Link of the Day
Happy St. Patrick’s
Day! If you like celebrating holidays,
consider tracing the history of a holiday celebration as one of your historical
events, or even tracing the history of a holiday up to the present for a
current event. There are many
misconceptions about the origins of ideas and traditions, and the way that certain practices came about is fascinating.
Think about how this article about the history of St. Patrick’s day
could be used to answer the following SAT essay questions:
(1) Should people change their decisions when
circumstances change, or is it best for them to stick with their original
decisions?
(2) Do you think that ease does not challenge us
and that we need adversity to help us discover who we are?
(3) What motivates people to change?
Algebra: Absolute Value
Read the following SAT test
question and then select the correct answer.
If ,
which of the following could be true?
Bottom Line: which of the
following COULD be true?
Assess your Options: You could come up with answers to solve this
problem, but that will be a waste of time if they are not included in your
answer choices. Instead, look at the
answer choices and methodically eliminate incorrect answers.
Attack the Problem: Look at your answer choices:
(A) a = 0
(B) b = 0
(C) a = b
(D) a = -b
(E) a = 1
For a “which of the
following” question, Knowsys recommends that you begin with answer choice (E).
Hint: Instead of thinking of the bars in your
equation as absolute value, think of them as simply showing where a positive
number will be. If you do this, you will
not have to plug in actual numbers and you can check each answer choice using
logic. (This works because an absolute value simply tells you how far a number
is from zero. The double bars only
affect negative numbers, making them positive.)
(E) a = 1 Plug a = 1 into your original equation. Is
there any way to start out with the number 1 and subtract a positive number to
get the answer 5? There is not. Eliminate this answer.
(D) a = -b This answer choice has a negative sign, but
remember that any negative sign will go within the bars and come out a positive
number. So if you plug in b where the variable a is in this equation, you still end up
with b – b = 5. Is that
possible? No! Anything minus itself will be zero. Eliminate this answer.
(C) a = b This answer is essentially the same as the
last one! If you plug in b where you have an a, you wind up with b – b = 5.
Again, anything minus itself will be zero. Eliminate this answer.
(B) b = 0 Plug in 0 for the b in your equation. You now have a positive number minus 0 equals
5. Is that possible? Yes! 5
– 0 = 5. You are finished. You don’t have to know that a can be either negative 5 or 5, and you
don’t have to check the last answer choice.
Let’s check it just for practice.
(A) a = 0 Is there any way to
start with 0 and subtract a positive number to get 5? No!
Eliminate this choice.
The correct answer is (B).
On sat.collegeboard.org, 63% of the responses were correct.
For more help with SAT math, visit www.myknowsys.com!
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