The SAT has two major sections: verbal and math. Using three different types of questions, the Verbal section seeks to test your facility with language, your ability to read and comprehend, and your critical thinking skills. The Math section also uses three different types of questions to gauge your skills in basic math and critical thinking.

Though the SAT is split into verbal and math divisions, the test is not presented in two big parts. Instead, it is divided into timed sections. Three of these sections cover verbal skills and three cover math. In this discussion of the content and structure of the SAT, we’ll begin with the types of questions and then move to a description of the timed sections.

The SAT contains a total of 78 verbal questions, divided into three types. All three types are multiple-choice.

Sentence completion and analogy questions are organized according to difficulty. For example, in a group of sentence completions, the first third will be the easiest, the second third will be moderate, and the last third will be difficult. Reading comprehension passages and questions are not ordered by difficulty. This book gives each question type its own chapter, provides examples, and explains specific strategies.

The 60 SAT math questions also come in three types. Once again, each of the question types is explained in much greater detail later in this book.

All math questions are roughly ordered by difficulty within a section. The first third is easy, the second third moderate, and the last third difficult.

Unlike verbal questions, math questions can also be broken down according to the subject they cover. In general, math questions on the SAT will test your knowledge of basic arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and a few miscellaneous topics. Within these areas, the SAT covers specific math topics:

Don’t be overwhelmed by the size of the list. You probably already know how to handle most of these topics. In addition, this book covers all the math you need to know for the SAT in the chapters SAT Arithmetic, SAT Geometry, SAT Algebra, and Miscellaneous SAT Math. A particular SAT test will probably cover most of these 30 topics. No SAT test will ask questions about topics that don’t appear on this list.

Every SAT organizes the three different types of math and verbal questions into timed sections. Each SAT has seven timed sections in total: three sections cover math, three cover verbal, and one experimental section may cover either math or verbal. The seven sections are as follows:

No matter when you take the SAT, you will encounter these seven timed sections. The seven sections will not necessarily appear in the order presented here, however.

The test writers use the experimental section to try out new questions. The section also helps the writers measure the difficulty of the test from year to year. The experimental section on the test you take might be verbal or might be math. Either way, you won’t be able to tell which of the sections is experimental, so you should treat all seven sections as if they are the real deal.

The practice tests in this book will not contain an experimental section.

Taking a timed section is like being locked in a room. You can’t leave the room, but you can be anywhere in the room at any time. Similarly, you can answer the questions located in one section in any order you prefer. For example, if you were in one of the 30-minute verbal sections and discovered that you couldn’t answer the last two sentence completions, you could skip them and move on to the analogies. If you use this freedom correctly and strategically, you will be able to control your pace and make sure that you answer as many questions as you can.