500 New SAT Math Problems
Just 19.99 on Amazon
Hi everyone! The latest edition of 500 New SAT Math Problems is now available in paperback from Amazon. This edition just has been modified from the previous edition to account for the changes on the Digital SAT.
The paperback is now on sale on Amazon for only $19.99. Note that once the sale ends (by the end of today), the price of this book will go up to $42.99.
The promotion has ended. Thanks to everyone who participated. The book is now available at its regular price here: 500 New SAT Math Problems
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at steve@SATPrepGet800.com
Thank you all for your continued support!
A Trick For Free Two Day Shipping
I would like to finish this post with a little trick you can use to get free 2 day shipping on any of the books you decide to purchase without making any additional purchases. If you have never used Amazon Prime you can sign up for a free month using the following link.
Sign Up For Amazon Prime For Free
If you have already had a free trial of Amazon Prime you can simply open up a new Amazon account to get a new free trial. It just takes a few minutes! You will need to use a different email address than the one you usually use.
This next part is very important! After you finish your transaction, go to your Account, select “Manage my prime membership,” and turn off the recurring billing. This way in a month’s time Amazon will not start charging you for the service.
After shutting off the recurring billing you will still continue to receive the benefit of free 2 day shipping for one month. This means that as long as you use this new Amazon account for your purchases you can do all of your shopping on Amazon for the next month without having to worry about placing minimum orders to get free shipping.
Just be aware that certain products from outside sellers do not always qualify for free shipping, so please always check over your bill carefully before you check out.
Well I hope you decide to take advantage of this very special offer, or at the very least I hope you will benefit from my Amazon “free 2 day shipping trick.” Here is the link one more time:
Sign Up For Amazon Prime For Free
If you think your friends might be interested in this special offer, please share it with them on Facebook:
Thank you all for your continued support!
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Two Deadly Algebra Mistakes That You Need To Fix Right Now
Today I would like to go over two very common mistakes that students make when solving algebra problems that lead them to the wrong answer. These two errors are very basic and easily fixed. But surprisingly, even students in college calculus classes are still making these mistakes. Many students will make one of these mistakes on their SAT, ACT, or GRE, thus lowering their score. The good news is that if you just take a few minutes to read this article carefully, you will probably never make these two mistakes again. So please, don’t be another statistic. Read and absorb the information in this article right away. And if you want to discuss other common algebraic mistakes, please bring them up in the comments below.
Algebra Mistake Number 1
Let me start with a very simple math problem. What is –32 equal to?
Please take your time to answer this question yourself before looking at the answer.
Is the answer 9 or –9?
The answer is in fact –9.
Most of the time when I tell students the answer they say “but I thought when you square a negative number it becomes positive.”
And in fact, they are right. When you square a negative number it does become positive. But that is not what is going on here.
Don’t worry if you got this wrong. It does not mean you are not intelligent. It has nothing to do with your problem solving skills. It has only to do with a very small gap in knowledge which we will correct right now.
There are actually two issues that need to be addressed here.
Point 1: The first thing that you need to understand is that the expression –x is equivalent to the expression (–1)x. In other words, the operation of negation is equivalent to multiplication by –1.
Point 2: The second thing that you need to understand is the basic order of operations. In particular, exponentiation is always done before multiplication.
Note that the order of operations that we as humans currently use is a completely man-made construction. There is no really good reason that we do one operation before another one, except that a long time ago someone decided that this is the way we are going to do things.
So now, let’s get back to our computation.
By Point 1 above we have –32 = (–1)32. By Point 2, we must perform the exponentiation first. So we have –32 = (–1)32 =(–1)9 = –9.
Note: Although –32 = –9, we do have that (–3)2 = 9. The reason is that in the latter case we are squaring a negative real number, and squaring a negative real number does always give a positive number.
Let’s try another example involving functions:
If f(x) = –x2 + 5, then what is f(2)?
Solution: f(2) = –22 + 5 = –4 + 5 = 1.
Did you get that one correct? If not, reread this section until you can explain your error.
Try this similar question:
If f(x) = –x2 + 5, then what is f(–2)?
Solution: f(–2) = –(–2)2 + 5 = –4 + 5 = 1.
Note that the solution to this question is pretty much identical to the last one. This is because (–2)2 is the same as 22. See the note above if you are still having trouble with this.
Algebra Mistake Number 2
Let’s look at another pretty basic math problem. Can you expand the expression –(x + 2)?
Again, please take your time to answer this question yourself before looking at the answer.
Did you get –x + 2, or –x – 2 ?
The answer is in fact –x – 2.
When negating an expression with two terms, many students forget to distribute the minus sign correctly. In this case, both terms need to be negated.
If it helps you, you can rewrite –(x + 2) as (–1)(x + 2). Then we get
(–1)x + (–1)2 = –x – 2.
If you are okay with distributing in general, but only have trouble with this specific instance, then this might help. If this doesn’t help, then you need to go over the distributive property very carefully.
As another example, try to simplify this expression:
(x – 3) – (x – 5)
Let’s begin by removing the parentheses and distributing the subtraction symbol in the middle correctly:
x – 3 – x + 5
Finally we combine like terms to get an answer of 2.
