Our Curriculum
Most SAT prep focuses on content review and practice tests. We focus on something different: the decision-making patterns that cause mistakes under pressure. Over 10 weeks, you will learn to recognize the traps the SAT builds into wrong answers and develop instincts that kick in automatically on test day.
10-Week Program Structure
Equations That Aren't Meant to Be Solved
Trap focus: Classification vs solving
Infinitely many vs no solution. Expressions that simplify to identities. Contradictions hidden after distribution.
Systems by Structure
Trap focus: Parallel vs identical vs intersecting
Same slope, different intercept. Proportional coefficients. Parameter-based systems where reasoning beats elimination.
Translating Lines
Trap focus: Vertical shifts preserve slope
Writing new equations after translation. Finding intercepts after shifts. Line transformations without rebuilding.
Units, Rates, and Coefficients
Trap focus: Dimensional reasoning
Dollars per mile vs miles per dollar. Identifying unit errors in equations. Cost-per-day structures.
Extremes, Bounds, and Worst-Case Logic
Trap focus: Minimum/maximum reasoning
Minimum number of trips. Maximum allowable dimensions. Inequalities from constraints.
Modifier Placement
Trap focus: Dangling and misattached modifiers
Introductory phrases. "Based on…", "Featuring…" constructions. Identifying what the modifier must describe.
Sentence Boundaries
Trap focus: Period vs semicolon vs comma
Comma splices. Semicolon joining logic. Period vs conjunction decisions under pressure.
Punctuation as Meaning
Trap focus: Function of punctuation
Colons introducing explanations. Dashes vs commas for supplementary info. The removing-the-phrase test.
Reference and Comparison
Trap focus: Pronouns, possessives, comparisons
Its vs their. Singular vs plural ownership. Comparing quantities vs comparing objects.
Integrated Hard Review
Trap focus: Synthesis
Full timed sections. Traps drawn evenly from Weeks 1–9. Time pressure with error pattern awareness.
What You Get
Reading & Writing Traps
The "Sounds Right" Trap
Wrong answers use language directly from the passage, sound sophisticated, and are almost true. Right answers are often boring and can be directly proven by a specific line. If you cannot point to exact text that supports your choice, you are guessing.
Why it works: Your brain rewards recognition. When an answer echoes words you just read, it feels correct. But the SAT deliberately recycles passage language in wrong answers to exploit this instinct.
Over-Inference
Hard questions ask what is implied, not what could be true. High scorers tend to over-infer, reading meaning into the text that is not actually there. SAT inferences are small, conservative steps from what is written.
Why it works: Strong readers are used to making sophisticated connections. But the SAT rewards the weakest answer that is still supported, not the most insightful interpretation.
Extreme Language
Wrong answers love absolute words: always, never, completely, entirely, all, none. Passages are almost always nuanced. Unless the author is being genuinely extreme, the extreme answer is usually wrong.
Why it works: Absolutes sound confident and decisive. When you are unsure, the answer that commits fully feels more like a real answer than something hedged.
Main Idea vs Detail
Late-section questions mix up what the author believes, what the author merely mentions, what a study found, and what a critic argues. You need to track who believes what throughout the passage.
Why it works: It is easy to remember that something was in the passage without remembering exactly who said it or whether the author agreed with it.
Paired Evidence
The trap is picking a good-sounding answer, then finding evidence that seems related but does not actually prove your choice. The evidence needs to directly support the specific claim, not just touch on the same topic.
Why it works: Once you commit to an answer, your brain looks for confirmation rather than proof. You find lines that mention the topic and assume they support your choice.
Plus additional reading traps covered in the full program
Math Traps
Answering the Wrong Question
Common on word problems and modeling. They ask for the difference, not the value. The rate, not the total. The variable x, not y. The original value, not the new one. You solve correctly but answer what was not asked.
Why it works: Solving feels like success. Once you have worked through the math, you want to be done. The momentum of finishing makes it easy to skip re-reading what they actually wanted.
Extraneous Solutions
Occurs with square roots, rational equations, and quadratics formed by squaring. You solve correctly and pick a value that does not satisfy the original equation. This is extremely common at high score levels.
Why it works: The algebra works out. The number looks right. You do not think to plug it back in because nothing felt wrong during your process.
Graph Intuition Errors
They give you a graph that looks linear but is not, a quadratic where they want the vertex not the intercept, or a scatterplot where slope does not equal correlation. Visual intuition leads you to wrong conclusions.
Why it works: Graphs feel like shortcuts. Your eye sees a pattern and your brain wants to trust it instead of reading the actual labels and scale.
Calculator Overconfidence
High scorers rely on calculator speed and miss rounding instructions, misread scientific notation, or forget to reset modes (degrees vs radians). The calculator gives you a number, but it might not be the answer they want.
Why it works: The calculator feels authoritative. A number on a screen seems more reliable than your mental math, so you stop checking whether it makes sense.
Plus additional math traps covered in the full program