Princeton Review Digital SAT Advanced (College Test Preparation), 2nd Edition (2024)

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ISBN 9780593517475
Ebook ISBN 9780593517482
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Acknowledgments
Very special thanks to the authors of this title, Kenneth Brenner, Sara Kuperstein,
and Scott O’Neal.
Special thanks to the following contributors who assisted with more than one part of
this book: Harrison Foster, Beth Hollingsworth, Robert Otey, Gabby Peterson, Kathy
Ruppert, and Suzanne Wint.
Thanks as well to the following contributors: Aleksei Alferiev, Tania Capone, Paul
Christiansen, Stacey Cowap, Wazhma Daftanai, Adam Keller, Kevin Keogh, Ali
Landreau, Aaron Lindh, Jomil London, Sweena Mangal, Sionainn Marcoux, Valerie
Meyers, Jason Morgan, Acacia Nawrocik-Madrid, Elizabeth Owens, Denise Pollard,
and Jess Thomas.
Content Director of High School Programs
Amy Minster

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Contents
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Part I: Orientation
1 Introduction to the Digital SAT
2 Digital SAT Overall Strategies and Pacing
3 Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them
4 Mastering the Reading and Writing Section
Part II: SAT Advanced Reading Strategies
5 Reading Introduction
6 Exploring Advanced Vocabulary
7 Identifying Structural Words
8 Understanding Sentence Function
9 Mastering Process of Elimination
10 Working with Poetry
11 Overcoming Challenging Scenarios
12 Reading Drills: Answers and Explanations
Part III: SAT Advanced Writing Strategies
13 Writing Introduction
14 Rules Topics and How to Spot Them
15 Tricky Punctuation
16 Tricky Grammar
17 Rules Conclusion: Identifying Question Types, Saving Time, and
Smart Guessing
18 Tricky Transitions
19 Tricky Rhetorical Synthesis
20 Writing Drills: Answers and Explanations
Part IV: SAT Advanced Math Strategies
21 Math Section Introduction
22 Use Your Pacing Strategies and POOD
23 Use Your TPR Math Tactics
24 Use the Built-In Calculator
25 Use Your Math Knowledge

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Chapter 1
Introduction to the Digital SAT
The pursuit of a perfect or near-perfect SAT score is an impressive goal. Achieving
that goal requires a thorough command of the material and strategies specific to the
SAT. To begin your quest, learn everything you can about the test. This chapter
presents an overview of the Digital SAT, advice about when to take it, information
about how SAT scores are used, and a summary of what this book offers.

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WELCOME
So, you think you can score a 1450 or better? We’re all for it. The Princeton Review
supports all students who want to do their best. We’ve written this book specifically
for students who are in a position to score at the very highest levels. This means you
are already scoring at a 1350 or above and are looking to fine-tune your approach to
get a few more correct answers. We believe that to achieve a perfect or near-perfect
score, you have to know as much as possible about the test itself and, more important,
about yourself.
You may know all of the basic facts about the Digital SAT already, but even if you
think you do, we encourage you to read through this chapter to be sure you know
every single thing you can about the test you’re going to conquer.
FUN FACTS ABOUT THE DIGITAL SAT
All of the content review and strategies we teach in the following lessons are based
on the specific structure and format of the Digital SAT. Before you can beat the test,
you have to know how it’s built.
Structure
The Digital SAT consists of two main sections: Reading and Writing (RW) and Math.
Each section is broken into two modules, so you’ll do two RW modules, take a break,
and then do two Math modules.
Reading/Writing: 32 minutes, 27 questions*
Reading/Writing: 32 minutes, 27 questions*
Break: 10 minutes
Math: 35 minutes, 22 questions*
Math: 35 minutes, 22 questions*
*Two questions from each module won’t be scored. College Board calls these “pre-
test questions,” but you won’t know which two questions are unscored.
Why does College Board break the sections into two modules each? Because the
difficulty of the second module actually depends on how you do on the first one.
Since you take this test on a computer, the software can go ahead and score your first
module of each section instantaneously. Then, it will automatically give you a second
module of that section based on the results. Here’s how that works:
As you can see, if you do pretty well on the first module of either RW or Math, your
second module will be a bit (or possibly a lot) harder than the first one. On the other
hand, if you don’t do as well, you’ll get an easier second module. The idea behind
this is that you don’t waste time with questions that aren’t appropriate for your skill
level. If someone is very weak on math, that person should be given a greater number
of easier questions to do, as there’s no point in giving that person a bunch of hard
questions that the student is just going to have to guess on. On the other hand, students

