SAT Intel Report · September 2025
September 2025 SAT: the two-step questions in Module 2
Six things this test kept doing, each with a worked example and what to practice. Almost every hard one needed a step before the step you’re looking for.
Was the September 2025 SAT hard?
Module 2 was the hard part, in both halves. Reading leaned on vocab, and the hard vocab questions had two options that were close to opposites. Math ran long, and people reported running out of time on a word problem near the end. If you knew the method and still missed the question, you probably skipped a setup step.
Vocab: one option confirmed the claim, the other killed it
- indefensible
- incontrovertible
- improvised
- conspicuous
- disparity
- anomaly
- denote
- renounce
- multifariousness
Vocab was the hardest thing in Reading. The two finalists often pointed opposite ways, so the passage had to tell you which way the evidence ran. If a word suited the topic, that’s usually the trap.
What one looked like
A passage said an animal was assumed to be cold-blooded. New readings showed it stayed a couple of degrees warmer than the air around it, so the old view was now ____. The finalists were indefensible and incontrovertible.
Where people went wrong
Incontrovertible gets picked because it sounds strong and scientific. It means beyond dispute. But the new readings are what dispute the old view, so the sentence is reporting damage to it.
What it actually is
Indefensible. The old view can no longer be held. Another question wanted a word meaning made up on the spot, and the traps were words about care and about going unnoticed. Both suited a live performance and neither fit the blank.
How to prep it
Before you read the options, say whether the sentence is backing the claim up or knocking it down. Then throw out every word pointing the other way. You’ll often be left with one, even when you don’t know all four words.
Rewritten from the September 2025 SAT: same idea, new words and numbers
Because reptiles ordinarily regulate body heat by exchanging it with their surroundings, biologists long treated the Komodo monitor as a straightforward ectotherm whose core temperature simply tracked the air around it. Telemetry gathered by the zoologist Ana Sorrento across a full dry season, however, recorded the animal holding its core roughly two degrees above ambient at every hour of the day and night, a finding that leaves the older characterization ______. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
Growth questions: count the periods, then write the exponent
Module 2 had a long savings-account problem with two stages. Nothing grows for the first few months, then it grows once every few months after that. The options differed only in the exponent, and it’s the one people said they ran out of time on.
What one looked like
A deposit of 1,250 dollars sits flat for 6 months. After that it grows 1.4 percent once every 3 months. Write the balance after x months.
Where people went wrong
Writing the exponent as 3x - 6. That multiplies the months by 3 when it should divide by 3, so it treats one month as three growth periods instead of three months as one.
What it actually is
Growth starts at month 6, and one period is 3 months. So the number of periods is (x - 6) over 3, which simplifies to x/3 - 2. The balance is 1,250 times 1.014 to that power.
- periods, not months the exponent counts growth periods since growth started. Six months in and one period every 3 months gives (x - 6) over 3.
- product of the roots c over a, so you never have to factor. With a of 1/18 and c of pq, the two solutions multiply to 18pq.
- two real solutions the discriminant has to be above zero, and the boundary value is the trap. One question had 30 and 31 as the two candidates.
- horizontal asymptote 5 times 3 to the x, plus 9, never drops to 0. It approaches 9, so the greatest number below every output is 9.
- a percent above 100 if q is 40 percent of p and r is 88 percent of p, then r over q is 2.2, so r is 220 percent of q.
How to prep it
Write the period length down before you touch the exponent. Then ask how many whole periods have passed by month x. If your exponent multiplies when it should divide, you’ll get an answer that is sitting right there in the options.
Punctuation: three options did one job, so pick the fourth
Several punctuation questions didn’t need much reading at all. Three of the four options join two complete sentences, and they do it in the same way. So if only one option does something else, it has to be the answer.
What one looked like
The options were center; a, center, a, center. A and center, and a. What follows the blank is the phrase a result that eventually persuaded them.
Where people went wrong
Picking center; a because a semicolon looks careful and formal. A semicolon needs a complete sentence after it. What follows here is a noun phrase, so you get a fragment.
What it actually is
center, a. The period, the semicolon and the comma plus and all need a complete sentence on the right, and all three leave the same fragment. So they’re wrong together, which leaves one option. The plain comma attaches the phrase instead.
How to prep it
Read the words on each side of the blank and mark each one complete sentence or not. Then group the options by what they need. When three of them need the same thing, you can answer without the passage.
Inference questions: say what the old method couldn't separate
The hard inference questions were about experiment design. A researcher changes method partway through, and you finish the sentence saying why. The answer is about what the first method couldn’t tell apart.
What one looked like
Soil microbes affect how sharp a radish tastes. The researcher started with wild plants, then moved to pots so she could hold moisture and acidity fixed. You finish the sentence saying why she switched.
