Editorial standards

What has to be true before a page goes up, written down so you can hold us to it.

Questions are ours

Every question on this site is written for it. We do not reproduce stems or explanations from the College Board, Khan Academy, or commercial test-prep banks. We do use the same skill names the score report uses, because that is how a student finds the right page — a shared vocabulary is not copied text.

Every answer key is verified by script

Before a page can be reviewed, a verification program re-derives its answers from scratch, in exact arithmetic, without reference to how the question was written. Where a value can be found two ways, it is found both ways and the results compared, so a slip in one derivation cannot hide in the other.

The check covers more than the keys. Every wrong answer choice is asserted too: each one is supposed to be the number a specific mistake produces, and the script confirms it is. That also catches a subtler failure — a distractor that is quietly a second correct answer. Figures are recomputed point by point against the data they claim to show.

We also test the tests. Each answer choice is deliberately corrupted and the check re-run: if it still passes, nothing was really verifying that choice, and the gap gets fixed rather than recorded as verified. All 156 questions across 13 skills currently clear that bar.

A person reviews it after that

Passing the scripts is necessary and not sufficient. A human editor reviews accuracy, whether the method is genuinely reusable, whether each distractor maps to a real mistake, whether the page fits the current digital test rather than the old paper one, clarity, and figure accessibility. A page that does not clear the bar stays unpublished — it does not go up with a note promising improvement.

What we will not do

• Answer-only practice. If we cannot explain why a choice fails, it does not ship.
• Copied questions, however lightly reworded.
• Score guarantees, "#1" claims, or invented testimonials. Score outcomes depend on the student, and anyone promising a number is selling something.
• Hiding explanations behind a signup. The explanations are the point.
• Thin pages spun out to catch search traffic. One skill, one page, kept current.

Corrections

If a key is wrong, an explanation is muddled, or a figure disagrees with the question, tell us and we will fix it and say what changed. Corrections go to hello@singlestepsat.com or through the contact form. Reporting an error is a favour to every student after you, and we treat it that way.

On AI

We use software throughout: to research what existing explanations leave out, to draft, and to verify. Nothing reaches this site on a machine's say-so — the verification described above and a human review stand between any draft and publication, and the editorial team is accountable for what is published.