SAT Intel Report · November 2025
November 2025 SAT: the traps that ran backwards
Five things this test kept doing, each with a worked example and what to practice. Most of the traps weren’t hard, they just ran the relationship the wrong way round from you.
Was the November 2025 SAT hard?
Harder in math, and geometry-heavy. Module 2 had four functions questions that people singled out, and several answers you could reach by getting one relationship backwards. Reading was quieter. If you reached a listed answer and still got it wrong, you probably inverted something.
Growth rates: a 140 percent rise multiplies by 2.4
Module 2 leaned on functions, and one question gave a percent increase over a fractional step. There’re two separate places to slip here. The percent, and the step.
What one looked like
A function is 80 when x is 0. It rises by 140 percent every time x goes up by 1/3. Which equation could define it?
Where people went wrong
Writing 80 times 1.4 to the power x/3. Both parts are inverted. A 140 percent rise isn’t a factor of 1.4, and a step of 1/3 doesn’t mean dividing the exponent by 3.
What it actually is
A 140 percent rise keeps the original 100 percent too, so the factor is 2.4. And a step of 1/3 means 3 steps for every whole unit of x, so the exponent is 3x. That gives 80 times 2.4 to the power 3x.
How to prep it
Turn every percent rise into a factor by adding 1 first. Then ask how many steps fit into one unit of x, and put that number on top of the exponent. Test it by putting x = 1/3 in and checking you get 2.4 times your start.
Vocab: the blank was about how early the idea was
- embryonic
- definitive
- derivative
- peripheral
The hard vocab question wasn’t about whether an idea was good. It’s about what stage the idea had reached, and every wrong option judged its quality instead.
What one looked like
A scientist’s private notebooks hold ideas he published 20 years later. He was still working them out at the time, and the blank describes those early ideas.
Where people went wrong
Definitive. The notebooks really did contain the theory, so a word of praise feels right. But definitive means settled, and the sentence says he was still working them out.
What it actually is
Embryonic, meaning at the earliest stage. The 20 years and the phrase about still working them out both point at timing rather than quality. Derivative and peripheral judge the ideas too.
How to prep it
Ask yourself whether the sentence is rating something or placing it in time. Dates, and words like still, already and yet, mean it’s placing it. Then drop every option that rates it, however well the tone fits.
Rewritten from the November 2025 SAT: same idea, new words and numbers
The bound field notebooks that the geologist Adaeze Okonkwo kept during decades of coastal surveys, long dismissed by archivists as mere logistical records, in fact contain annotated sketches of the sediment-transport model that later made her reputation. Because she drafted those pages nearly thirty years before the model appeared in print, they preserve the theory in its ______ form, its central mechanism still speculative and unnamed. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
Angles: equal coefficients just restate the angle sum
A Module 2 question gave one angle of a triangle and four expressions in the other two. You pick the one that is not enough to pin them down. It looks like four calculations and it’s one observation.
What one looked like
Angle P is 34 degrees, and the other two are a and b. Which expression would not be enough on its own: 34 - 2a - 4b, or 34 - 4a - 4b?
Where people went wrong
Picking 34 - 2a - 4b because the mismatched 2 and 4 look messy. Mismatched coefficients are exactly what you want. They give you an equation the angle sum doesn’t already give you.
What it actually is
34 - 4a - 4b is the useless one. The angles add to 180, so a + b is 146 before you start. And 34 - 4a - 4b is just 34 - 4(a + b), which you could already work out. It tells you nothing new.
- angle sum the three angles make 180, so one angle of 34 leaves the other two adding to 146.
- equal coefficients an expression like 34 - 4a - 4b is only 34 - 4(a + b), so it repeats what you know.
- two tangents from a point they're the same length, and the radius meets each at 90 degrees. A 15, 20, 25 triangle gives a perimeter of 60.
- area from coordinates half the absolute value of x1(y2 - y3) + x2(y3 - y1) + x3(y1 - y2). Vertices (-3,1), (5,2) and (1,7) give 22.
- percent rise to factor add the original 100 percent first. A rise of 140 percent is a factor of 2.4.
How to prep it
Write the angle sum down as an equation the moment you see a triangle. Then check each option against it. Anything that is a multiple of what you already have is the answer to a not-enough question.