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who are very strong on RW should get to prove their abilities by being given more
challenging questions.
Of course, your score is going to be adjusted accordingly. Your second module is
going to be weighted more if it is the harder one. That being said, you’re reading this
book because you are hoping to score at least 1450. In that case, you will need to get
the harder second module on both RW and Math, so we won’t waste time discussing
the easier second module in any greater detail.
You may be wondering what the cutoff is for the harder second module. How many
correct answers do you need on the first module to get the harder second module?
The answer is a bit complicated. We’ve found that it differs from test to test, and it
may even differ depending on which questions you answer correctly—not just how
many. However, we can confidently say that you need to answer more than half of
the questions correctly on the first module to be given the harder second module.
If you’re reading this book, you should already be answering more than half of the
questions right on each first module.
Scoring
The Reading and Writing section and the Math section are each scored on a scale
from 200 to 800 and then added together for an overall score between 400 and 1600.
How do the two modules together make up that 800-point score? It’s hard to say.
As you can imagine, there are many combinations of right answers that students can
get. College Board hasn’t publicized much about the scoring on the Digital SAT.
We know that the questions are weighted more on the harder second module and
that individual questions are weighted slightly differently depending on factors that
College Board hasn’t disclosed. Because the scoring on the Digital SAT is so difficult
to figure out, it’s not worth wasting time trying to determine how many correct
answers you need or what your score is going to be with different combinations of
right and wrong answers. Our online tests will give you scores, but they should be
considered approximate. You’re here to score as high as possible, so focus on using
the strategies in this book to do just that.
When you receive your score report about two weeks after taking the test, it will show
your RW and Math scores out of 800. It will also show you a visual depiction of how
well you did in a few broad categories, such as Expression of Ideas and Advanced
Math. You won’t know exactly how many questions you missed, overall or by
category. You will be given a percentile that shows how you did in comparison to
other test-takers.
CONTENT
In Parts II–IV of this book, we’ll provide more specifics about the content areas within
Reading, Writing, and Math. Here’s a brief overview of each section.

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Reading and Writing
This is one section of the test and one scoring area, but it really consists of two
separate subjects (Reading and Writing). Thus, this book covers them separately.
Each question on Reading and Writing has a short passage (25–150 words) or
occasionally two small passages. Reading questions include vocabulary and reading
comprehension, the latter of which will ask you to understand the meaning and/or
structure of a text, which could include literature. Writing questions relate to
punctuation and grammar rules as well as the composition of sentences. Both Reading
and Writing questions have passages on topics such as science, history/culture, and
the arts. The Reading and Writing modules are organized in a very specific way, by
both topic and difficulty level, which you’ll learn more about later.
Math
Most Math questions are multiple-choice, but about 25% are fill-ins in which you
type the answer yourself. The Math questions are roughly organized from easiest to
hardest, so the most challenging questions will come toward the end of each module.
Math subjects include lots of algebra, arithmetic, data and statistics, coordinate
geometry, plane geometry, and trigonometry.
TOOLS AND RESOURCES
As the name suggests, the Digital SAT is taken on a computer—but that doesn’t mean
you can just kick back and click on answers from the comfort of your bed. You’ll
still need to go in person to take it with a group of students and a proctor, an adult
who gives instructions and monitors the test-taking conditions.
Although the test is given on the computer (you’ll either take your own device or
use one at the testing center), you will be given scratch paper and can take your own
pens or pencils. In the Math section of this book, you’ll get some advice on how to
effectively use the scratch paper. You can also use scratch paper on the RW section
if you find it helpful. In addition, you’re allowed to take your own basic or graphing
calculator.
The computer software that delivers the test does provide you with some extremely
helpful tools, though. Let’s take a look at what they are:
Tool: Answer eliminator
Function: Cross off multiple-choice answers on the screen
Tips: Use this on both RW and Math anytime you see an answer that definitely
isn’t right.
Tool: Highlight/annotate (RW only)
Function: Highlight any part of the question and/or passage and type an
associated note into a box

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Tips: You can highlight what the question is asking for and any key information in
the text. If the answer isn’t stated in the text (such as for Purpose questions),
annotate what the answer should be in your own words.
Tool: Built-in Desmos calculator (Math only)
Function: Perform basic calculations and graph nearly any equation in any format
Tips: This calculator is much more powerful and more helpful than a handheld
graphing calculator and can help you answer hard questions in seconds.
Tool: Reference sheet (Math only)
Function: Provide math formulas (mostly geometry) that may be needed for
questions
Tips: Make sure you know what formulas are provided so that you’ll know to find
them on the reference sheet if needed.
Tool: Review page
Function: See what questions have been answered, left unanswered, and marked
Tips: Instead of clicking the forward and back buttons repeatedly, use the review
page to go directly to the question you want to look at.
Tool: Mark for review button
Function: Show the question as “marked” on the review page
Tips: We recommend using this to indicate questions you started but got stuck on
and want to return to later.
Practice with the on-screen tools on your Digital SAT
practice tests before test day.
You’ll learn much more about how to use these tools effectively later in this book.
For now, keep in mind that you want to become fully comfortable with using the on-
screen tools before test day. If you don’t take advantage of them, you’ll really hurt
your chances of scoring as high as you’d like.
THE SAT SCHEDULE
The SAT is currently offered in the U.S. and internationally seven times a year:
August, October, November, December, March, May, and June. In addition, your
school may offer a School Day SAT at other times of the year.
Take the SAT when your schedule best allows. You generally don’t need to take
the SAT for the first time until at least the fall of your junior year. It’s best not to
start too early because you want to take advantage of the learning and growth you’ll
experience leading up to applying for college. Most students end up taking the SAT
two or three times. We recommend that you find a 3–4-month window in your
schedule that covers at least two SAT tests. Prep first, then take a test, and then

