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Do I need to memorize trigonometry for the SAT?

By Updated 1 September 2026

Yes, a small amount. SOHCAHTOA is not on the reference sheet, nor is the relationship that the sine of an angle equals the cosine of its complement. Those two facts plus the special right triangles, which are given, cover almost all of the trigonometry that appears.

The amount is genuinely small, which makes it one of the highest-return things to memorise. Two relationships and the special right triangles cover nearly every trigonometry question that appears, so this is an afternoon of work that closes a whole question type.

The full picture, with the surrounding detail, is in SAT Geometry & Trigonometry: The 7 Questions Nobody Drills.

Practise this on real adaptive questions

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