After 07 years as a test prep coach helping hundreds of students dramatically raise their SAT scores, I’ve noticed November patterns. Last year, 18% of my students who scored 1590 took the November test. Ready for predictions? The Digital SAT brings specific question types you’ll probably see. Math Practice: expect problems testing confidence calculations. SAT English: writing sections emphasize structure. Nervous? Saturday 2hour advanced review sessions (running 12 to 2 Eastern) are jam-packed with strategies. Master these approaches to land spots at dream colleges.
November Sat Prediction 1 — Regression with DESMOS
Disclaimer: 9 isn’t just 3 × 3 – when dealing with regression values, a and b often multiplication sign value combinations. My first prediction involves Desmos auto regression appearing at least one question. Till day, I’ve seen exponential function problems probably show up. Most time, students manually enter equation instead of letting Desmos do it.
Great candidate question types: circle with three points (not two points). Pull table values – call them x1, y1. Next thing? Type equation on a separate line. Make sure you put x on the other side of the equal sign. Easily see regression form when provided at least two points in your table. Look for things that need equation – use h of x format. Run regression, go back, tell yourself to pause. Write down answer before hitting plus sign. Gave me dramatically better SAT scores when students try yourself first. Said structure helps raise practice questions Got it moments. Ready? Started with example question – ended with able students who give answers confidently.
Sat Prediction 2 — Modifier Questions
Speaking from experience with test prep, my second prediction centers on how modifier question formats will actually evolve this November.
Here’s something most students don’t notice when they first read these grammar question types: You’ll have a sentence with a comma right after an intro clause or phrase, and the blank going forward forces you to determine what subject logically needs to come next.
Basically, the call here is exactly this: read the modifier carefully to see what it says, then listen to what subject fits.
For instance, if the introduction leadins with “Supported by biochemical analysis of over 2,000 skeletons from the Middle Ages,” the subject that follows can’t be the findings themselves—it has to be something the analyses supported, like medieval rulers or their diets.
I know this possessive structure trips people up: are we owning the findings, or are the Findings supported by analyses?
When you see long answer choices with long, wordy options about primary components like vegetables and grains in diets, you determine which answer choice B through D matches the modifier.
Most times, you go with D because other options simply don’t make sense or don’t match the finding the modifier is pointing toward.
Sat Prediction 3 — Difficult Trigonometry Problem
My third prediction: students will have a difficult trig problem that basically tests whether you can set up an equation without multiplying blindly.
Think about this—when the question says the expression represents the length of line segment EF, you’re trying find what we call X right now.
Here’s what most people forget: not sure which trig function to use? Tell yourself what’s adjacent and what’s the hypotenuse right here based on the reference angle you’re using.
If you see a 75° angle, that means you’re going to work with the angle adjacent to the hypotenuse—since cosine is adjacent over hypotenuse, we’re not going use the sine trig function.
Getting rid of C and D right off bat because those answer choices actually involve the wrong trig function.
Now set up your equation: say cosine of 75° equals adjacent over hypotenuse.
Need know this about line segment EF—if you’ve got everything set up and you’re good to go, multiply both sides by x and you’ll have x cosine 75 equals 9.
Need divide by cosine 75 to get x by itself, and your answer is going to be b.
Quick tip: when test day comes and you go with an option that has fraction notation, you’ll usually find that’s the right one—not one that looks too simple.
English Prediction: Rhetorical Synthesis
My reading and writing prediction centers on the rhetorical synthesis question type—think of it as the tricky part where you need to understand what the question actually asks directly.
Okay, here’s what’s important: when a student wants to present information from notes and accomplish a goal, you can basically take two three pieces of info and combine them into complete sentences that are grammatically correct.
But make sure you look at what the question tells you to achieve—because out of four answers, one will likely be grammatically correct and complete, yet one will most effectively uses relevant information while maintaining meaning coherently and logically.
That’s the one you pick—the answer that fulfills the task the question asked you to follow directions for.
Want a practice problem? Question number four says researchers were studying the relationship between American culture and Hollywood films, and they compared different variables in two films: The Wizard of Oz from 1939 and Legally Blonde from 2001.
These movies differ in runtime, genre, and protagonist gender, yet researchers compared variables like filming location too.