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continue prepping as needed for a second or third test. This way, you can be finished
with the SAT in a relatively short period of time. You’ll do better if you concentrate
on SAT prep for that shorter window of time rather than dragging out your prep over
an extended period. We also encourage you to be finished taking the SAT by the end
of your junior year. In your senior year, you’ll be busy with college applications as
well as all the fun things that come along with your final year of high school. You’ll
be glad if you’re already finished with the SAT at that point!
Here are some example schedules that we recommend:
Start prepping: Summer before 11th grade
First test: August
Second test: October
Final test if needed: November/December
Consider this: The August, October, November, and December tests are close
together. You might need to go ahead and register for the next one before you get
your scores from the previous one. If you wait to get your scores, you might miss
the registration deadline.
Start prepping: Fall of 11th grade
First test: October
Second test: November
Final test if needed: December
Consider this: The October, November, and December tests are close together. You
might need to go ahead and register for the next one before you get your scores from
the previous one. If you wait to get your scores, you might miss the registration
deadline.
Start prepping: Winter of 11th grade
First test: March
Second test: May
Final test if needed: June
Consider this: There are two months between March and May, so you can wait to get
your March scores to see whether you need to take the test again. However, if you
are taking AP exams, you may not be as focused to take the SAT in May.
REGISTERING FOR THE SAT
Go to collegeboard.org and create a student account. At collegeboard.org, you can
view test dates, fees, and registration deadlines. You can research the requirements
and processes to apply for extended time or other accommodations, register for the
test, view your scores, and order score reports.

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You can contact College Board customer service by phone at 866-756-7346 (or at +1
212-713-7789 for international callers), but you cannot sign up for the test by phone
if you are taking it for the first time.
Test Security
As part of the registration process, you have to upload or mail a
photograph that will be printed on your admission ticket. On test
day, you have to take the ticket and acceptable photo identification
with you.
Scores
When you register for the SAT, you’ll be given the option to automatically send the
scores from that date to four colleges of your choice. If this is your one and only
time taking the SAT and you are already in the process of applying to college, go
ahead and do this! Most likely, though, that isn’t going to be your situation. If you
are taking the SAT before your senior year, as we recommend, it’ll be too early to
send SAT scores to colleges even if you have already solidified your list of schools.
Furthermore, you may be considering taking the test again, or you may have already
taken it once or twice. In that case, you don’t want to automatically send the scores.
You might have done better on an earlier test, or you might do better on a future test.
So, in most cases you’ll want to skip sending scores to colleges until later on when
you already have all of your SAT scores across multiple dates and are in the college
application process. (There is a fee associated with this.)
So, let’s say you end up taking the SAT twice. The second time, you score higher
on both RW and Math. In that case, when you apply to college, you’ll just go ahead
and send the scores from the second date. There’s no reason to send the first set of
scores since both of them were lower. The only exception to this is if a college says
you must send all of your scores, in which case you should be sure to do that.
On the other hand, maybe you take it twice and on the second try you improve your
Math but decrease your RW, so your best RW score is from the first date and your
best Math score is from the second date. In that case, you’ll want to send both sets of
scores. Most colleges superscore, which means they’ll take your highest RW score
and your highest Math score even if you didn’t get them on the same test. As a final
possibility, some schools ask you to send your single best date. In that case, just send
the one with the highest overall score.
It’s also worth noting that it’s possible to cancel your SAT scores, but only before you
actually get the scores. You can cancel your scores at the testing center or within a
week of taking the test, but this should be done only in the most extreme
circumstances, like if you became violently ill and didn’t answer any questions on

