	17
Chapter 2	Getting Ready, Set, and Going: Preparing for the SAT	19
	Flying with the Early Bird: A Long-Range Plan	19
	Hitting the Golden Mean: A Medium-Range Plan	21
	Controlling the Panic: A Short-Range Plan	22
	Snoozing through the Night Before	23
	Sailing through SAT-Day Morning	24
Part II	Reading Critically	27
Chapter 3	Reading Between (and on) the Lines: Preparing for the Critical Reading Section	29
	Getting Acquainted with Critical Reading Passages	29
	Following the Order of Difficulty	33
	Skipping When You're at the End of Your Rope	34
	Making a Long Story Short: Reading Quickly	34
	Understanding Sentencing Guidelines	35
Chapter 4	The Long and the Short of It: Answering Critical Reading Passage Questions	37
	Hiding in Plain Sight: SAT Question Jargon	37
	Taming the Wild Reading-Passage Question	38
	Deciding Which Comes First - the Question or the Answer: An SAT Dilemma	43
Chapter 5	Reading for Points: Practicing Full-Length Critical Reading Passages	45
	Hitting the Singles Scene	46
	Trying Out Paired Passages	51
Chapter 6	Abbreviating the Agony: Practice Questions for Short Reading Passages	55
	Practice Set One	55
	Practice Set Two	58
	Analyzing Your Scores	62
Chapter 7	Filling In the Blanks: Sentence Completions	63
	Sampling the Sentence Completion Menu	63
	Reading Around the Blanks	66
	Completing the Sentence: Steps That Work	68
Chapter 8	Practicing Sentence Completions	71
	Tackling Sample Set One	71
	Sampling Sentence Completions, Set Two	74
Part III	Writing for Fun and Profit	77
Chapter 9	Speed Writing without Shorthand: The Essay	79
	Answering Promptly	79
	Organizing Your Thoughts - Timing Is Everything	81
	Mastering the Writing Process	81
	Scoring the Essay: Rubrics without the Cube	85
Chapter 10	Practice Essays	87
	Practicing What I Preach: How to Approach These Sample Questions	87
	Essay Prompt	87
	Essay Prompt Two	88
	Essay Prompt Three	88
	Essay Prompt Four	88
	Essay Prompt Five	89
	Essay Prompt Six	89
	Essay Prompt Seven	89
	Essay Prompt Eight	89
Chapter 11	Joining the Grammar Police	91
	Surveying the Three Grammar Sections	92
	Nailing Nouns and Capturing Colons: The SAT Grammar Review	96
Chapter 12	Recognizing Your Mistakes: Practice Grammar Problems	103
	Error Recognition Questions	103
	Error Recognition Questions: Set Two	105
	Sentence Revision Questions	106
	Sentence Revision Questions: Set Two	109
	Paragraph Revision	111
Part IV	Take a Number: The Math Section	115
Chapter 13	Picking a Number, Any Number: The SAT Math Sections	117
	Adding and Subtracting: What's New in the SAT Math Section	117
	Calculating the Odds of SAT Success	120
	Taking Your Time versus Getting It Right	121
	Knowing When to Grid and Bear It	122
	Planning for the Battle: Some Math Strategies That Work	123
Chapter 14	Numb and Numbering: Everything You Need to Know About Numbers and Operations	125
	Meeting the Number Families	125
	Getting Your Priorities Straight: Order of Operations	127
	Playing Percentage Games	128
	Keeping It in Proportion: Ratios	129
	Getting DIRTy: Time, Rate, and Distance	131
	Demonstrating the Value of Radicals	132
	Computing Absolute Value	132
	Saying "MMM" Mean, Median, Mode	133
	Finding the Pattern: Though This Be Madness, Yet There Is Method in It	134
	Setting a Spell	135
Chapter 15	Practice Problems in Numbers and Operations	137
	Practice Set One	137
	Practice Set Two	140
Chapter 16	X Marks the Spot: Algebra and Functions	145
	Powering Up: Exponents	145
	Putting It Together and Taking It Apart: FOIL and Factoring	147
	Solving Equations: Why Don't They Just Tell Me What X Is?	149
	Barely Functioning	151
	Functioning at a Higher Level	152
Chapter 17	Practice Problems in Algebra and Functions	157
	Practice Set One	157
	Practice Set Two	161
Chapter 18	Checking More Figures Than an IRS Agent: Geometry Review	167
	Playing the Angles	168
	Chasing the Eternal Triangle	170
	Thanking You 4 Nothing: Quadrilaterals	176
	Playing with Polygons	178
	Running Around in Circles	179
	Avoiding Two-Dimensional Thinking: Solid Geometry	183
Chapter 19	Practice Problems in Geometry	185
	Practice Set One	185
	Practice Set Two	189
Chapter 20	Playing the Odds: Statistics and Probability	193
	Playing the Odds: Probability	193
	Psyching Out Multiple Probability Questions	194
	Surviving Geometric Probability	195
	Reading Graphs	196
	Analyzing Logic Questions	200
Chapter 21	Practice Problems in Probability, Statistics, and Logic	203
	Practice Set One	203
	Practice Set Two	208
Part V	Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Practice Tests	213
Chapter 22	Boring You to Tears: Practice Exam 1	219
Section 1219
Section 2220
Section 3226
Section 4231
Section 5237
Section 6242
Section 7247
Section 8251
	Answer Key for Practice Exam 1	255
	Scoring Your Exam	256
Chapter 23	Facing the Music: Checking Your Answers to Practice Exam 1	261
Section 1	The Essay	261
Section 2	Multiple-Choice Writing	262
Section 3	Critical Reading	264
Section 4	Mathematics	266
Section 5	Critical Reading	270
Section 6	Mathematics	272
Section 7	Critical Reading	274
Section 8	Mathematics	275
Chapter 24	Slightly More Fun Than a Root Canal: Practice Exam 2	283
Section 1283
Section 2284
Section 3290
Section 4295
Section 5302
Section 6307
Section 7312
Section 8316
	Answer Key for Practice Exam 2	321
	Scoring Your Exam	322
Chapter 25	Arriving at the Moment of Truth: Checking Your Answers to Practice Exam 2	327
Section 1	The Essay	327
Section 2	Multiple-Choice Writing	329
Section 3	Critical Reading	331
Section 4	Mathematics	333
Section 5	Critical Reading	337
Section 6	Mathematics	339
Section 7	Critical Reading	342
Section 8	Mathematics	343
Part VI	The Part of Tens	347
Chapter 26	Ten Things to Double-Check	349
	Stashing Your Admission Ticket	349
	Firing Blanks	349
	Keeping It Legal	349
	Gridding Your Teeth	349
	Ordering the Operations	350
	Giving Them What They Want	350
	Staying in Context	350
	Scrapping Meaningless Paper	350
	Erasing the Errors	350
	Writing Legibly	350
Chapter 27	Ten Ways to Calm Down	351
	Preparing Well	351
	Sleeping It Off	351
	Starting Early	351
	Making a List	351
	Stretching Your Muscles	352
	Rolling Your Head	352
	Breathing Deeply	352
	Isolating the Problem	352
	Becoming Fatalistic	352
	Focusing on the Future	352
	Index	353