need to be particularly vigilant about applying your Personal Order of Difficulty (POOD).
Think about it this way. There’s someone writing the words that you’re reading right now. So what
happens if you are asked, Who is the author of Cracking the SAT? Do you know the answer to that
question? Maybe not. Do we know the answer to that question? Absolutely.
So you can’t exactly say that that question is “difficult,” but you can say that certain people would have an
easier time answering it.
As we’ve begun to suggest with our Pacing, POE, and Letter of the Day strategies, The Princeton
Review’s strategies are all about making the test your own, to whatever extent that is possible. We call
this idea POOD because we believe it is essential that you identify the questions that you find easy or
hard and that you work the test in a way most suitable to your goals and strengths.
As you familiarize yourself with the rest of our strategies, keep all of this in mind. You may be surprised
to find out how you perform on particular question types and sections. This test may be standardized, but
the biggest improvements are usually reserved for those who can treat the test in a personalized, un-
standardized way.