Parabolas

Fun with parabolas!

A parabola is the bowl shaped graph of the simple equation f(x) = x²

Most SAT students do not remember how to graph a parabola, so it is considered a hard question. But in reality parabola questions are often very easy and almost always, usually, most of the time involve simple questions about the constants a, b, c from the classic equation:

ax² + bx + c = 0

In total, there are only six things to know about a, b, c. If you can learn the “Parabola Six” you can answer most, many and hopefully all parabola questions on your SAT.

The Parabola Six:

1. a is negative - parabola points down
2. a is positive - parabola points up
3. b is negative - parabola moves to the right
4. b is positive - parabola moves to the left
5. c is negative - parabola moves down (y intercept <>
6. c is positive - parabola moves up (y intercept > 0)

I’ll list all the parabola problems shortly from the BBP; they are worth doing because any parabola is a hard to medium and is an easy scoring opportunity.