The idea that opposites are somehow alike may seem strange and paradoxical, but the fact is that in order to be opposed, two things do have to be at least on the same spectrum. Hot and cold are both temperatures, sweet and bitter are both flavors, and so on. We can apply this concept when we are trying to set up a contrast in a text by asking what kind of thing each term is, or what it applies to. We rule out anything that doesn't have the same scope as the other term in the contrast.

If you feel like you don't know what you're doing, be open to the possibility that this feeling is lying to you. Try to take the problem apart and see if there are one or more parts of it that you can handle.

The most boring way to look at a textual passage is as a series of ideas: first this one, then that one, then the next one, until you get to the end. What a grind. It's more interesting to watch for and recognize the ways in which each idea picks up the content of the previous ideas and pulls it into new patterns.

It helps on the SAT to be comfortable with parabolas, and I certainly recommend that, before you take the test, you practice identifying the zeros and the coordinates of the vertex of a parabola. But if you draw a blank, all is not lost. Remember that a parabola is just a function in which one value depends on another. So just as you can plug answer choices into an equation to find solutions, you can often work backwards into the solution on parabola problems.

Identifying the right transition between two sentences or paragraphs becomes much easier if you group transitions into families. Each family of transitions creates a certain relationship between two parts of a text. Some indicate a parallel relationship ("likewise," "moreover," "also") while others indicate an intersection between the parts ("however," "consequently," "so," "for instance"). Practice identifying these relationships and you'll master transition problems quickly.

Before you add a sentence to a paragraph on the Writing and Language section, analyze it for clues about what comes before and after the new sentence. The sentence may contain back-references to earlier sentences in the paragraph, or later ones can contain back-references to the new one.

There's a quick and easy way to boost your SAT Writing score by 10-30 points: just learn how to use colons. You don't have to be a master. It's enough to know a few simple tests that can help you catch incorrect colon usage.

It's one thing to be able to plug values into a function or formula and see what comes out (and you certainly should be able to do that). On the SAT you'll have to take that skill to another level. In today's episode, you'll learn how to create equations to describe relationships between different outcomes of a function. This technique will have applications in geometry, physics, finance, and many other areas.

It's not unusual to think that the English sections of the SAT are subjective. It can sometimes feel like you're being expected not so much to read the passages as to read the test-makers' minds. But make no mistake: the logic behind the questions is just as rigorous as the logic of a system of equations.

In fact, a system of equations is the perfect metaphor for how to think about each passage you read, on the SAT or elsewhere.

​To follow along with today's Test Crushers Chronicle, download the College Board's SAT Practice app, and find the problem for November 14, 2017 (Reading).

You can spend a lot of time trying to absorb all of the information in a word problem on the Math section of the SAT, but if you don't have a way to organize all that information from the beginning, you'll quickly lose track and might get overwhelmed. To cut the information down to the essentials, start at the end. Identify the question, and then as precisely as you can, determine what information you would need in order to answer that question. If that information isn't given to you directly, how will you get it?