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the test. In any other case, you shouldn’t cancel, even if you feel you didn’t perform
your best, because—remember—you can generally choose which scores you send to
colleges. You may not have done as badly as you think, and even if you did, you can
simply choose not to send those scores (unless a college asks to see all of your scores,
but in that case they are most likely going to take a superscore).
Testing Policies
As you just saw, college admissions policies on test scores can vary in terms of how
many scores you need to submit and how they treat those scores. That’s why it’s
crucial that you do some research on colleges you think you might be interested in.
Do it now, because you may find that the schools you like don’t require you to submit
SAT scores—or may not even accept them at all. You definitely want to find out
whether you even need to take the SAT before you invest a lot of time into preparing
for it. Let’s take a look at the different ways colleges can treat SAT scores.
Colleges will generally accept either the ACT or the
SAT, but we’re going to focus on the SAT since
that’s what you’ve chosen to prepare for.
Policy Description
Test
required
You must submit SAT scores in order for your application to be
considered.
Test
optional
You may submit SAT scores, and they can help your chances of
getting in, but scores aren’t required.
Test
flexible
Instead of submitting SAT scores, you can meet requirements by
submitting AP exams, IB exams, or other types of tests or by having a
certain GPA or class rank.
Test
blind
Even if you submit test scores, they won’t be considered as part of your
application, so don’t waste your time and money submitting them.
It’s important to keep in mind that these policies can change from year to year. Many
colleges put in place test-optional policies during the COVID-19 pandemic, but some
have gone back to requiring test scores and others still may in the future. Make sure
to check the admissions website to see what each school’s policy is, and call or email
the admissions office if you have any questions about the policy.
There are also other reasons to take the SAT besides college admissions. Some
schools may not require the test for admissions, but they may still use SAT scores for
placement into classes, scholarships, or other uses. And if a school is test-optional,
the 1450+ you’re aiming for can help you stand out if that’s above the average SAT
score for that school. It can also help balance out weaker aspects of your application.
We’ll take a closer look at that in a moment.

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THE BIG PICTURE
Ultimately, you’re taking the SAT because of college, whether it’s for admissions, a
scholarship, or something else. So, let’s examine what that big picture of applying to
college looks like. First, you need to do some research and find schools that are a good
fit for your personality and interests and have what you are looking for in a college.
For instance, if you want to study Russian literature, you should apply to colleges that
offer such a program. We know that high-scorers tend to focus on a small handful of
elite, highly selective institutions. There’s no harm in considering these schools, but
make sure to find out whether they’re a good fit for you. Your dream school shouldn’t
be based solely or even primarily on the name or reputation of the school. There are
hundreds of great colleges and universities in the U.S., and just because you may not
have heard of one already doesn’t mean it couldn’t be a good fit for you.
Aside from considering how good of a fit each college is for you, it’s also worth
looking at how much you’re going to have to pay. College is expensive, and it’s
challenging to have to pay off college loans when you’re just starting out in your post-
college career. Since you’re trying to maximize your SAT score, why not consider
a college that will pay you for doing so? There are some colleges that will actually
grant you an automatic scholarship just for having a high SAT score and a solid GPA.
For example, as of 2024, Texas Tech and the University of Oklahoma each offered
up to $9,000 per year for a top SAT score and GPA. There are also many colleges
that will automatically consider you for a scholarship based on your SAT score and
GPA. The reality is that neither your near-perfect test score nor your near-perfect
GPA is going to make you stand out at an elite college that accepts less than 10% of
applicants. Almost everyone applying to those schools has equally good credentials.
However, if you’re willing to consider schools beyond the ones with the most name
recognition, you may find something that is not only a great fit for you but is also
significantly more affordable.
Let’s also keep in mind that test scores are only one part of the application. When you
apply to college, in addition to test scores, you’ll submit your high school transcript
that includes your courses, final grades, GPA, and class rank; the application with all
of your information on it, such as demographics, family data, and extracurriculars;
and one or more essays. In addition, you may be submitting a portfolio, other types
of test scores (such as those from AP exams), and/or a résumé. Colleges may also
consider an audition or interview. All that goes to show that your chances of
admission go far beyond the strength of your SAT scores. In fact, for many schools,
the test scores are less important than most of these other factors. That’s why it’s
critical not to let test prep consume your life. It’s okay to be persistent about
improving your score, but it’s also important to have other interests and pursue things
you’re passionate about. Colleges want to accept students who are well-rounded and
have activities beyond preparing to apply to college. And as obsessive as The

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Princeton Review may be about this test, we’d like for you to find some more useful
hobbies.
SETTING REASONABLE GOALS
If your last SAT score was a 1400 and your test is in three days, it’s not realistic to
think that you can improve to a 1550 in that short amount of time (no matter how
good the advice in this book is!). Unfortunately, there’s no single way to predict
how much a student’s score can improve. It all depends on how much time you put
into it, your willingness to try out and work on new methods, and how quickly you
learn. If you take the time to carefully read through this book and work through the
exercises it contains, using the new techniques you’ve learned, we think you’ll see
a real improvement.
But it’s important to keep in mind what improvements look like when you’re scoring
above a 700 in a given section. As we mentioned earlier, the Digital SAT’s scoring
looks different from test to test. On previous versions of the SAT, we’ve seen tests
on which you could miss a couple of questions and still get a perfect 800 as well as
tests on which missing two questions could bring your score down to a 760. These
fluctuations are impossible to predict and relate to how easy or hard the test happened
to be on a particular day. According to College Board, a score of 1400 puts you at the
93rd percentile, meaning you’re in the top 7% of students who take the SAT. There’s
nothing wrong with wanting to score even higher, especially if you find it fun to try to
maximize your SAT score (yes, we know there are some of you out there!). The better
prepared you are, the better your odds of hitting your goal, but it’s not a bad idea to
come up with a goal you can live with as well as a dream goal. If you happen to have
a great test day and get a version of the test that plays perfectly to your strengths, then
you may hit your ultimate goal, but otherwise you can at least get to a score you’re
satisfied with. In this book, we’ll give you all the tips and strategies we can come
up with to get you as high a score as possible. But admissions officers know just as
well as you do that the difference between a 700 and an 800 is a matter of a handful
of questions. Do your best to prepare, but don’t put too much pressure on yourself.
There’s more to life (and college admissions) than the SAT!
THIS BOOK AND YOU
As we mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, this book is designed for students
who are already consistently scoring at a 1350 or above. If you haven’t yet reached
this threshold, we would encourage you to pick up a copy of Digital SAT Premium
Prep first. That book covers virtually every single topic on the SAT and will provide
you with great strategies that should help you to correctly answer the majority of the
questions on the test. It also includes several practice tests that you can use to work
on your overall technique using the strategies from the book. Even if you are a very
smart person and do well in advanced classes in school, if you’re not already scoring

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at a high level, you’re better off starting with SAT Premium Prep because it will help
you improve in the areas that affect your score the most.
This book does not cover every topic on the test. In fact, it doesn’t even cover all of the
most common topics. We’ve chosen topics for this book based on what College Board
considers hard questions, the common mistakes higher-scorers make, and smaller
strategies that can help with those last few points. Before learning these topics, you
need to have mastered the most commonly tested areas and need to have a solid pacing
strategy. If you tend to do well on standardized tests but haven’t become familiar
with the SAT yet, try taking a free practice test either from College Board via its
Bluebook app or on our website, princetonreview.com. The resulting score will help
you decide whether this book will meet your needs or whether you should start with
Digital SAT Premium Prep.
Once you’ve read through Chapters 1 through 3, you
will have done some self-analysis and will have a
better idea of where to start. You’ll also get
information on how to find a chapter guide in your
online student tools.
If you’re ready to proceed, welcome! This book begins with some information on
overall strategies and how to find what you need to work on, which we think will
be an extremely helpful place to start. After that, you’ll find chapters on Reading,
Writing, and Math in that order. Chances are, you won’t need every chapter in this
book. For instance, if you have a strong vocabulary and never miss a vocab question,
you may be able to skip the chapter dealing with vocabulary. You have our permission
to choose the chapters that are going to be most helpful for you, but be sure to read
the introduction for each section before diving in to any chapters from that section.
Once you feel that you’ve mastered the content and strategies for each section of the
test, you can put all your new skills into practice on the test modules in Part V. There
is one for Reading and Writing and one for Math. These represent the mix of topics
and difficulty levels you are likely to see on the harder second module in each section.
You can go through each one selectively to find more questions on a given topic that
you’d like to practice, or you can take the full module, timed, to practice your pacing
while applying your new SAT mastery. The choice is yours.
So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started!

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Chapter 2
Digital SAT Overall Strategies and
Pacing
To earn a perfect or near-perfect SAT score, you need strategies specific to the SAT.
In this chapter, we’ll provide an overview of the universal strategies. Each section of
the SAT demands a specific approach, and even the most universal strategies vary
in their applications. In Parts II–IV, we’ll discuss these strategies in greater detail
customized to the Reading, Writing, and Math portions of the test.

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If you are currently scoring at a 1350 or higher, you already have a decent overall
strategy. It’s probably not a good idea to completely abandon your current techniques,
especially if you don’t have much time before you plan to take the Digital SAT. In
this chapter, we’ll go over what we think are the best ways to approach the test as a
whole. Chances are, you’ve already been using some of these methods on your own.
If not, and if you have some time, try them out on a practice test or a practice section
to see how they work for you.
SLOW DOWN, SCORE MORE
One of the biggest challenges on the SAT is that you have a limited amount of time
to answer the questions in each module. The obvious solution is to simply go faster.
Of course, this isn’t as simple as it sounds. Moving through the module more quickly
comes with major trade-offs, namely that you’re going to miss a lot of questions that
you would have gotten right otherwise. Don’t get us wrong: there are ways to save
time (and we’ll tell you all about them in this book). But rushing, skimming, skipping
steps, and all of the other ways to “go faster” are only going to hurt your score. So,
we’re actually going to tell you the opposite of the “obvious” solution to the time
limit: you may actually need to slow down in order to score higher.
This isn’t true for everyone. If you find that you don’t tend to run out of time and you
know that you wouldn’t have gotten more right answers even with unlimited time,
then feel free to move on to the next point in this chapter. However, if you are making
any careless errors or if you find yourself panicking about time and rushing, then
slowing down can actually help. The goal is to get every single question right that
you are able to get right. If you understand a question and know how to do it, you
should be getting it right. Take the time that you need in order to do so. Instead of
spending one minute on a question and getting it wrong, spend a minute and fifteen
seconds and get it right. Otherwise, you’ve literally wasted that minute because you
got the question wrong. You might as well have skipped it and not spent any time.
Going along with this, you don’t want to hurry to answer the questions and then end up
having five minutes or more left at the end. You might think it would be beneficial to
have extra time to check your work, but in our experience, this isn’t the best method.
Usually, students don’t spot and correct their errors when they go back and check
their work, so that extra time doesn’t really help. Instead, keep an eye on the clock
and try to pace yourself so that you can finish close to when time runs out, not early.
The additional time you spend on the questions will make much more of a difference
than any “go back and check” time at the end. Plus, if you’ve applied the strategies
in this book, you can be confident that you did the question right the first time. The
more you practice full sections and tests, the better you’ll get at knowing what the 32
minutes on an RW module or the 35 minutes on a Math module feels like and how
quickly or slowly you should be moving through the module.

