How about some Vocab?

Here is a nice list of 1000 SAT Vocab Words; have fun stormin' the castle! (do you think it is going to work? It'll take a miracle) b' bye!

'Twas the week before Christmas . . .

"Twas the week before Christmas Break and all through High Schools, not a SAT prep book was stirred, not even by an over-achieving geek.

Well, it doesn't rhyme very well and it would be painful if I kept it up, even for me. Seriously, this week is usually a time to let down a bit and relax. Most schools are in the holiday spirit and know that minds are elsewhere. So Mr. Grinch may give you a test before Dec 20, but the majority of work will not be tough. So, relax and enjoy the week.

This Christmas break is a nice long one, with Dec 25 on a Tuesday, we get two weekends. It is an excellent time to do some prep work - WITHOUT PRESSURE!

Take the Big Blue Pillow and begin doing some problems. Let me set the stage for you... wake up some time after 10 or 11am, eat cookies or left-overs for breakfast, curl up on the couch and turn on the tv -- then get down to some serious, or not so serious work.

Here is how to tackle working during the break. Do as many problems as you can until you fall asleep - then take a nap. If you can do the problem - skip it. Only work on problems that you can't do! And here painful part, go look up the concept covered by the problem and read it!

Merry Merry

Parabola Blog

Another Parabola

Here is another parabola problem that has a square labeled PQRS with an area of 64. The top corners intersect a parabola that sits on the bottom side.

The function of the parabola is y=ax^2

The key to solving this problelm is remember that parabolas are symmetrical. Since the square root of 64 = 8, then all sides have a length of 8. QR = 8, and so the point R is (4,8)

Substitute these two points into the equation and solve

8 = a*(4)^2

8 = a* 16

8/16 = a * 16/16 a = 1/2

Fun with Parabolas

To get a good handle on SAT parabolas - download my cheat sheet. It covers the basics and has questions from the BBP listed on the bottom.


Fun with Parabolas

Email me any question

Hi - thanks for reading SAT - Tutor

If you can think of the problem, email it to me.

If you can sketch it & scan it all the better

My email address is phil@mccaffreytutoring.com

I'd love to hear from you

Symmetrical Parabola's: opposit "a"

Thanks for the feedback, come back and tell your friends. Sat-tutor is about to have a whole lot more, including practice problems and video explainations.

When two parabolas are defined by quadratic equations that have "opposite" coeffecients, the SAT is giving you a REALLY BIG clue. Looking something like:

f(x) = x^2

f(x) = -x^2 + k (where ^ is the symbol for exponent & k is a constant)

The SAT will give you points where these two intersect. Notice that they are both symmetrical about the Y-axis, making the two points of intersect equal distance from the Y-axis (where x = 0). Let's call those two points: P & Q

They give some clue about these two points, something like: the distance of line segment PQ is 6. What is the value of k?

First step:

The distance between PQ is important. Since the parabola's intersent at a point x, -x, the total distance between them, 2x is equal to 6. 2x = 6. x = 3, -x = -3

Second step:

Substitute x = 3, into the first equation. 3^2 = 9. The points of intersection P & Q are (3, 9) & (-3, 9)

Third step:

Substitute P or Q into the second equation: f(x) = -x^2 + k

9 = -(3)^2 + k

9 = -9 + k

18 = k

The one thing that I highly recommend SAT prep students is to buy "The Official Study Guide" published by The College Board. It has 8 practice tests from REAL SAT's. It is the only one that has REAL practice problems - so it is the best piece of intelligence.

I have my students go through and do every parabola problem in The Guide.

Check back in a few days and I will post all of the parabola problems in The Guide, with notation for "Symmetrical Parabola" problems.

Excuse the really crude drawing but it is now 3:30 in the morning. I had crashed in a chair after coming home from my night school class & was on my way to bed when I saw you had posted, so I cranked out this thought before I forgot it.

Now that I know how easy it is to make a drawing and post it - watch out!

Symmetrical Parabola's

The SAT loves to give a trick question: finding something out about a parabola by solving another puzzle first. More on this later - I just wanted to write down the idea so that I can come back and do it justice

SAT Dates

Here is the schedule for the SAT:




SAT Test Date Registration Late Registration
Nov 3 2007 Oct 2 2007 Oct 11 2007
Dec 1 2007 Oct 30 2007 Nov 8 2007
Jan 26 2008 Dec 26 2007 Jan 4 2008
Mar 1 2008 Jan 29 2008 Feb 7 2008
May 3 2008 Apr 1 2008 Apr 10 2008
Jun 7 2008 May 6 2008 May 15 2008

Root Words

Here is a list of the some of the most common root words from Latin & Greek. Some will say to not try to learn root words themselves. But to use them as tools in building a better vocabulary.

I do not completely agree. Building a better vocabulary is one of the most important things to which an educated person strives . But I have found root words useful in making very good guesses on the SAT. On October 2006's exam, I did not miss a single sentence completion [19 total], though I did not know all of the words.

I remember well taking the SAT in 1980 after two years of excellent Latin instruction [thank you Sister Celestine]. I know that I did better on the then "Verbal" portion because I knew some Latin. The only preparation I did for the SAT was to review a long list of root words and modern words formed from them.

