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Only a small percentage of the math problems on the SAT involve Geometry. Luckily, you will not need to
do any proofs, and most of the formulas you need are given to you at the beginning of every math section!

Geometry Essentials
While there are many different concepts to know in Geometry, which we will go over one by one, here are
some concepts that translate throughout this section:
1. Know the rules! Don’t ever get a question wrong just because you don’t know a basic Geometry
rule!
2. If there is a figure, show all the information.
3. If there is no figure, draw your own.
4. Decide what formulas are needed to solve the problem and WRITE THEM DOWN
5. If you do all this and get really stuck, you can BALLPARK
a. Figure must be drawn to scale, but most that “are not drawn to scale” usually are!
b. Round off numbers like ! and square roots.

Here are the formulas that are given to you at the beginning of every math test. Don’t forget about these!
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Volume and Area

10 18

Square X has a side length of 12 centimeters. The perimeter Square P has a side length of x inches. Square Q has a
of square Y is 2 times the perimeter of square X. What is the perimeter that is 176 inches greater than the perimeter of
length, in centimeters, of one side of square Y? square P. The function f gives the area of square Q, in square
inches. Which of the following defines f?
A) 6
A) ((*) = (* + 44)#
B) 10
B) ((*) = (* + 176)#
C) 14
C) ((*) = (176* + 44)#
D) 24
D) ((*) = (176* + 176)#

22
17
A cube has an edge length of 68 inches. A solid sphere with
A cylinder has a diameter of 8 inches and a height of 12 a radius of 34 inches is inside the cube, such that the sphere
inches. What is the volume, in cubic inches, of the cylinder? touches the center of each face of the cube. To the nearest
cubic inch, what is the volume of the space in the cube not
A) 16# taken up by the sphere?

B) 96# A) 149,796

C) 192# B) 164,500

D) 768# C) 190,955

D) 310,800

Surface Area
The surface area of an object is equal to the area of all of its faces. Here are some basic examples:
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9 21

A cube has a volume of 474,552 cubic units. What is the Two identical rectangular prisms each have a height of 90
surface area, in square units, of the cube? centimeters (cm). The base of each prism is a square, and the
surface area of each prism is K 23# . If the prisms are glued
together along a square base, the resulting prism has a surface
%#
area of 4 23# . What is the side length, in cm, of each
")
square base?

A) 4

B) 8
20
C) 9
2 #
The surface area of a cube is 6 A B , where a is a positive D) 16
.
constant. Which of the following gives the perimeter of one
of its faces?
2
A)
.

2
B)
#

C) 1

D) 21

Parallel Lines and Transversals

• When two parallel lines are cut by a third line, all of the small angles are equal and all of the big
angles are equal. Big angles + Small angles = 180° .

3 16

Note: Figure not drawn to scale.

In the figure shown, line c intersects parallel lines s and t. Note: Figure not drawn to scale.
What is the value of x?
In the figure, line m and n are parallel. If * = 66 + 13 and
8 = 86 − 29, what is the value of z?

A) 3

B) 21

C) 41

D) 139
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Triangles
1. Pythagorean Theorem and Special Right Triangles

Pythagorean Theorem: For any right triangles with legs a and b, and hypotenuse c, "* + $* = & * .
o Pythagorean Triples: A Pythagorean triple is a set of values that fit the Pythagorean
Theorem. Here are the most common (KNOW THESE): 3-4-5, 6-8-10, 7-24-25,
8-15-17, and 5-12-13.
o Special Right Triangles:
§ 45-45-90: College Board can hide them in squares with diagonals. Also, a 45-
45-90 triangle is also called an Isosceles Right Triangle.
§ 30-60-90: College Board can hide them in equilateral triangles.
• College Board can be quite sneaky with how they hide their special
right triangles, so as a backup plan, if you see √2 or √3, think special
right triangles.
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7. Find the volume of the figure below.

5 22

The perimeter of an equilateral triangle is 624 centimeters.

The height of this triangle is k√3 centimeters, where k is a
constant. What is the value of k?

For the right triangle shown, a = 4 and b = 5.

Which expression represents the value of c?

A) 4 + 5 22

B) V(4)(5)

C) √4 + 5

D) √4# + 5#

20
What is the volume of the hexagonal prism in terms of
An isosceles right triangle has a perimeter of 94 + 94√2 (> # above using the formula
inches. What is the length, in inches, of one leg of this ?@AB3C = (DEC1 @( >ℎC G1HC) × (ℎCJKℎ>).
triangle?

