Are you taking the SAT in September or October and wondering what some predictions for what could be on the test are? If you are prepping for the SAT, make sure you check out our online course at supertutortv.com. If you are running out of Blue Book material, which is the best way to predict what will be on the exam, our online course is based as closely as we can on real exams. It was written by me and six other professional tutors and a couple other curriculum writers that I picked that had amazing or perfect SAT scores in the sections that they’re specializing in. We also have private tutoring group classes.
I do not have a crystal ball, but there are some things that I’m seeing coming up and out of the College Board from their recent question dump that I’ve also seen on the more recent practice test that I think my students should know how to do. So, my first prediction is possession. We have seen a new possession question drop in the question bank that is testing a possession rule that I have not taught in a decade because I haven’t seen it on any official SAT questions on any of the digital SATs. I don’t know if that rule is going to be on the test, but I do think you need to know your possessive rules. I even created a possession cheat sheet for you guys that you can download for free at supertutortv.com/free.
So, let’s get into this possession rule. I’m going to show you this question from the question bank, and we’re going to talk about the rule at play.
In a recent analysis of lyrical trends in 350,000 songs, researchers cite increases in certain measures, such as the ratio of choruses to verses, as evidence music lyrics are becoming more repetitive. For instance, from 1970 to 2020, ______ chorus-to-verse ratios trended similarly, with each genre’s data indicating that relative to the number of unique verses, the number of repeated choruses in songs increased.
Which choice best completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) rocks and raps
B) rock’s and rap’s
C) rocks and rap’s
D) rock and rap’s
So here’s what’s going on, you guys. We have two words that have chorus-to-verse ratios, and here’s the trick to figuring out this question. What I have to ask myself is do rock and rap share a chorus-to-verse ratio, or do they each have their own chorus-to-verse ratio? It says in the text “with each genre’s data,” so that to me says each genre has its own data. So, the chorus-to-verse ratios may be different, but they trend similarly. So, we’re talking about two different ratios. That’s really important as I approach this possession question. I’m going to get into the rule in a minute after I teach this. Whenever two things are distinct and the ratios are different, we have to put a possessive on each of the subjects that are possessing the ratio, so it would be “rock’s ratio and rap’s ratio.” Therefore, the answer is B. But here’s the deal, you guys: if the circumstances were different, the correct answer would actually be D. And that would be if rock and rap had the same ratio together.
A quick example is May and Alma’s dog. So maybe May and Alma are sisters. If so, and they share a dog, we would say May and Alma’s dog, not May’s and Alma’s dog. When two people, subjects, whoever they are, share something, we only do one “apostrophe s.” If they had two dogs that they shared, May and Alma’s dogs would be correct. This isn’t a sentence, but you guys get the idea. But if May and Alma are unrelated and they both have dogs, but they’re different dogs, you would say May’s and Alma’s dogs. In this case, May has a dog, Alma has a dog, and they’re different dogs, or maybe May has two dogs, and Alma has two dogs, but they’re different.
The second thing that I expect to see on the SAT in October or September is number of solutions questions. I have seen a number of solutions question on almost every Blue Book exam if you’re triggering the hard section. Many of my students do these questions using Desmos, and I will tell you guys that method on these questions can be time-consuming. There is a better way using something called the discriminant.
-2x²+20x+c=0
In the given equation, c is a constant. The equation has exactly one solution. What is the value of c?
A) -68
B) -50
C) -32
D) 0
When we have a quadratic equation and we have number of solutions, the best way to solve a problem is the discriminant, because the discriminant determines the number of solutions. Now if you’re unsure what the discriminant is, remember the quadratic equation: opposite of b, plus or minus the square root of b squared minus 4ac all over 2a. You might be familiar with this. If you’re not familiar with it, you need to memorize it. So the discriminant is everything under the radical: b squared minus 4ac. If that piece is zero, then there’s only one solution, and it equals negative b over 2a. If this b squared minus 4ac is greater than zero, then there is more than one solution. And if it is less than zero, then you can’t take the square root of it, which means there are no real solutions. So those are the three cases that you guys should be aware of.
So now we’re just going to do b squared minus 4ac and it’s got to be equal to zero since there’s only one solution. We then solve for c and get that c equals -400 over 8, or -50. I have a lot of students who love to plug this into Desmos, but then you’re swimming around trying to get to -50. And if you’re anything like me, when you start off with your equation, you probably only have it at a 10 by 10 grid. And then you find yourself in Zoomland, and Zoomland is time-consuming. If there is one tip that I have for you—and I feel like I repeat myself all the time—do not overuse Desmos. Desmos is awesome. Learn to use it. But always learn to do Desmos questions without Desmos, and discriminant questions in particular tend to be faster if you just use this discriminant tool.
The third thing that I expect to see is questions where the answer the College Board wants is not x. Instead, it’s going to be x – 5 or x + 7 or y + x or 2x + 3. A lot of times the College Board throws out what I call a big ugly chunk that isn’t a single variable. Why do they do this? It makes it harder for students to backsolve a question in particular that just dropped into the question bank. It is kind of interesting as well, because it doesn’t even give a distinct answer choice. It gives a range, even though there is a distinct specific answer. So, this makes it even one degree more challenging.
If (x-5) / 7 = (x-5) / 9, the value of x-5 is between which of the following pairs of values?
A) -9 and -7
B) -3 and 3
C) 4.5 and 5.5
D) 6.75 and 9.25
You see that what they’re looking for is a range for the value of x – 5. Not only do they not give you a distinct number, even though there is a distinct number that’s the answer, but they also don’t give you x; they give you x – 5. Why do they do this? Again, it’s just more confusing. But the best thing for you guys to do is forget about the x – 5 because it’s already hanging out in two places. Just think of this as n over 7 equals n over 9. Now here’s a cool trick. You can actually just realize that for these two to be equal, the numerators are both going to have to be 0 because that’s the only way that this is going to work. Because essentially, this is one seventh times n equals one ninth times n. The only way that I get a fraction times a number and a different fraction times the same number, equaling the same thing, is if they equal 0. A lot of people would put 5 because if the value is zero, x is going to be 5, and they’re going to put answer choice C.
But the College Board is out to get you people, so remember, if you see this, what I like to instantly do is pop an n in just to make sure I don’t do the wrong thing. Let’s do it algebraically. So, I get n over 7 equals n over 9, and then I can cross multiply, and I get 7n equals 9n. And then I can do 9n – 7n = 0, and then I get 2n = 0. And then I apply what’s called the zero product property. What is the zero product property? If I have two entities multiplied by each other, either one or the other has to be 0 for that product to equal 0. That means n has to equal 0 because 2 cannot equal 0, and so the answer is B.
But remember, they ask for x – 5 or x + y or something else. Be on your toes, pay attention. I hope you guys like this blog and that it was helpful! If you want to predict what’s on the SAT, I have an awesome tip for you, which is to take as many Blue Book exams as possible. I swear, you guys, those exams are very similar to the real SAT you’re going to get on test day. All of these predictions are things that I have seen on actual SAT practice questions from the College Board. That’s how I’m predicting this, especially the last two, which I’m seeing over and over again. The more authentic practice questions you do, the better. If you’re out of those, check out our course, supertutortv.com, and go crush your SAT.
We recommend checking out our SAT possession cheat sheet available for FREE here!