Our good friends over at another company have put this list together:
Cap/Cip/Ceipt/Cept/Ceiv/Ceit [take]

Gen [birth, race or kind]

Dic/Dict/Dit [tell, say or word]

Spec/Spic/Spit [look, see]

Super/Sur/Sum[above]

Tent/Tens/Tend/Tenu [stretch, thin]

Trans [across]

Doc/Duc/Dac [teach, lead]

Co/Con/Com [with, together]

Vers/Vert [turn]

Loc/Log/Loqu [word, speech]

Sen [feel, sense]

De [away, down, off]

Nom/Noun/Nown/Nam/Nym [name, order or rule]

Cla/Clo/Clu [shut,close]

Vo/Vox/Vok/Vow [call]

Mal [bad]

Fra/Frac/Frag [break]

Gress/Grad [step]

Sec/Sequ [follow]

Que/Quis [ask, seek]

Sacr/Sanct/Secr [sacred]

Scrib/Scrip [write]

Pathy/Pas/Pat [feeling]

Dis/Dif [not]

Circu [around]



Prefixes & Suffices, a taste of what's to come

Pro [much, for or a lot]

Sub [under]

Ab [away, from]

Ob [against]

The absolute BEST SAT Site Online!

Of course I believe that SAT preparation is an absolute must for any serious student. Here's why (at the end of my rant is the link to the great site)

I remember well walking out of the room in my high school where I took the SAT in 1980 - the sickening feeling still haunts me. What made me so mad was that I had not prepared and could have scored much higher than I did.

We were misled. We were told that it was a true "aptitude" test [of course ETS has stricken any meaning from SAT - it is no longer an acronym, the only letter that is still true is "T" for Test]. We were told it has its roots in IQ testing - rubbish, lies, filth.

It tests nothing but how well you do on it! No other math has the poor wording of this confusing and purposefully tricky examination. No one edits by multiple choice!

I was mad also that the math content was so easy. Yet, in the midst of a hectic junior year studying Trig, AP Chem, AP Bio, AP English, etc., I was stumped by middle school level problems! That is true, the concepts tested on the exam are ones that most students have not seen in years.

So to prepare, READ the content of preparation material and familiarize yourself with the key concepts that you probably once knew well but now will take some time to pull from your long term memory. That way you will not sit on exam day looking like a fool from "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?"

Go to www.proprofs.com/sat/

It is simply fantastic & it is FREE!

I can tell you by experience of taking the exam and reading every practice test out there that the key concepts are covered! Read them - practice the problems and get your mind ready for the sum of a three consecutive odd prime integers greater than 9 is twice the difference of your birthday minus the absolute value of pi during a leap year. In terms of x what is the time that you go insane solving problems that have no basis in real academic instruction.

I'll plan on editing the postings from this blog and heading on over to join ProProfs. I'll see you there

Back Again, are my roots showing?

After a long hiatus of working with students, boy do I have a lot to post.

Here is a nice find, Latin & Greek roots, prefixes & suffixes. Can't help a po' boy with the vocab!
This will shortly be available at www.mccaffreytutoring.com as a pdf [I only have about a hundred pdf's to post!]

Greek and Latin Root Words*

Root	Meaning	English Words
arch	ancient	archetype
aster/astra	star	astronomy
audi	hear	audible
bene	good/well	benefit
bio	life	biology
brev	short	abbreviation
chloro	green	chlorophyll
chrono	time	chronology
derm	skin	dermatologist
dic/dict	speak	dictionary
fer	carry	transfer
fix	fasten	affix
gen	birth	generate
geo	earth	geography
graph	write	graphic
hemo	blood	hemoglobin
herb	plants	herbaceous
hydro	water	hydrate
jur/just	law	jury
log/logue	word/thought	dialogue
luc	light	lucid
manu	hand	manual
meter/metr	measure	thermometer
neg	no	negate
ocu	eye	ocular
olig	few	oligarchy
op/oper	work	operation
osteo	bone	osteoporosis
path	feeling	sympathy
ped	child	pediatrics
phil	love	philosophy
phys	body/nature	physical
pod	foot	podiatrist
proto	first	prototype
pseudo	false	pseudonym
scrib/script	write	scribble
sect	cut	dissect
sol	alone	solitary
struct	build	construct
tact	touch	contact
tele	far off	telephone
ter/terr	earth	territory
vac	empty	vacant
ver	truth	verify
verb	word	verbal
vid/vis	see	video

Greek and Latin Prefixes-/-Suffixes*

Prefix/Suffix	Meaning	English Words
ad-	to	addict
-al	relating to	maternal
ambi-	both	ambidextrous
ante-	before	antecedent
anti-	against	antifreeze
-arium	place of	aquarium
auto-	self	autobiography
centi-	hundred	centimeter
circum-	around	circumvent
con-	with	concert
de-	from/down	depart
deci-	ten	decimeter
di-	two	diameter
dis-	opposite	disable
-dom	quality/state	freedom
ex-	out	exit
hetero-	different	heterogeneous
hypo-	too little	hypoactive
-ic	relating to	poetic
-ile	quality/state	juvenile
in-	not	invalid
inter-	between	interstate
intra-	within	intramurals
-ism	quality/state	catholicism
-ist	one who practices	biologist
macro-	large	macrobiologist
micro-	small	microbiologist
milli-	thousand	millipede
mis-	bad	miscarriage
mono-	single	monotheism
nano-	billion	nanosecond
neo-	new	neonatology
-ology	study of	biology
omni-	all	omniscient
-ous	quality/state	nebulous
pan-	all	pantheon
per-	throughout	pervade
peri-	all around	periscope
poly-	many	polygon
post-	after	postpone
pre-	before	precede
pro-	forward	progress
re-	again	reappear
retro-	back	retrogress
sub-	under	submarine
super-	more than	supermarket
sym-	together	symbol
-tion	quality/state	preservation
-ular	relating to	cellular
un-	not	unwilling

---

Another great question of the day

In partnership with Kaplan, the New York Times has a test prep question of the day online:

New York Times Question of the Day

It looks pretty good. There is also a word of the day that archives the Kaplan test prep question, be careful to only do archives after the test changed in 2006 -- don't waste your time on analogies.