Most absurd old SAT math trap question

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
16

^ Yes! So two points to emphasize:

  1. It is important that when you review a test, you also review the ones you got right, especially if your path was long and twisty.
  2. It is important to know the ecosystem. On the SAT (as it currently exists) when a question asks you to find some seemingly random expression involving x rather than solving for x itself, it is VERRRY likely that there is an easy way to get the value of the expression without ever finding the value of x. That is not a particularly important skill in the general math universe. But it sure is true in SAT land (again, for now).