The Top 20 Hard and Easy DSAT Math Questions

An analysis of the hard and easy paths through the digital SAT

There are basically two versions of each digital SAT math test. In one version, you are given a medium-level first module and an easier second module. In the other version, you get the same medium-level first module, but a harder second module. Which one you get depends on how well you do on the first module.

I wanted to see how the two versions compared, so I tagged every question from the College Board’s four Bluebook tests, then ran the tags through Python scripts. This graphic only includes the ones that showed up at least once per test.

For descriptions of these tags, see my earlier post on the top 50 DSAT math questions.

Takeaways

• The hard module has a longer tail – there are a lot more questions that just show up one time. Unfortunately, we can’t ignore any of these…When I reviewed the first four tests from the last revamp, I found that several staples of the test (like infinite solutions) only showed up once in the initial group of released tests.

• The easy module has more Algebra Moves questions. Some of them feel like an easy 7th grade test.

• Like the current version of the SAT, the DSAT leans heavily on quadratics for its hard material.

• Some difficult concepts still do show up on the easy path, like -b/2a and SOHCAHTOA.

• Things that are more common in the hard module: discriminant, factor by grouping, complete the square, average sum trick, vertex form.

• Note that “once per test” is actually a lot. Even 50% would be quite frequent. So these are all very high priority items.