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PERSONAL ORDER OF DIFFICULTY
Hand-in-hand with slowing down on questions is the order in which you attempt the
questions, which we call your Personal Order of Difficulty (POOD). As we touched
on in the Introduction chapter, both the RW and the Math modules are organized
to some extent in an order of difficulty. However, that’s based on College Board’s
opinion of difficulty level. Just because the test-writers think a question is hard
doesn’t mean it will be hard for you, and just because they think it’s easy doesn’t
mean it will be easy for you. Take a look at the following example:
Mark for Review
20. A circle in the xy-plane has the equation x2 + 4x + y2 + 12y = 24. What is the
radius of the circle?
This question will be covered in Chapter 25, so don’t
solve it now!
College Board has put questions like this near the very end of a harder second module.
According to College Board (and your math teacher), in order to solve this problem,
you need to be familiar with the standard form equation of a circle, complete the
square to get this equation into standard form, and then find the radius using standard
form. It’s not difficult to see why that would be considered hard. There’s a lot you
would need to know and be able to do in order to solve this problem College Board’s
way. Plus, it’s going to be fairly time-consuming, especially if completing the square
isn’t something you do regularly, and there are a few tricky aspects to this problem
that could cause you to make a mistake even if you know what to do. However, as
you will find out much more about later in this book, you can actually just type this
equation exactly as it is into the built-in calculator, see the circle with two endpoints
for the diameter, and use that to easily find the radius. For you, this actually becomes
an easy question that should take less than a minute to solve, and it’s not one you
would want to save for the very end even though that’s where it appears.
That’s exactly why we would always advise you to follow your Personal Order of
Difficulty. That means you should do whatever questions are easiest for you first,
regardless of where they appear in the module. (We’ll talk more about what that
means for RW later on, since the RW has specific groupings of questions.) There
are several benefits to the POOD strategy. First off, you get the easy stuff out of
the way. If a question doesn’t take much time and you know you can get it right,
you might as well go ahead and do it. Although we know College Board does weigh
individual questions slightly differently, overall, your score is based on how many
correct answers you get. In the interest of getting as many correct answers as possible,
you want to make sure you get all of those easy questions and don’t run out of time
before you get to them. By doing the easier questions first, you’ll also start the module

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more confidently and you won’t have to stress about how much time you’re spending
on harder questions early on.
The other part of this strategy entails skipping harder questions until you’ve gotten
all of the easy ones out of the way. If a question looks like it might take a while or
it’s on a topic you feel less confident with, just save it for later. Try to think of every
question as a point. Your goal is to collect as many points as you can throughout the
module. Get the easy points first, and save the harder points for later. You’ll find it
much easier to pace yourself toward the end of the time limit if you know that you
have only the harder questions left. Lastly, don’t be stubborn. Your goal is to collect
as many points as possible. Be willing to take a break from a question and come back
to it if you’re not close to getting an answer.
Remember, if you start a question and get stuck,
use the Mark for Review button and come back
later.
SKIPPING, GUESSING, AND POE
It might happen that you have a few minutes remaining on the timer and a few hard
questions left to do. In some cases, it may actually be strategic to just take a random
guess on a question if that allows you to use your limited remaining time for the other
questions that you’re more likely to get right. Of course, if you’re aiming for a top
score, you can’t guess on many questions. But in many cases, it’s worth sacrificing
that one really hard question that you’re not likely to get right so that you can get
the other ones.
Don’t leave any questions blank. Even on the fill-ins on Math, you can still take a
guess. You’re not likely to guess correctly, but we would recommend picking an
integer from 0 to 5, as these are the most common correct answers. If you have to
guess on a multiple-choice question and don’t want to spend any time on the question,
just guess a random letter—there isn’t a letter that’s “better” than the others.
There’s no penalty for guessing on the Digital SAT,
so don’t leave any questions blank.
On the other hand, if you want to spend a little time on the question, you may be able
to improve your odds when guessing. Perhaps you really don’t understand a reading
passage, but you see an answer that just doesn’t seem likely. You don’t know for
sure that it’s wrong, but you want to take a good guess, instead of a random guess.
Here’s an example:
Mark for Review
15. Which choice most logically completes the text?