Where people went wrong
Saying that moisture and acidity matter more than the microbes do. That ranks the two causes, and ranking them is exactly what the wild plants could not do.
What it actually is
In the wild, the soil conditions and the microbes both varied. So any difference in sharpness could have come from either one. The pots hold the soil fixed, which leaves the microbes as the only thing still changing.
How to prep it
List what varied in the first method and what the new method holds still. The answer names the thing you can now rule out. If an option ranks two causes or adds a new claim, you can drop it.
Graph questions: do the shift first, then solve for zero
Two questions moved a graph and then asked for a feature of the moved version. People answered for the original graph instead. The order isn’t a detail here, it’s the whole question.
What one looked like
f(x) is 2(x - 7b) cubed, plus 54. You want the x-intercept of y = f(x) - 54, in terms of b.
Where people went wrong
Giving 7b - 27 as the x-intercept. That halves the 54 and subtracts it from the x-value, so it treats a change in height as though the graph had moved sideways.
What it actually is
Write the shifted function down first. f(x) - 54 is 2(x - 7b) cubed, because the 54 and the minus 54 cancel. Now set it to zero. A cube is zero only when its base is, so x = 7b.
How to prep it
Write out the transformed function as its own equation before you look for anything. Then find the feature from that equation. If you answer straight from the original, you’ll be off by whatever the shift was.
Rewritten from the September 2025 SAT: same idea, new words and numbers
The function f is defined by f(x)=2(x-7b)3+54, where b is a positive constant. In the xy-plane, the graph of y=f(x)-54 has an x-intercept at (a,0). What is the value of a in terms of b ?
Percent questions: each percent is taken of something else
One mixture question stacked two percentages and then changed units at the end. Each percent is taken of a different amount. Miss that and every later step is wrong, even when the arithmetic’s fine.
What one looked like
A 340 milliliter sample is 75 percent water. Of what is left, 40 percent is salt, and the salt weighs 0.5 grams per milliliter. How many grams of salt?
Where people went wrong
Answering 34. That is the volume of the salt in milliliters, and the question asked for grams. It is also what you get if you stop one step early, which is why it was an option.
What it actually is
Water takes 75 percent of 340, so 85 milliliters are left. 40 percent of 85 is 34 milliliters of salt. Multiply by 0.5 grams per milliliter and you get 17 grams.
How to prep it
For every percent in the question, write down what it is a percent of. Then check the units the answer wants against the units you have. Those two habits catch most of these before you do any arithmetic.
Rewritten from the September 2025 SAT: same idea, new words and numbers
A 340-milliliter sample of a cleaning solution is 75% distilled water by volume. Of the volume that is not distilled water, 40% is sodium chloride. Sodium chloride in this solution has a mass of 0.5 grams per milliliter. What is the mass, in grams, of the sodium chloride in the sample?
What to work on before your next test
- Words in Context, do twenty questions where you only decide the direction of the sentence, without picking a word at all. Back to the example
- Quadratic & Exponential Functions, build ten two-stage growth models from scratch, writing the period length above the exponent each time. Back to the example
- Percentages, work through stacked-percent mixtures until labeling each base is automatic. Back to the example
- Nonlinear Graphs, take one function and find the same feature after four different shifts. Back to the example
- Boundaries, sort the four options by what each one needs on its right, on twenty questions in a row. Back to the example
Work out what the question is measuring
Every hard question here had a step before the obvious one. Which amount the percent is of. How long one growth period is. Which graph you are being asked about. The arithmetic after that step was easy.
So write the setup down instead of holding it in your head. One line naming what each number is. It costs you a few seconds and it is the difference on most of these.
Practise the 47 questions modeled on the September 2025 SAT
Original questions written around what the September 2025 exam tested, tagged by skill and difficulty, each with a worked solution.
Students told us most about the second module here, in both halves. That is where this report spends its time.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 September 2025 SAT?
Module 2 carried it. You got a two-stage savings-account model, a quadratic with letters for coefficients and a daylight-hours model. Also a graph shifted before you find its x-intercept, an exponential with a horizontal asymptote, and a mixture question stacking two percentages. Most of them needed a setup step before the method you already know.
What vocab words were on the September 2025 SAT?
People reported a lot of hard single words. The list included indefensible, incontrovertible, disparity, anomaly, denote, renounce and multifariousness. The hard ones came in pairs that pointed opposite ways, so the passage had to decide which direction the sentence ran.
How should I practice the September 2025 question types?
Work one theme at a time. Write the setup line out by hand, even when you can already see the answer. Most of the misses here weren't a missing method, they were a missing first step. Doing ten slowly beats forty quickly for that.