Pause here—give it a shot and read what the text is wanting to emphasize about the protagonists‘ differences.
Pause screen, think about how you combine the information into a complex sentence, then give it another shot to achieve your goal of creating sentences that complete the study context knowledgeably.
English Prediction: Transitions
Think about my reading and writing prediction for what’s important here: transition questions will test whether you can keep in mind how words and phrases connect ideas between sentences logically and cohesively.
Right, so a typical transition question has a blank with four answer choices, but here’s what you need to study—the meanings of different transition words are common testing ground.
Moreover and furthermore both suggest you’re adding information that’s built upon what came before, while however and nevertheless signal something contradictory.
In fact works when you’re emphasizing or clarifying a point, and therefore or consequently are for drawing a conclusion or result.
Instead and otherwise are perfect for showing an alternative or contrast—okay?
Now for the practice problem: question number five says the 2008 hurricane season in the North Atlantic was relatively quiet during August and September, months that are typically the most active.
Pause screen and give it a shot—the blank comes before mentioning October, a month that was considerably active when hurricanes formed that month.
What completes the text with the most logical transition?
Pause, give it another shot, and remember: you’re looking for the one transition that makes the flow work right.
Math Prediction: Converting Radians to Degrees
Think of prediction number two as my core math prediction for what’s coming: practice your converting skills because you’ll see question number two specifically asks about angle measures in a different unit measure.
Give it a shot—when you try to convert between radians and degrees (or vice versa), here’s the shortcut I swear by: essentially, you’re multiplying by 180 over pi to get from radians to degrees, right?
But let’s pause screen for a second—understand that a radian isn’t random: 90 degrees is equivalent to pi over 2 radians, while 180 degrees equals pi radians, and 360 degrees becomes 2 pi radians.
When you convert the other direction—degrees to radians—you’re essentially using the reciprocal: multiplying by pi over 180, which handles the canceling out of degrees and you’re left with radians.
Now for the practice problem: if the test asks what pi over 8 radians is equivalent to in how many degrees, just multiply pi over 8 by 180 over pi—the pi units cancel, and boom, you’ve got your degrees.
Math Prediction: Vertex Form of a Quadratic
Here’s my math prediction: you need to know the vertex form of a quadratic inside out, okay?
Think about how a parabola looks like on the xy-plane—the equation y equals a times x minus h quantity squared plus k isn’t just random notation.
Basically, when you read this function, the h comma k represents the vertex coordinates, where h value controls the horizontal shift (that’s your x coordinate of the vertex) and k value handles the vertical shift (the y coordinate of the vertex).
The a value is the coefficient of your x squared term—keep that in mind when you try question number seven from our practice problem set.
Pause screen and give it a shot: the graph of a quadratic function has its vertex at 2 comma 4 and passes through the point 4 comma 12.
If the equation is y equals a times x minus 2 quantity squared plus 4 and defines this function, what’s the value of the missing a value?
Pause screen again, think through the algebra, give it another shot, and remember—vertex form makes finding that coefficient straightforward once you plug in the point coordinates.
Math Prediction: Domain and Range
Think of my math prediction as this: domain and range questions are super important, okay?
Remember that domain refers to the set of possible x values for a function, while range represents the set of possible y values the function can output.
What’s helpful here? When you graph a function on the xy-plane, you can visually see both concepts at once—okay, now let’s try question number eight from our practice set.
Pause screen and give it a shot: the question reads that you need to analyze the graph of function f displayed on the xy-plane and identify the range of the function.
Pause, think about what y values are actually possible based on what you see in the graph, then give it another shot to nail down your answer.
Math Prediction: Circles
My math prediction for the calculator section? Think about circles—they’re definitely important and you need to understand the equation of a circle in standard form.
The equation of a circle looks like x minus h quantity squared plus y minus k quantity squared equals r squared, okay?
Here’s where h comma k represents the center of the circle—okay, and the r value is your radius of the circle.
Important thing to note, right? When you see a constant added on the right side of the equation, that’s r squared, not r as the radius itself—remember to take the square root, okay?
Let’s try question number nine from our practice problem: pause screen and give it a shot.
The question reads that the equation x plus 8 quantity squared plus y minus 3 quantity squared equals 64 defines a circle on the xy-plane—what’s the radius of this circle?