Avoid Making Other Common Mistakes On Standardized Tests
If you want to learn how to avoid all the traps that occur in the math sections on standardized tests such as the SAT, ACT, and GRE, as well as learn all the most important math strategies, then take a look at the Get 800 collection of test prep books. Click on the picture below for more information about these books.
If you have any questions on this topic, then please post them in the comments below.
Speak to you soon!
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320 ACT Math Problems – Second Edition
Today I would like to announce that the second edition of 320 ACT Math Problems arranged by Topic and Difficulty Level is on sale on Amazon for only $5.57 for the next few hours.
The sale officially end at 3 PM (sometimes Amazon allows the sale to run longer, sometimes they don’t) and once the sale ends the price will go up to $34.99. If you want to take advantage of the sale price I strongly recommend you purchase the book right away.
Click the following link to get to the book’s Amazon page: 320 ACT Math Problems – Second Edition
As an additional incentive to purchase this book today, I will also give you another book for FREE as a downloadable PDF file. You can choose ANY of my other books. So if you would like a different book, go ahead and purchase this one, forward me your Amazon confirmation email and let me know which of my books you would like for free. You will be provided with a link to download your additional free book. This offer is available until the end of today (February 2, 2016).
Take a look at my product page to see all of my books: Get 800 Product Page
Note that based on customer feedback I have made just a few changes from the first edition. A few modifications have been made to some of the harder problems, and some additional solutions have been added.
A Trick For Free Two Day Shipping
I would like to finish this post with a little trick you can use to get free 2 day shipping on any of the books you decide to purchase without making any additional purchases. If you have never used Amazon Prime you can sign up for a free month using the following link.
Sign Up For Amazon Prime For Free
If you have already had a free trial of Amazon Prime you can simply open up a new Amazon account to get a new free trial. It just takes a few minutes! You will need to use a different email address than the one you usually use.
This next part is very important! After you finish your transaction, go to your Account, select “Manage my prime membership,” and turn off the recurring billing. This way in a month’s time Amazon will not start charging you for the service.
After shutting off the recurring billing you will still continue to receive the benefit of free 2 day shipping for one month. This means that as long as you use this new Amazon account for your purchases you can do all of your shopping on Amazon for the next month without having to worry about placing minimum orders to get free shipping.
Just be aware that certain products from outside sellers do not always qualify for free shipping, so please always check over your bill carefully before you check out.
Well I hope you decide to take advantage of this very special offer, or at the very least I hope you will benefit from my Amazon “free 2 day shipping trick.” Here is the link one more time:
Sign Up For Amazon Prime For Free
If you think your friends might be interested in this special offer, please share it with them on Facebook:
Thank you all for your continued support!
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Polynomial and Rational Functions
Today I have uploaded a video to my YouTube channel on Polynomial and Rational Functions. You can visit the YouTube page here: ACT Prep – Polynomial and Ratonal Functions
For your convenience I have also embedded this video below:
If you liked this video, please share it with your Facebook friends:
Until next time…
Complex Numbers
Today I have uploaded a video to my YouTube channel on Complex Numbers. You can visit the YouTube page here: ACT Prep – Complex Numbers
For your convenience I have also embedded this video below:
Check out the Get 800 collection of test prep books to learn how to apply this information to standardized test questions.
If you have any questions on this topic, then please post them in the comments below.
Speak to you soon!
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Absolute Value and Distance
Today I have uploaded a video to my YouTube channel on Absolute Value and Distance. You can visit the YouTube page here: ACT Prep – Absolute Value and Distance
For your convenience I have also embedded this video below:
If you liked this video, please share it with your Facebook friends:
Until next time…
The Pythagorean Theorem and the Distance Formula
Today I have uploaded a video to my YouTube channel on the Pythagorean Theorem and the Distance Formula. You can visit the YouTube page here: ACT Prep – Pythagorean Theorem and Distance Formula
For your convenience I have also embedded this video below:
If you liked this video, please share it with your Facebook friends:
Until next time…
Integers, Primes, GCF, LCM
Hello everyone. Today I have uploaded a video to my YouTube channel on the integers, primes, gcf, and lcm. You can visit the YouTube page here: ACT Prep – Integers, Primes, GCF, LCM
For your convenience I have also embedded this video below:
If you liked this video, please share it with your Facebook friends:
Until next time…
Logarithms
Hello everyone. Today I have uploaded a video to my YouTube channel on logarithms. You can visit the YouTube page here: ACT Prep – Logarithms
For your convenience I have also embedded this video below:
If you liked this video, please share it with your Facebook friends:
Until next time…
Hello everyone.
Today I have uploaded a video to my YouTube channel on the Distributive Property and Factoring
For your convenience I have also embedded this video below:
If you liked this video, please share it with your Facebook friends:
Hello everyone.
I have already taught you a nice method for multiplying polynomials in a previous blog post. The original article is here: Multiplying Polynomials
Today I have also uploaded this information as a video on my YouTube channel. You can visit the YouTube page here: Multiplying Polynomials
For your convenience I have also embedded this video below:
If you liked this video, please share it with your Facebook friends:
And if you are preparing for a standardized test, you may want to take a look at the following books:
Until next time…