October 2006 PSAT Math Review -w- plugging in (Wednesday edition)

October 2006 PSAT Math Review -w- plugging in (Wednesday edition) This photocopy is taken from a review of the Wednesday 2006 PSAT that many juniors and sophomores took in October of this year. This includes Francis Parker Students and any other students who took their PSAT during school time rather than taking it over the weekend. Keep in mind that there is another version for these weekend students. I think the quality is a bit better on this scanned document than the lastI fixed it up a bit. During this lesson I discussed PLUGGING IN with my student, and how this does NOT necessarily mean you can choose ANY number for the variable, because one must first meet the REQUIREMENTS OF THE VARIABLE. For example, if the question tells you that n is a negative integer, you cant plug in a positive integer and still expect it to work. Remember that on a plug-in problem the value of your variable is the INPUT and the answer to the question is the OUTPUT. I also discussed with my student why it doesnt make sense to QUICKLY CORRECT your answers by looking at the correct answer and saying something like, Oh that was just a dumb mistake. Even if it was a careless mistake, that doesnt earn you any sort of extra credit. Close simply does not count on the SAT, so you still need to re-trace your steps from the beginning and see exactly WHERE you went wrong, in order to prevent yourself from making the same mistake again. And this takes time. This is why the homework assignments that I give my students are usually quite reasonable in length (most of my students have to complete only 2 sections per lesson, although some of my best students do much more because they answer fewer questions incorrectly). When preparing for the SAT, one should take at least 4 full tests worth of REAL PRACTICE SATS AVAILABLE FROM THE COLLEGE BOARD and at least one timed practice test, but TAKE YOUR TIME when going through the answers and you will do much better on test day. Likewise, if you eliminate it down to the last two answers but always seem to pick the wrong one (this happens frequently to students on the Critical Reading and Writing sections) you cant just say, Gosh, I have bad luck! Instead you have to figure out exactly why the answer you chose should have been eliminated. Its annoying to be so deliberate, but its well worth it in the end. -Brian