Just being a true statement doesn't make an answer correct. It also has to have the same structure and subject matter as the question itself. A "how" question can't be answered with a location. A "where" can't be answered with a reason. Be sure you understand what the question is asking before you start looking for the answer.

You don't have to use the "right tool for the right job." You can pound a nail in with the grip end of a saw. But wouldn't it be nice if you had a hammer? Learn which of the forms of linear equations works best for which purpose, and you won't waste time transforming equations into a form you don't actually need.

The most harmful lie that we've all been taught about poetic imagery is that interpreting it is a creative activity. We think we're supposed to think about how the images make us feel and what they remind us of. But when an author uses an image, they usually have some very definite purpose in mind, and it may not be the one we immediately think of. The good news is, correct interpretation is a lot less work than "creative" interpretation. All you have to do is keep your own grubby hands off the text and let it tell you what it means.

Exponential functions can be a bit intimidating at first. Practice thinking of growth and decay functions as a process of taking a percentage of a starting quantity, then taking the same percentage of the new quantity, and so on until you've reached the specified number of times.

Combining sentences on the SAT is an exercise in reduction. Your goal is to go from redundancy to efficiency, eliminating unnecessary repetition and turning additional clauses into phrases.

The choices on the math section are designed to include answers that could result from a slight error in setting up the problem at the beginning. But often, you can rule out these answer choices from the beginning by comparing them to the description of the situation.

A conjunction like "and" or "or" can't put together two things that are basically different parts of speech. A noun can only be conjoined with another noun, not a verb or participle or clause. Practice catching these "faulty parallelisms" in your own writing.

Sometimes you're better off not doing the actual math to solve a math problem. Identifying the graph of a parabola is a common case.

The magic of unit conversion comes down to understanding that you can multiply anything by one without changing its value. The fancy footwork lies in finding different ways to express the number one to get the unit or units you want.

You can't answer "why" questions by looking directly at the "what." You have to understand the situation, and see how a thing fits into the story in order to understand its purpose. When asked about the purpose of a sentence, don't just think about its content. Look at how it advances the overall purpose of the text, and how it relates to the text immediately before and after.