SAT Math Formula Sheet

The SAT gives you a reference sheet of formulas on test day: open it from the toolbar at any point in the Math section. It covers area and volume, and little else:

• Circle: $A=\pi r^2$ and $C=2\pi r$
• Rectangle: $A=lw$; triangle: $A=\frac{1}{2}bh$
• Right triangles: the Pythagorean theorem, $c^2=a^2+b^2$, and the two special right triangles: $30°$-$60°$-$90°$, with sides $x$, $x\sqrt{3}$ and $2x$, and $45°$-$45°$-$90°$, with sides $s$, $s$ and $s\sqrt{2}$
• Volume: rectangular prism $V=lwh$, cylinder $V=\pi r^{2}h$, sphere $V=\frac{4}{3}\pi r^3$, cone $V=\frac{1}{3}\pi r^{2}h$ and rectangular pyramid $V=\frac{1}{3}lwh$
• Three facts: a circle has $360°$ of arc, or $2\pi$ radians, and the angles of a triangle add up to $180°$

Everything else you have to bring with you, and the calculator is no help in remembering it: the slope formula and the forms of a line, the vertex and quadratic formulas, the exponent rules, the circle equation, arc length and sector area, SOHCAHTOA, percent change and more. Learn the provided formulas too. Looking them up costs time you would rather spend solving.

The other tool on screen is the built-in Desmos graphing calculator, which you may use on every Math question. It doesn’t replace knowing a formula, but it often replaces the algebra: graph two equations to see where they meet, click a parabola’s vertex for its maximum or minimum, or check an answer you worked out by hand. You’ll see Desmos solutions throughout the math lessons.

The chapters ahead teach each of these formulas where it comes up. The SAT dump sheets on this course’s Resources page pull them together, one sheet for each math chapter and one for the reference sheet and Desmos, and mark each formula the test provides so you know what to memorize.

If flashcards help you memorize, try the “Leitner box” method: a card you answer correctly moves to a box you review less often, and a card you miss goes back to the box you review every day.