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A Arizona’s allocated share of water from the Colorado River is too
low in comparison with Colorado’s share.
B during normal or low rainfall years, the river may have less water
than is required for municipal use.
C the state of Colorado is able to exercise dictatorial control over the
current water allocation system.
D Arizona will be subject to catastrophic flood risks due to the
existing imbalance of water resources.
Once you have read the Reading chapters in this book, you’ll know that answers with
strong—or, as we would say, extreme—language are often trap answers. Thus, if we
had to guess on this question and didn’t have time (or chose not to spend the time)
to check the answers against the passage, we probably wouldn’t guess (C) because
it uses the strong phrase dictatorial control. That doesn’t mean that (C) couldn’t be
correct, but if we have to guess, we won’t pick it.
Again, guessing isn’t going to be a key strategy for anyone aiming to score above a
1400. What will be an extremely helpful strategy, though, is Process of Elimination.
In school, you usually have to know the answers to the questions you’re asked in
order to get them correct. Seems pretty obvious, right? But that’s not the case for the
vast majority of questions on the Digital SAT. You don’t necessarily need to know
what the answer is, as long as you know what it isn’t. In other words, if you can
eliminate three wrong answers, you’ll be left with the one right answer. What’s more,
it’s often easier to spot the wrong answers than the right ones, especially on RW.
We’ll talk much more about Process of Elimination, or POE, as it relates to specific
topics later in this book. But let’s go ahead and see an example of how helpful this
strategy can be:
Mark for Review
18. In function f, the value of f(x) decreases by a factor of 5 for every increase of
1 in the value of x. If f(0) = 100, which of the following equations defines
function f ?
A f(x) = (100)x
B f(x) = x100
C f(x) = 100
D f(x) = 100

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This is another Math question that College Board considers hard. And we’re sure you
can see why. The four answers look very similar—they all have the same numbers
and variables but in different spots. It’s very easy to convince yourself that one of
the answers “makes sense,” but that’s an extremely risky strategy. You might also be
tempted to construct the equation yourself the way you would in school, but there’s an
easier way. Instead, take advantage of the fact that this is a multiple-choice question.
The question gives you values for x and f(x), so why not plug those numbers into
the equations in the answer choices and eliminate the ones that don’t work? This
way, you avoid wasting time writing your own equation and there’s very little risk
of making a mistake.
That’s only one way that POE can be useful on Math. You’ll also be able to eliminate
partial answers, ones that are too big or too small, ones that don’t match the
information in the problem, and so on. And on RW, POE will be even more
fundamental to your strategy since you usually won’t know exactly how the correct
answer will look. So, try to let go of doing all of the work yourself in order to get the
answer. If you can find the answer instead of solving for it, all the better! You’ll save
yourself a good deal of time and effort in doing so.
WHAT TO WORK ON
There’s a good chance that you picked up this book hoping to improve in some
specific areas. Before you go ahead and focus on those areas, though, we want to
offer you some advice on what you should be working on because it may not be what
you think. Let’s say you are scoring 750 on Math and 680 on RW. In that case, most
students are going to say that they want to work on RW (perhaps exclusively). Of
course, you should work on RW, and you do have more points to gain there. But
you still have 50 more points available in Math, and it’s your stronger area. Not only
that, but you do extremely well on Math. Chances are it won’t be that hard for you
to improve on a few small areas where you might be missing questions.
The moral of the story? Don’t neglect your stronger area in favor of your weaker area.
If there’s still room for improvement in your stronger area, especially if you have 50
points or more to gain, keep working at it. You may be able to get closer to perfect
without too much effort.
It’s also okay to focus on the area that you enjoy more. Perhaps you have about a
700 in both RW and Math, but you really enjoy the RW section more. Any points are
good points, so it’s fine to focus your time on RW. You also want to consider what
areas are easiest to improve on. If you can identify any specific topics you tend to
miss, it may be easier to work on those topics than to work on a section of the test
where your missed questions seem more random. Of course, if you are applying to
a program in which either your math or your verbal skills are emphasized, that may
also guide which area of the test you focus on improving. We’ll talk much more about
specific topics to work on in the next chapter.

