SAT Math: Everything You Need To Know

The SAT Math section takes place during the second half of the SAT exam (after the Reading and Writing section and a 10-minute break). Students need to complete a combination of multiple-choice and student-produced response (SPR) questions (more on this below).

The materials covered are similar to the typical US high-school curriculum, focusing on algebra, advanced math, problem-solving, data analysis, geometry and trigonometry.

Math Section Overview

The section is structured into two modules, each containing 20 operational (scored) questions and 2 pretest questions (not scored), totaling 44 questions, or 22 questions per module. Students do not know which questions are pretest questions.

Each module is allocated 35 minutes, summing up to a total of 70 minutes for the entire section. This breaks down to approximately 1 minute and 35 seconds per question, challenging students to manage their time efficiently to demonstrate their math skills.

Information derived from College Board

Calculators

In the Digital SAT exam, calculators are permitted for the entire math section. Students can bring their own physical calculators (see allowed calculators), or use the built-in DESMOS graphing calculator provided.

Formula Sheet

The Digital SAT provides a built-in math formula sheet that includes common geometry formulas and other mathematical references. While these formulas are provided, it's still beneficial to memorize them to save time during the exam. The formula sheet includes formulas for:

• Area and perimeter of common shapes
• Volume and surface area of 3D figures
• Properties of special triangles
• Basic trigonometric ratios

Adaptive Testing

Both modules cover the same topics but not necessarily at the same difficulty. Adaptive testing, a new test methodology introduced by College Board in the Digital SAT, dynamically generates an easier or harder second module depending on the student's performance on the first module, which typically contains a mix of easy and difficult questions.

Question Types

The Math section questions are categorized into four major sections called domains:

1. Algebra: Assesses the capability to understand, solve, and construct linear equations and inequalities, as well as systems of equations.

2. Advanced Math: Evaluates readiness for higher-level math by testing understanding of various types of nonlinear equations, including but not limited to absolute value, quadratic, and exponential equations.

3. Problem-Solving and Data Analysis: Tests quantitative reasoning skills, particularly in dealing with ratios, rates, unit rates, and data interpretation

4. Geometry and Trigonometry: Focuses on geometric calculations involving area, volume, angles, triangles, and circles.

For each domain, there is a further sub-classification of questions into skills:

Question Formats

Unlike the Reading and Writing questions, SAT Math questions come in two different formats - multiple choice and student-produced response (SPR).

Multiple Choice

Multiple-choice questions always consist of 4 answer choices: A, B, C and D. In the math section, these choices can represent anything from number values to expressions/equations to sentence responses to word problems.

As with other College Board exams, there is no penalty for guessing or getting incorrect answers on the SAT, so it's always in the student's best interest to answer every multiple-choice question.

The general strategy to multiple choice is fairly straightforward: if you don't know the correct answer, eliminate as many wrong answers as possible to maximize your chances.

Starting with a 25% chance of guessing the correct answer, eliminating one answer choice increases odds to 33%, and eliminating a second answer choice boosts the odds to a solid 50%. We strongly recommend using the cross-out tool in the test interface to eliminate wrong answer choices.

Tip on Eliminating Wrong Answers in Multiple Choice

When it comes to expression or equation multiple choice answers, College Board likes to throw in similar looking choices to confuse students, but students can also use this to their advantage by eliminating them together.

For example, $4 + \sqrt{2}$ and $4 - \sqrt{2}$ are very similar with only a sign difference. If a student knew the correct answer had to have a $\sqrt{3}$, for instance, he or she would be able to eliminate both choices in one go.

Similarly, if the student realized the answer choice definitely contains $\sqrt{2}$, he or she can safely eliminate the other answer choices.

Student-produced Response

Unique to the math section and accounting for roughly 25% of the questions, student-produced response (SPR) questions are free-form questions that contain a single correct answer value that the student must get exactly right.

These questions typically ask for a specific numerical value (an integer or rational number). Students can enter the answer in decimal (e.g. $0.667$) or fractional (e.g. $\frac{2}{3}$) form.

With these questions, students no longer have the luxury of guessing, but at the same time the scope of these questions are quite limited - there won't be complex expressions or equations as answers.

We recommend reserving extra time for SPR questions since it can take a while to get the final answer - at least 2 minutes per question. In a time crunch, we also recommend skipping these questions since they are effectively all-or-nothing, whereas eliminating answer choices in multiple-choice questions can at least increase the odds of getting them correct.

Scoring

The SAT Math section is scored on a range from 200 to 800. The score calculation is performed by converting the raw score of 40 questions (the 4 pretest questions are not counted towards the scoring) to the 800 scale.

It's important to note that the scoring algorithm is not linear as each question is weighed differently, and the weights of each question is not disclosed. Furthermore, since each exam has its own unique questions the scoring curve from exam to exam is also different, making it impossible to exactly predict final scores.

It is, however, possible to estimate score ranges from raw scores using publicly available inforation. You can try our Digital SAT Score Calculator to estimate score ranges yourself.