Pause screen again, give it another shot, and don’t forget to apply that square root step to find the actual radius.
Math Prediction: Tricky Fractional & Negative Exponents
My fifth math prediction for the digital SAT 2025: think about the tricky exponent problem you’ll face, especially those power roots problem types.
Make sure you’ve reviewed your exponent rules—right, the common ones you know like when multiplying two numbers together, you add the exponents, or when dividing two numbers together, you subtract the exponents, and with power to a power, you multiply the exponents.
But here’s the thing about fractional exponents: the denominator of the exponent tells you what root you’re taking, while the numerator exponent stays on the base inside the root.
So k to the 3s power over denominator 2 becomes square root of k cubed—where three (the numerator of the fraction) stays with k inside the square root.
Make sense?
Now think about negative exponents—a negative exponent means whatever is in the wrong place currently.
Like k to the -2nd power: that negative exponent is telling you “oh k squared is in the wrong place“—it’s just a number that by default sits in the numerator but should be moved to the denominator, so it should be 1 over k^2 with the negative exponent gone.
When you see something with a weird root you’re taking, remember to convert back to fractions, right?
You can convert back from a fractional exponent to root form: the denominator shows whatever root to use, and the exponent on the base numerator becomes what’s inside the root—just like any fraction you reduce.
Keep this in mind as I show you the last question: let’s try question number 10.
Pause screen and give it a shot—which expression is equivalent when raised to the 11 12th power (assuming it’s greater than zero)?
Bonus Prediction — Scalar Multiples of Different Predictions
Here’s my next prediction: you’ll have a problem dealing with scalar multiples across different dimensions, and the College Board is loving this concept lately.
What’s important? Recognize when you need to adjust your scalar multiple accordingly based on whether you’re in two-dimensional form or three-dimensional form.
Let me show you what I mean—said the question involves rectangle ABCD that’s similar to rectangle wxyz, so you start drawing a picture.
Going to be super smart here: have your points b c d labeled, and maybe draw the other rectangle where one’s bigger (similar, not congruent).
Wx oops, let me put x, b, xyz correctly—the problem says the area of rectangle ABC is 486 square units.
Wait, I made this opposite—Sorry, wxyz should have been the smaller one, but I’m not drawing to scale so just go with it: area is 486 for one rectangle, area is 54 for the other rectangle.
Cool—Area is two-dimensional, so keep in mind that to compare areas and find the scalar multiple in two-dimensional form, you basically want to know: what do I need to multiply 54 by to get 486?
Just go into Desmos or just calculate: 54 * a number equals 486, and your answer is 9.
This means for the rectangle, right, it’s nine times bigger in area—nine times bigger area.
But you need the square root of nine to know the actual scalar multiple for lengths: three.
This means each length on each side is three times bigger on one rectangle versus the other rectangle.
Said the leng—said the length of the longest side of ABC D is 27 units, which is three times bigger than the other rectangle, so you just divide by three.
This means the length of the other rectangle is nine units.
See how I started with two-dimensional scalar multiple, then took the square root to get the one-dimensional scalar multiple so I could compare lengths of sides?
Sometimes you might go to volume problems—you have to recognize it’s three-dimensional like a cube, use the cube root, and just be ready to move between dimensions and use the right scalar multiple.
Final Prediction — November Test Difficulty
My last and final prediction for November: I think this test is going to be easier and more fair compared to some other tests we’ve seen last year.
Looking forward to what’s coming, here’s my experience—I took the November test last year and it felt more balanced, trended a little bit easier as a fair test.
Actually, we’ve had a couple of really tough English tests over three consecutive months: August, September, and October.
Most students said those English tests were super super difficult, so my prediction is that November will also be going toward being an easier, fair test this time around.
If you’re not signed up for November yet, spots are still open—really, it’s going to be a great test to take.
Like I said, I’m going to take this test in a couple of weeks, maybe even less than a week from now—I don’t know exactly what I will do as a tutor who’s learned so much, but I’m really excited.
Make sure you guys join me on this journey—if you’ve made it all the way to the end of this guide, you deserve a perfect score.
Don’t get stuck at the end, guys—chase that perfect score with your whole heart.
Until next time, guys: Happy prepping, and fingers crossed it goes well!