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HOW TO PLAN YOUR STUDY TIME
This book contains lessons that go over specific topics and strategies, exercises and
drills on those topics, and two full hard modules. You also have a full online practice
test, and you can find additional practice tests through the Bluebook app. When
should you use each of these materials? See the chart below.
Material When to use it
Lesson
content
When you are looking to learn better strategies or master the
rules for a topic
Topic-specific
drills
When you have learned more about a topic or have learned new
strategies and are ready to practice them
Timed
practice tests
When you want to try out or practice a new pacing strategy or
when you have worked on a bunch of topics
Untimed
practice tests
or individual
modules
When you want to do mixed practice, work on the order you
attempt questions in without time pressure, or identify questions
that you wouldn’t be able to get right even with unlimited time
Just as completing the test too quickly can harm your performance, so too can rushing
through this book. It takes time to learn, practice, and master new techniques. If your
schedule allows, try to do no more than one chapter per day. It’s a good idea to
complete the exercises and drills associated with the lessons as you do each lesson so
that you can test what you’ve learned and practice any new techniques. Once you’ve
worked on a good deal of the content, take a practice test to continue to fine-tune
your pacing and assess how you’re doing on the topics you’ve been working on.
In the next chapter, you’ll learn how to use the results of your drills and practice tests
to improve further.

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Chapter 3
Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them
You probably have some idea about what types of questions tend to give you trouble.
But what about the mistakes that seem a bit more random and unpredictable? In this
chapter, we’ll take a look at the most common reasons students miss questions on the
SAT, how you can identify when you’re making those mistakes, and what you can
do to avoid those errors in the future.

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If you are already scoring at a 1350 or above, you aren’t missing that many questions
in each section, which can be frustrating because it may be hard to identify the source
of your errors. There are actually many reasons you might miss a question, so let’s
take a look at what they are. If any of these mistakes sound familiar, you may want
to circle or star them so you’ll know what to look for in the next part of this chapter,
when we go over how to fix these mistakes.
Mistake: Lack of content knowledge
Description: This is probably the most obvious mistake. You didn’t know or had
a misconception about some aspect of the concept.
Examples:
Reading—You didn’t know enough of the vocabulary words and had to guess.
Writing—You forgot the difference between a semicolon and a colon.
Math—You thought (x2)(x3) equaled x6.
Mistake: Not reading the question
Description: You answered for something other than what the question was
asking.
Examples:
Reading—You picked an answer that was stated by the text, but the question was
asking why the author said something.
Writing—You chose a Rhetorical Synthesis answer that you personally liked but
that didn’t fulfill the goal in the question.
Math—You picked the value of x, but the question asked for x + 5.
Mistake: Going too quickly
Description: You were rushing due to the time limit or were overly confident and
didn’t take the time to check what you were doing.
Examples:
Reading—You skimmed the passage and misunderstood what it said or skipped
over a critical word or phrase within the argument.
Writing—You read the sentence too quickly and didn’t realize that it contained
two independent clauses.
Math—You missed a step or misunderstood the meaning of part of a word
problem.
Mistake: Poor pacing
Description: If you’re not comfortable with what the time limit feels like or you
panic, you may spend too much time on some questions and not enough on others.
Examples:
You spent too much time on one hard question and then didn’t have enough time
for other questions that would have been faster and easier.
Mistake: Looking at the answers too soon

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Description: Sometimes an answer can catch your eye and make you want to pick
it, and instead of figuring out the answer yourself, you try to interpret the passage
in a way that will match the answer you latched onto.
Examples:
Reading—You looked at the answers before understanding the passage and picked
an answer that you really wanted to pick even though it wasn’t fully supported by
the text.
Mistake: Using your ear instead of the rules
Description: You picked an answer based on how a sentence sounded or looked
instead of following the rules.
Examples:
Writing—You picked an answer with a comma because it felt right even though
there wasn’t a reason for the comma based on the punctuation rules.
Mistake: Not writing down steps
Description: You did the work in your head or did a series of steps on the
calculator without writing anything down on scratch paper.
Examples:
Math—You did a bunch of work on the calculator or in your head without writing
down your steps and accidentally did an operation twice. You solved for the wrong
thing because you didn’t write down and label what you were finding.
Mistake: Stubbornly using a harder strategy
Description: The strategies you’ve learned and perfected in school may be your
default methods, but they may not be the most efficient on the SAT. If you’re
stubborn about solving problems the “right way,” you may waste time and energy
or risk making mistakes unnecessarily.
Examples:
Math—Even though you learned how to plug in the answers and it would have
been easy and low-risk, you chose to solve using algebra, which led to making a
mistake.
Before we talk about fixing these mistakes, it’s worth considering how easy or hard
they are to fix. Generally, content errors can be easy to fix if you can establish what
content area you’re struggling with. It’s fairly straightforward to learn more
vocabulary (or math vocabulary) words, practice working with exponents, or
memorize the acceptable uses of different punctuation marks. On the other hand, if
you never took Geometry, learning all of the terms, rules, and formulas might be a
much larger undertaking. You’ll need to weigh your content gaps against how much
time you have and how likely it is that those content areas will appear on the test. No
matter how good your test-taking strategies are, though, you simply won’t be able to
score 1450 or higher without a near-perfect understanding of the content on the test.

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Princeton Review Digital SAT Advanced (College Test Preparation), 2nd Edition (2024)

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