PRINCETON REVIEW ALGEBRA, OR HOW TO AVOID
ALGEBRA ON THE SAT
Now that you’ve reviewed some basic algebra, it’s time for some Princeton Review algebra. At The
Princeton Review, we like to avoid algebra whenever possible, and we’re going to show you how to
avoid doing algebra on the SAT. Now, before you start crying and complaining that you love algebra and
couldn’t possibly give it up, just take a second to hear us out. We have nothing against algebra—it’s very
helpful when solving problems, and it impresses your friends—but on the SAT, using algebra can actually
hurt your score. And we don’t want that.
We know it’s difficult to come to terms with this. But if you use algebra on the SAT, you’re doing exactly
what the test writers want you to do. You see, when the test writers design the problems on the SAT, they
expect the students to use algebra to solve them. Many SAT problems have built-in traps meant to take
advantage of common mistakes that students make when using algebra. But if you don’t use algebra,
there’s no way you can fall into those traps.
Plus, when you avoid algebra, you add one other powerful tool to your tool belt: If you are on Section 4,
you can use your calculator! Even if you have a super-fancy calculator that plays games and doubles as a
global positioning system, chances are it doesn’t do algebra. Arithmetic, on the other hand, is easy for
your calculator. It’s why calculators were invented. Our goal, then, is to turn all the algebra on the SAT
into arithmetic. We do that using something we call Plugging In.
Your Best Friend
Plugging In allows you
to use your calculator
on many of the algebra
problems that show up in
Section 4!PLUGGING IN THE ANSWERS (PITA)
Algebra uses letters to stand for numbers. You don’t go to the grocery store to buy x eggs or y gallons of
milk. Most people think about math in terms of numbers, not letters that stand for numbers.
You should think in terms of numbers on the SAT as much as possible. On many SAT algebra problems,
even very difficult ones, you will be able to find ETS’s answer without using any algebra at all. You will
do this by working backward from the answer choices instead of trying to solve the problem using your
standard math-class methods.
Plugging In The Answers is a technique for solving word problems in which the answer choices are all
numbers. Using this powerful technique can solve many algebra problems on the SAT simply and quickly.
In algebra class at school, you solve word problems by using equations. Then, you check your solution by
plugging in your answer to see if it works. Why not skip the equations entirely by simply checking the four
possible solutions ETS offers on the multiple-choice questions? One of these must be the correct answer.
You don’t have to do any algebra, you will seldom have to try more than two choices, and you will never