There's nothing wrong with feeling proud of doing things the right way. But because pride focuses on our favorite thing (ourselves!), it can become a distraction from details outside of us. Feel free to pat yourself on the back, but let that be a reminder to double check the details.

Combining sentences is not so much about yoking two of them together as it is about breaking one of them down into parts that can be attached to the other.

Do you find yourself having to learn the same formulas over and over again? To improve your long-term memory of formulas, keep reminding yourself of why each of them works. If you know the "why," the "what" follows easily.

The SAT loves to combine the two grammatical concepts of pronoun number agreement and apostrophe usage. Learn the difference between these similar words and when to use each.

There are two kinds of questions on the SAT that have to do with the number of solutions to an equation. The simpler of these two is about the number of solutions to an equation with one variable in the first degree (that is, not squared or cubed or nthed). In this case, the equations that have zero solutions look very similar to those that have infinite solutions. Be ready to tell the difference!

Don't get bogged down in the minutiae. In order to process an SAT reading passage efficiently, you have to identify what's essential and only pay close attention to the details you actually need. Use transitions to analyze the underlying structure of a passage, and then fit details into that structure as needed.

For problems involving comparison words like "than" or "as," check to see if the comparison is faulty. What is actually being compared? Are they the same kinds of thing? Are they the things the author intended to compare?

The number one may seem very simple and obvious, but it has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. One to watch for is the invisible coefficient. When you see a variable by itself without a coefficient, think of that as having a coefficient of one.

Language isn't just a tossed salad of ideas, facts, and opinions. It has structure, like a sandwich. Use this structure to indicate relationships and create emphasis.

Just because the actual math is easy doesn't mean there are no pitfalls in an SAT math question. Remember that the SAT often sets problems up in a slightly unexpected way, so be sure to read the question carefully and label the units when you write down your equations.