The “Student Produced Response Questions”, or “Grid-In” questions, are unique to the SAT. These 10 questions can be critical in determining a student’s SAT math score. Therefore, it is essential that every student knows the directions perfectly (and not by reading them on the day of the test). Since the answers are recorded in the four-column grid, 9999 is the largest possible answer to any problem. The least possible answer is zero since the directions explicitly state that there are no negative answers. A classic student question is what to do if your answer contains less than four digits. You can place your answer in any column(s) of the grid; the SAT folks only want to see that you’ve got the right answer. The directions clearly state that some problems may have more than one answer. Therefore, a student shouldn’t sit there with a solution such as x > 3 and wonder what to grid. Just pick your favorite number greater than 3 and move on quickly. 

Mixed numbers are absolutely not to be bubbled into the grid. This is because a scanner can’t tell the difference between 2½ and 21/2. Use 2.5 or 5/2 if you think the correct answer is 2½. Lastly, be sure you know what to do if you think the answer is a non-terminating decimal. Here again, the SAT folks are trying to be nice. As long as you fill all the columns of the grid, they don’t care if you “truncate” your decimal (a good SAT word meaning to cut off the decimal when you run out of room) or properly round off your decimal.

Tags: SAT Math, SAT Prep, SAT Preparation, SAT Scores