Rewritten from the November 2025 SAT: same idea, new words and numbers
In triangle PQR, the measure of angle P is 34 degrees, and the measures of angles Q and R are a degrees and b degrees, respectively. Knowing the value of which of the following expressions would NOT be sufficient, by itself, to determine the values of a and b ?
Systems: when both equations are one line, any point works
One question gave two linear equations and asked which point solves both for every value of a constant. That phrasing is the clue. A single point can’t do that unless the two equations describe the same line.
What one looked like
The equations are 3x + 4y = 12 and 9x + 12y = 36. Which point lies on both for every real number r?
Where people went wrong
Picking the point with y = 3 + 3r/4. The intercept is right and the slope sign is flipped. Substitute it and you get 6r + 12, which only equals 12 when r is 0.
What it actually is
Both equations reduce to y = 3 - 3x/4, since the second is just the first times 3. So they are one line, and any point on it works. Set x = r and you get y = 3 - 3r/4.
How to prep it
Put both equations in y = mx + b form before you read the options. If the slopes and the intercepts both match, you have one line and infinitely many solutions. That single check turns this question into substitution.
Rewritten from the November 2025 SAT: same idea, new words and numbers
3x+4y=12 and 9x+12y=36 For each real number r, which of the following points lies on the graph of each equation in the xy-plane for the given system?
Two texts: check which text said which thing
Both paired-text questions were hard, and both had a trap that swapped the texts over. The difference you spot is usually right. What’s often wrong is which text you credit it to.
What one looked like
Two anthologies of climate fiction. One reprints stories only from printed magazines. The other also gathers work that first appeared online. You pick the option describing that difference.
Where people went wrong
The option that puts the online stories in the wrong anthology. It names the right difference, which is why it feels correct, and it credits it to the wrong collection.
What it actually is
The one saying the second anthology adds the online stories that the first left out. Write the two positions in the margin with a 1 and a 2 next to them, then match the option to your note rather than to your memory.
How to prep it
Jot each text’s position in three or four words before you read the options. Label them 1 and 2. Then read each option and point at which of your two notes it claims, because half of them will have swapped the pair over.
What to work on before your next test
- Quadratic & Exponential Functions, convert twenty percent rises into factors, then twenty fractional steps into exponents, separately. Back to the example
- Lines, Angles & Triangles, write the angle sum first on every triangle question, then test each option against it. Back to the example
- Systems of Linear Equations, put both equations into slope-intercept form before reading the options, on thirty systems. Back to the example
- Cross-Text Connections, note each text's position in four words and label them before touching the options. Back to the example
- Words in Context, sort blanks into rating something and placing something in time. Back to the example
Getting it backwards costs what not knowing it costs
Nearly every trap here was a reversal. 1.4 instead of 2.4. A step divided instead of multiplied. A slope with the wrong sign. The right difference credited to the wrong text.
So check the direction of the thing you just wrote. Put one number in and see if it behaves. You’ll catch reversals in seconds, and they are the cheapest marks on the paper to get back.
Practise the 21 questions modeled on the November 2025 SAT
Original questions written around what the November 2025 exam tested, tagged by skill and difficulty, each with a worked solution.
Students reported more functions questions than anything else on this test, so those lead the report.The reading of it is ours. We hold no scoring data, we can’t identify unscored questions, and every practice question here is written from scratch.
Questions about what was on this test
What math was on the November 2025 SAT?
Functions and geometry. Module 2 had a percent increase over a fractional step, a quadratic whose solutions come out in surd form, and a system where both equations describe the same line. Geometry brought a triangle angle-sum question, two tangents from a point, and the area of a triangle from its coordinates.
What vocab words were on the November 2025 SAT?
People reported embryonic, definitive, derivative and peripheral, plus a question about how a private utility is financed. The hard one turned on stage rather than quality: the sentence placed an idea early in its development, and three of the four options rated the idea instead.
How should I practice the November 2025 question types?
Add a direction check to everything you do. After you write a factor, an exponent, a slope or a comparison, put one small number in and see whether it behaves the way the words said. Most of what this form punished was an inverted relationship rather than a missing method.