If You Are Stuck on a Question after 30 Seconds, Move On to the Next Question You have 25 minutes to answer questions in each of two
math sections and 20 minutes to answer questions in
the third math section. In all, you must answer 65
questions in 70 minutes. That means you have about a
minute per question. On many questions, less than a
minute is all you will need. On others, you’ll wish you
had much longer than a minute. But don’t worry! The
SAT is designed to be too complex to finish. Therefore,
do not waste time on a difficult question until you
have completed the questions you know how to solve.
If you can’t figure out how to solve a question in 30 sec-
onds or so and you are just staring at the page, move on
to the next question. However, if you feel you are mak-
ing good progress on a question, finish answering it,
even if it takes you a minute or a little more.
Start with Question 1, Not Question 25 The SAT math questions can be rated from 1–5 in level
of difficulty, with 1 being the easiest and 5 being the
most difficult. The following is an example of how
questions of varying difficulty are typically distributed
in one section of a typical SAT. (
Note: The distribution
of questions on your test will vary. This is only an
example.)
1. 1
8. 2
15. 3
22. 3
2. 1
9. 3
16. 5
23. 5
3. 1
10. 2
17. 4
24. 5
4. 1
11. 3
18. 4
25. 5
5. 2
12. 3
19. 4
6. 2
13. 3