A) 47 A) 72√3

B) 47 √2 B) 36√3

C) 94 C) 30√3

D) 94 √2 D) 10√3
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2. Right Triangle Trigonometry

In any given right triangle with acute angle x, the following trig ratios exist:

GHHGI.2J !LM!NJ32 GHHGI.2J

*+,-° = &/*-° = 0",-° =
/FHG2J3KIJ /FHG2J3KIJ !LM!NJ32

These trig ratios can be remembered by knowing the following acronym: SohCahToa

On any given triangle, the angles for Sine and Cosine always = 12°.

6 20
#"
In right triangle RST, the sum of the measures of angle R and In triangle JKL, cos (K) = and angle J is a right angle.
√!& &!
angle S is 90 degrees. The value of sin (R) is . What is What is the value of cos(L)?
"
the value of cos(S)?

√!&
A)
!&

√!&
B)
"

"√!&
C)
!&

D) √15
22
18
sin(2* − 4)∘ = cos (3* + 9)∘
In a right triangle, one angle measures y°, where
. Find the value of x that satisfy the equation.
cos (y)° = . What is the cos (90° − y°)?
!)
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3. Triangle Rules/Theorems

Note: The sum of the interior angles of a triangle always equal 180∘

1)
• An Isosceles triangle is one in which two of the sides are equal in length.
• HOWEVER, you much also know that the angles opposite those equal sides are also equal.

2)
• An Equilateral triangle is one in which all three sides are equal in length.
• HOWEVER, you must also know that the three angles within an Equilateral triangle are each 60° .

9 13

In triangle ABC, the measure of angle B is 52° and the A circle has center O, and points R and S lie on the circle. In
measure of angle C is 17°. What is the measure of angle A? triangle ORS, the measure of ∠ROS is 88°. What is the
measure of ∠RSO, in degrees?
A) 21°

B) 35°

C) 69°

D) 111°
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4. Similarity and Congruency

• Similar Triangles: There are three theorems that can be used to identify similar triangles:
o Angle-Angle (AA)
§ Two triangles are similar if they have two pairs of corresponding angles that are
congruent.
o Side-Angle-Side (SAS)
§ Two triangles are similar if two sides of one triangle are proportional to two
corresponding sides of another triangle and their corresponding included angles
are congruent.
o Side-Side-Side (SSS)
§ Two triangles are similar if all three of their corresponding sides are
proportional.

Angle-Angle (AA) Side-Angle-Side (SAS) Side-Side-Side (SSS)

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9 19

RS = 20
ST = 48
TR = 52

The side lengths of right triangle RST are given.

Triangle RST is similar to triangle UVW, where S
corresponds to V and T corresponds to W.
What is the value of tan (W)?
&
Right triangles PQR and STU are similar, where P A)
!$
corresponds to S. If the measure of angle Q is 18°, what is
the measure of angle S? &
B)
!#

A) 18° !#
C)
!$
B) 72°
!#
D)
&
C) 82°

D) 162°

19

In triangles LMN and RST, angles L and R each have

16
measure 60°, LN = 10, and RT = 30. Which additional piece
of information is sufficient to prove that triangle LMN is
Two nearby trees are perpendicular to the ground, which is similar to triangle RST?
flat. One of these trees is 10 feet tall and has a shadow that is
5 feet long. At the same time, the shadow of the other tree is
A) XY = 7 and Z[ = 7
2 feet long. How tall, in feet, is the other tree?
B) XY = 7 and Z[ = 21
A) 3
C) The measures of angles M and S are 70° and 60°,
B) 4
respectively
C) 8
D) The measure of angles M and T are 70° and 50°,
respectively
D) 27

21

In triangles ABC and DEF, angles B and E each have

measure 27° and angles C and F each have measure 41°.
Which additional piece of information is sufficient to
determine whether triangle ABC is congruent to triangle
DEF?

A) The measure of angle A

B) The length of side AB

C) The lengths of sides BC and EF

D) No additional information is necessary

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Circles
The SAT loves testing copious amounts of different concepts in relation to circles. Don’t worry though, we
will review them all here.

1. Geometry Essentials with Circles

From the Geometry Essentials section, remember the following rule:

4. Decide what formulas are needed to solve the problem and WRITE THEM DOWN

19

Circle A has a radius of 3n and circle B has a radius of 129n,

where n is a positive constant. The area of circle B is how
many times the area of circle A?

