Cheat codes
Cheat codes that work in every part
Each lesson has its own cheat codes. These are different: habits that help in every part, because they come from how the test and Bluebook work.
I will not promise you a score. Each code is shown on real questions, with a small test you can run yourself.
Work in every part
Cover the options, find your own answer first, and the wrong options lose their power to trick you.
Shown on 6 real questions
Every wrong answer has a defectThe right answer is the only one with no defect, so find the defect in the other three and you are left with the winner.
Shown on 5 real questions
Never leave a blank, guess smartA blank can never score, and a guess sometimes does, so every question gets an answer before the module ends.
Shown on 5 real questions
Run the clock: the time bankSpend little on the easy questions, save the seconds, and spend them on the hard ones where they matter.
Shown on 5 real questions
The five-second checkBefore I lock any answer, I spend five seconds to check four things, and I save marks I already earned.
Shown on 6 real questions
Use every Bluebook toolThe Bluebook app gives me tools that paper never did, and I learn where each one helps so that I use them without thinking.
Shown on 6 real questions
Reading and Writing
Read the question before the passage, and you will read the passage like a hunter, not like a tourist.
Shown on 6 real questions
Stay inside the textThe right answer is only what the text proves, so leave your outside knowledge and your feelings at the door.
Shown on 5 real questions
Extreme words are a warningWords like always, never, only and all are a red flag, because the real world, and the SAT, is mostly 'often', 'may' and 'some'.
Shown on 6 real questions
When two are correct, pick the shorterIf two options are both correct in grammar and in meaning, the test prefers the one with fewer words, and I know exactly when that is true and when it is a trap.
Shown on 5 real questions
Math
Read what the question asks before you touch the numbers, and you will stop solving the wrong thing.
Shown on 5 real questions
Desmos firstThe graphing calculator inside Bluebook can do in ten seconds what takes me two minutes by hand, if I know the exact moves.
Shown on 5 real questions
Back-solve: plug in the answersWhen the question gives four possible answers, I test them instead of building the answer from nothing.
Shown on 5 real questions
Pick your own numbersWhen a problem has letters but no numbers, I put in easy numbers of my own and test the options.
Shown on 6 real questions
Looking for the codes of one part? Each lesson has a Cheat codes tab.