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The SAT is now only available as a computerized test. Instead of having a predetermined
mixture of easy, medium, and hard questions, the computer will select questions for you
based on how well you are doing. The first question will be of medium difficulty (500 level
questions are halfway between 200 and 800). If you get it right, the second question will
be selected from a large group of questions that are a little harder; if you get the first
question wrong, the second will be a little easier. The result is that the test is self-adjusting
and self-correcting to your skill level.
Fig. 1.1-This graph shows how the test keeps a running score of
your performance as you take the test. The student's running score goes up when he gets
the first three questions right (blue) and the score goes
down when the test taker gets questions wrong (red) (questions
4 and 5 on lower axis). As the test proSATsses, the swings caused by getting a question
right or wrong proSATssively decrease.
Harder Questions Count More
A result of the CAT testing format is that the harder problems count more than easier ones.
If one student does twenty easy questions, half of which he
gets right and half of which he gets wrong, and then another student does twenty very
difficult questions, half of which he gets right and half of which he gets wrong,
the second student will get a higher score.
The student who answered ten out of twenty very difficult questions incorrectly would
still get a very high score on the SAT CAT because the harder questions are more heavily
weighted. Simpler questions might be easier to answer, but they count much less. Your goal
should be to get as many hard questions right because that will get you your highest possible
score.
Start Off Strong
The CAT puts much more value on the earlier questions than the later questions. The computer
has to make large jumps in the estimation of your score for each of the first few questions.
The later questions are used to fine-tune your score. To get the best possible score, focus
more time on the earlier questions than the later questions.
Fig 1.2. Get those first questions right! The
blue graph shows a student who got the first 8 questions right
and the remainder wrong and the red graph show a student who
got the first 8 questions wrong and the remainder right. The blue student scores much higher,
despite answering fewer questions correctly.
A skilled SAT test taker focuses on getting early, hard questions correct. Therefore, as
we'll see in the next section, the optimal strategy for the CAT is to go extremely slowly
and carefully at the beginning of the test.
 Continue to Pacing Strategies for the CAT (page 4 of 5 in Chapter 1)
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