A) 43

B) 86

C) 129

D) 1,849

2. Radians and Degrees

• A Circle Contains 360° OR 2! radians

• To convert from degree to radians, just use the following proportion:

LJP0JJ !3PQJ 0!L.!3 !3PQJ T 'UR 0V0!L.!3 -J!IK0J

%5R°
= *T
OR 6 f'URg = 9 & 9( T
) where: LVLJP0JJ -J!IK0J

Convert the following:

p *T
19) 120° 0/ 9"6+",* 20) !"#$"%& () #*+!**& 21) 9"6+",* 0/ 6=>9==*
q $

It doesn’t hurt if you know the unit circle, although it’s not required.
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6 22

!8= #=
An angle has a measure of radians. What is the measure The measure of angle R is radians. The measure of angle
!& $
&=
of the angle, in degrees? T is radians greater than the measure of angle R. What is
!#
the measure of angle T, in degrees?

A) 75

B) 120

C) 195

D) 390

3. Arcs

• The SAT will ask you to find either the length or area of an arc. When working on arc problems,
just plug in the following formulas (where r is the radius and x is the central angles of the circle).

& &
!"#$!"#$%& = *" ' ," *" '
360 2*
( (
.#/01ℎ!"#$%& = )*+ 2*" or ', 2*"

Solve the following:

1. Find the area of a sector with a central angle of 25R in a circle with a radius of 2in.

T
2. Find the area of a sector with a central angle of U radians in a circle with a radius of 4in.
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%T
3. Find the radius of a circle if the area of a sector of that circle is +
with a central angle of 30° .

4. Find the central angle of a sector if the circle containing it has a radius of 10ft. and the area of the sector
is 10!@0 * .

17 18

A circle has center O, and points A and B lie on the circle.

The measure of arc AB is 45° and the length of arc AB is 3
inches. What is the circumference, in inches, of the circle?

A) 3

B) 6

C) 9

The circle shown has center O, circumference 144#, and D) 24

diameters ^_ and QS. The length of arc PS is twice the
length of arc PQ. What is the length of arc QR?

A) 24#

B) 48# 20

C) 72# Point O is the center of a circle. The measure of arc RS on

this circle is 100°. What is the measure, in degrees, of its
D) 96# associated angle ROS?
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4. Central/Inscribed Angles
• Central Angles have an equal measure as their intercepting arc.
• Inscribed Angles measure half the intersecting arc.

18

Note: Figure not drawn to scale.

Point O is the center of the circle in the figure above. If ∠b

and ∠c both measure 30°, what is the measure of ∠bdc?
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5. The equation of a circle

• The equation of a circle centered at (0,0) with radius r

o A@ + B@ = C@
• The equation of a circle centered at (h,k) with radius r
o (A − E)@ + (B − F)@ = C@

In order to solve some problems that require the use the equation of a circle, you will need to know how to complete
the square. Completing the square is required because the equation of a circle contains perfect squares. If the
equation that you are given does not contain perfect squares, you will need to make them yourself. Let’s practice.

Complete the Square:

1. - * − 8- + 13 = 0 2. - * − 4- + 6 = 0 3. - * + 12- − 7 = 0

4. Write the equation of the circle in standard form: (- − ℎ)* + (K − L)* = 9 * . State the center and radius.

a) - * + 6- + K * − 10K + 23 = 0 b) - * − 4- + K * − 4K − 12 = 0

c) - * − 2- + K * − 4K + 5 = 0
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9 19

Circle A in the xy-plane has the equation (" + 5)! + (& − 5)! = 4. Which of the following equations represents a circle in the xy-
Circle B has the same center as circle A. The radius of circle B is plane that intersects the y-axis at exactly one point?
two times the radius of circle A. The equation defining circle B in
the xy-plane is (* + 5)# + (8 – 5)# = 6, where k is a constant. A) (* – 8)# + (8 – 8)# = 16
What is the value of k?
B) (* – 8)# + (8 – 4)# = 16

C) (* – 4)# + (8 – 9)# = 16

D) * # + (8 – 9)# = 16

20

17 The equation * # + (8 – 1)# = 49 represents circle A. Circle B is

obtained by shifting circle A down 2 units in the xy-plane. Which
A circle in the xy-plane has a diameter with endpoints (2, 4) and of the following equations represents circle B?
(2, 14). An equation of this circle is (* − 2)# + (8 − 9)# = E # ,
where r is a positive constant. What is the value of r? A) (* – 2)# + (8 – 1)# = 49

B) * # + (8 – 3)# = 49

C) (* + 2)# + (8 – 1)# = 49

D) * # + (8 + 1)# = 49

18

What is the diameter of the circle in the xy-plane with equation

(x – 5)2 + (y – 3)2 = 16? 22

A) 4 The graph of * # + * + 8 # + 8 =
!%%
in the xy-plane is a circle.
#

B) 8 What is the length of the circle’s radius?

C) 16

D) 32