Imagine that you are taking a test that consists of two questions. After your teacher hands out the test and before you set to work, a helpful little gnome whispers, “The first problem is very simple; the second is much harder.” Would the gnome’s statement affect the way you approach the two problems? The answer, of course, is yes. For a “very simple” question, it seems likely that you should be able to answer it quickly and without much, or any, agonized second-guessing. On a “much harder” question, you will probably have to spend much more time, both to come up with an answer and to check your work to make sure you didn’t make an error somewhere along the way.

What about all the other students who didn’t hear the gnome? They might labor over the first, easy question, exhaustively checking their work and wasting time that they’ll need for the tricky second problem. Then, when those other students do get to the second problem, they might not check their work or be wary of traps, since they have no idea that the problem is so difficult.

Because Math IIC questions are ordered by difficulty, it’s as if you have that helpful little gnome sitting next to you for the entire test.

Most students answer the easy Math IIC questions correctly. Only some students get moderate questions right. Very few students get difficult questions right. What does this mean to you? It means that when you are going through the test, you can often trust your first instincts on an easy question. With difficult questions, however, you should be more cautious. There is a reason most people get these questions wrong: not only are they more difficult, containing more sophisticated vocabulary or mathematical concepts, they are also often tricky, full of enticing wrong answers that seem correct. But because the SAT orders its questions by difficulty, the test tells when to take a few extra seconds to make sure you haven’t been fooled by an answer that only seems right.

The tricky answers seem right because they are actually the answers you would get if you were to make a mathematical or logical mistake while working on the problem. For example, let’s say you’re flying through the test and have to multiply 6 8 3. So you quickly multiply 6 and 8 to get 42 and then multiply by 3 to get 126. You look down at the answers and there’s 126! That’s the answer you came to, and there it is among the answer choices like a little stamp of approval, so you mark it down as your answer and get the question wrong: 6 8 = 48, not 42, making the correct answer 144.

From this example you should learn that just because the answer you got is among the answers listed does not mean you definitely have it right. The SAT is designed to punish those who make careless errors. Don’t be one of them. After you get an answer, quickly check your work again.