S.A.T. Math Testing Tactics
TACTIC 15: TRUST ALL GRIDS, GRAPHS, AND
CHARTS
Trust all Grids, Graphs, and Charts.
 In Tactic 2 (If a diagram is drawn to scale, trust it,
then trust your eyes), we learned that on the S.A.T.
test diagrams are drawn as accurately as possible.
 Similarly, we can trust grids, bar graphs, line graphs,
pie charts, tables, etc. to hold correct information
that is represented visually as accurately as possible.
Percent Increase or Percent Decrease
 Before you take the S.A.T. , you should learn
(memorize if necessary!!!) how to find a percent
increase or percent decrease.
 Percent Change =
Example 15.1
From the picture you can
determine:
• The area of the triangle
A=½bh
• The length of each side
distance = ( x2  x1 ) 2  ( y2  y1 ) 2
•The perimeter of the triangle
•The slopes of each line segment
slope = y 2  y1
x2  x1
Example 15.2
 At Central High School, 1000
students study exactly 1
foreign language each.
Foreign Languages Studied By
1000 Students At Central High
School
 In this pie chart, you could
estimate that



French students= approx. ¼ of
1000 or approx. 250 students
# Italian students = approx. #
Latin students
# Spanish students = approx 1/3
of 1000 or approx. 333 students
French
Spanish
German
Italian
Latin
Example 15.3
 From the graph, you could
determine:



The percent increase or percent
decrease between any two pairs of
years.
The average number of wins per year
The number of wins in any given
year.
Number of Tournaments John Won
By Year
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
Example:
Find the Percent increase between
2001 and 2002
Change = (12 – 3) = 9
% increase = (9 / 3) x 100 = 300%
0
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Remember:
You can IN GENERAL draw conclusions about
grids, graphs, and charts simply by trusting
your eyes and what you see.
Many times you can eliminate ABSURD
answers on the S.A.T. just by doing a quick
examination of the provided picture.
In Conclusion