Speed on test day comes from never hesitating over the calculator. This section teaches every typing shortcut, notation and setting the later sections rely on, one short chapter at a time.
Each chapter has two stages: a lesson video, then guided practice inside a live Desmos calculator that checks each microtask before showing the next.
Everything the SAT Desmos calculator can actually do, from typing conventions and graphing to tables, regression notation and lists. Learn the tools here so the question types in the next two sections are just applications.
Chapter 1.1
Using Desmos as a Calculator
Find the SAT calculator and learn every typing shortcut it accepts.
What you practise
- Getting to Desmos
- No copy and paste in Bluebook
- Keyboard vs the on-screen keypad
- Typing Conventions
- Undo and redo
- Radians and degrees
Chapter 1.2
Basic Graphing
Graph functions, control the viewport, and manage your list of expressions.
What you practise
- Graphing functions
- Only lowercase x graphs
- Check intersections, intercepts, max / min (also called vertexes)
- Export points
- Turning functions on and off
- Controlling the viewport
- Edit list mode
Chapter 1.3
Points & Inequalities
Graph inequalities and test whether a given point is part of the solution.
What you practise
- Graphing inequalities (how to use keyboard)
- Graphing points to see whether or not they are part of the solution
- Two or more inequalities: the solution is the double shaded region
Chapter 1.4
Graphing Single-Variable Equations
Solve one-variable equations by reading the vertical lines Desmos draws.
What you practise
- Desmos graphs single-variable equations, most graphing calculators can't
- Giving straight-line solution
- The vertical lines are the values of x, which are the solutions
- Reading the value off the line and substituting it back into the expression you need
Chapter 1.5
Variables vs Constants
Know which letters Desmos treats as variables and which it treats as constants.
What you practise
- x, y, are variables
- Constants are any other letter
- Uppercase X counts as a constant, not a variable
- Can be given a value
- The constant must come first then equals to
- Never write number = letter, it doesn't work
- This constant will now be a proxy for the number you set it to
- Do not make your constants e since it is euler's number
- Do not define the same constant twice – Desmos returns an error
- Constants can be set to points and lists
- Choosing values for constants: never 0 or 1, and never two constants the same
Chapter 1.6
Sliders
Adjust constants visually with sliders, and know when to type the value instead.
What you practise
- Used for letter constants to adjust value
- Dragging the slider until the graph passes through a given point
- Changing bounds
- Typing a value outside the range expands the range automatically
- Changing step size
- When constants are undefined, option to automatically setup a constant with slider comes
- You don't need that button – you can always type constant = number yourself
- Typing values in manually instead of dragging, especially for small decimals
Chapter 1.7
Function Notation
Define a function once with f(x) and reuse it anywhere in the calculator.
What you practise
- Writing a simple function
- Then finding f(5) automatically
- Also compound functions
- Same thing
- Proxy for transformations
- Any letter works, not just f
- Function notation lets you define an equation once and reuse it
- Desmos can't evaluate f(2) unless you've told it what f(x) is
Chapter 1.8
Tables
Build tables, convert between equations, points and regressions, and find factors fast.
What you practise
- Type 'table'
- Alt way of graphing points
- Typed points vs table points
- Can make regression from points
- The drop-down: linear, quadratic, occasionally exponential – ignore everything else
- The export equation button
- Three dots to export as a custom regression, so Desmos names the constants for you to reuse
- Three dots to delete regression
- Equation to table to regression (only for x equations)
- Quickly finding 'm', 'b'
- Create table from point
- A table built from an equation only lets you change x, not y – use it to read the y value at any x
- Equation -> table -> holding down x to find all whole values -> sets of factors
Chapter 1.9
Regression Notation
Write a regression with the tilde so Desmos solves for your undefined constants.
What you practise
- Using tilda
- What regression actually does: estimate the undefined constants until both sides are equal
- Using constants, not variables
- Only one tilde, and the whole regression has to sit on one line
- Regression only solves for undefined constants – if b is already defined, rename it
- Reading the output: a regression that lands on a messy decimal instead of a whole number or clean fraction usually means the setup is wrong
Chapter 1.10
Fraction to Decimal
Turn a decimal result into an exact fraction with a single click.
What you practise
- The fraction button that appears beside a decimal result
- It only appears when the decimal converts cleanly
Chapter 1.11
Desmos & Statistics
Use the built-in statistics functions for mean, median, distance, midpoint and more.
What you practise
- Mean
- Median
- Stdev
- Distance
- Midpoint
- % of
- Gcd
- Honorable mentions: mod, min, max, floor, ceil, round
Chapter 1.12
Lists & Conditions
Build lists with square brackets and restrict graphs with curly-bracket conditions.
What you practise