Here I SAT, Brokenhearted

Here's a humorous piece by a 35-year-old who decided to see how he'd do if he took the SAT again.  It's not a pleasant outcome.  Perhaps I should disqualify myself from commenting since I used to be a test tutor, but really, is it that hard?

He takes it cold, which is probably a mistake, especially on the math section.  But really, the two questions he shows for math that completely stumped him are quite simple and don't require a lot of background.

For instance, one question shows a polygon with equal sides that's mostly covered by a piece of paper so only two of its angles show.  Then you're told what the two new angles created by the polygon and the paper equal, and you're asked how many sides the polygon has.  His response?

I just ... Christ. Where do you even begin to figure out the methodology needed to solve this? I guessed. I guessed wrong. That's the amazing thing about the SAT. YOU WILL NEVER GUESS RIGHT.

Calm down.  All you need to know is the basic rule for the interior angles of a polygon, which is (n-2)x180.  (If you've forgotten, just figure how many triangles you can divide the polygon into.) To figure out each angle of a polygon with equal sides, divide by n.

So all you have to do is take the four-sided polygon created by the paper and what we can see of the unknown polygon, subtract the two angles they give you from 360, divide by two (for the two angles of the polygon shown), shove it into the general equation and you've got your answer.

And if that fails, learn to guess better.