Symbol Function's Bark is Worse than its Bite

Try this question out:

I know, I know that you noticed the troll face, and you are probably thinking "a troll face is NOT a math symbol!".

Guess what? If I say that the troll face is a math symbol, it is a math symbol. Why? Because I said so. Yes, I am being arbitrary, but that is what SAT symbol questions are all about.

If you are scared, don't be. This stuff is one of the easiest type of problems you will see on the SAT Math. Once you pick up on how to do SAT symbol function questions, you'll wonder why you thought these bad boys were hard in the first place.

SAT symbol questions are functions, the same functions you have learned in Algebra class. Don't fret if functions aren't your thing.

Before and After

Think of functions like a machine. The machine I'll be using as an example is an oven. You take some cookie dough and put it in the oven. Then you heat up the oven and wait for twenty minutes. What do you get? Delicious baked cookies. You put something into the machine, the machine does its thing, and you get something "new". Functions are just like that.

Just in case that analogy didn't make sense to you, here's a function machine:

Notice that we plug in the x value 4 into the machine. The machine takes the x, which is 4, and plugs it into the equation y = 2x + 3. Plug in 4 into 2x, you get 8. So 8 + 3 = 11. Tah-dah, you get 11 as your answer.

So let's see my "Troll Function" again:

What we have to do here is plugging in the values of x and y, which are respectively, 4 and 7.

See how the x value is on the left side of the troll face and the y value is on the right side of the troll face? That's how you tell which value is which. 

Now, we just plug in the x and y values into the equation 4x - 3y.

4(4) - 3(7)

16 - 21 = -5

OMG that was super easy. The answer to my "Troll Function" is -5.

Anything else...?

- Don't get scared just because the symbol is outrageous. No matter what the symbol is, you just need to pay attention to the equation it defines. And the SAT is most likely not going to use a symbol that is more bizarre than the troll face I just used.

- The symbol represents an operation, NOT a variable. If the function is 4@+5@, don't add them up to 9@. You just plug in numbers for @. 

- If you see a familiar symbol that is used for an already existing operation, don't assume that the symbol represents the operation that you think it is. This may sound crazy, but the SAT can use "+" in the equation x + y and defined as  5x - y. I know, it's really confusing, but this is the SAT we are talking about. So I repeat, DON'T assume symbols you already know as operations you already know.