DSAT Math Scouting Report

Takeaways from the top 50 list

Last week, I posted the top 50 math question types on the digital SAT, based on the Bluebook tests (and confirmed by the linear ones). This week, I want to dig into the surprises.

Questions that showed up more than I thought they would:

-b/2a: This useful method for finding the x-coordinate of the vertex didn’t even make the top 75 for the current SAT.

Discriminant: This has become more common recently, and it appears even more frequently on the digital tests.

Exponential y intercepts: On the new test, I’ll be surprised if this does not appear every time.

Factor by grouping: I very rarely teach it to students taking the current test, but I found at least 4 questions in which it was helpful. You may not *have* to use it (Desmos can help you get around some of these hard quadratics), but it is sometimes helpful.

Pythagorean Theorem: This is one of those ones that surprised me by not appearing when the current SAT was first released. It’s now back on the must-know list.

Radians: It’s hard to tell if this will show up 50% of the time, or if it’s just the way these particular tests happened to turn out. 

More frequent on recent SATs, also frequent on DSAT

Absolute value equations: When the current SAT was first released, I didn’t spend much time on absolute value equations. But it’s pretty common on recent tests, and it showed up on three out of the four Bluebook tests.

Cubic equations: This is another one that has appeared more frequently recently. Sometimes you’re just solving using the usual algebraic techniques. Sometimes it’s helpful to know the character of the graph.

Similar triangles: We’ve seen more proof-like questions recently, and they continue to appear on the digital SAT.

Near misses

Infinite solutions: I’ll still be covering these with students, and the ‘no solution’ ones too.

Elimination (system of equations technique): For some reason, the substitution technique seemed to be more helpful. On the current SAT, I use the two techniques evenly. But I’ll still be teaching both, as well as the ‘multiply, then eliminate’ variation.

Probability: It’s pretty shocking how rarely you see this on the test now. Every test used to have a table with a probability question on it. I won’t be surprised if it returns, but this concept has been de-emphasized.

Surprising omissions

Box and whisker plots: This only appeared once.

Median: I’m cheating here, because it did make the list. But it was way less common.

Standard deviation: This only showed up once too.

Questions about a study: These long-winded questions (almost universally hated by students) don’t appear to be part of the new digital test.

Takeaways

• A lot of the surprising inclusions were quadratic. Maybe they’re trying to make the test a bit more Desmos-resistant? 

• All of the surprising omissions were related to data analysis. As covered in this previous post on big-picture digital SAT math trends, this Problem Solving and Data Analysis category now accounts for 30% less of the content.

• If something appeared at all on these digital tests and appears frequently on current tests, I’m going to keep covering it with students.

• It is interesting to notice that many of the question types that have appeared more frequently on recent SATs have continued to show up a lot on the digital SAT. I may use some of these Bluebook and linear adaptive tests with my current SAT students.

For reference, here are the graphs showing the major categories and the percent of the content they cover: