Test Tips
You should do the following before taking the SAT exam:
A) Get a good night's sleep.
B) Eat a healthy breakfast.
C) Arrive early.
D) All of the above.
D) All of the above.
The Boston Saloon was one of the most popular African American–owned establishments in nineteenth-century Nevada. _______ by businessman William A.G. Brown, the saloon was known to offer elegant accommodations and an inclusive environment.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) Created
B) Creates
C) Creating
D) Create
A) Created
In the search for extraterrestrial life, astrobiologists Stuart Bartlett and Michael L. Wong propose that scientists avoid using the term “life.” _______ researchers should use another word: “lyfe.” This new term, they argue, could be used to draw distinctions between the known characteristics of life on Earth and the potentially differing characteristics of lyfe on other planets.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A) Previously,
B) Regardless,
C) There,
D) Instead,
D) Instead,
Researchers have long hypothesized that woolly mammoths were hunted to extinction in North America by humans using spears with grooved tips known as Clovis points. One anthropologist set out to test this hypothesis. Using a mechanical spear-thrower, he launched spears with Clovis points into mounds of clay—substitutes for the animals’ large bodies. The projectiles generally penetrated only a few inches into the clay, an amount insufficient to have harmed most woolly mammoths. This led the anthropologist to conclude that hunters using spears with Clovis points likely weren’t the principal drivers of the extinction.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
A) To argue for the significance of new findings amid an ongoing debate among researchers
B) To discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the method used in an experiment
C) To summarize two competing hypotheses and a major finding associated with each one
D) To describe an experiment whose results cast doubt on an established hypothesis
D) To describe an experiment whose results cast doubt on an established hypothesis
(p + 3) + 8 = 10
What value of p is the solution to the given equation?
A) −1
B) 5
C) 15
D) 21
A) −1
"It is ok to skip questions."
Is this statement true or false?
A) True, if I don't know I will just get it wrong anyway.
B) False, I should spend extra time on that question.
C) True, I can always come back later.
D) False, bears beats Battlestar Galactica
C) True, I can always come back later.
“He was just the man for such a place, and it was just the place for such a man.” This line is from Frederick Douglass’s autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845). It’s an example of antimetabole, a writing technique that _______ emphasis by repeating a statement in a reversed order.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) create
B) are creating
C) have created
D) creates
D) creates
Before it unveiled a massive new gallery in 2009, the Art Institute of Chicago was only able to display about 5% of its art collection. _______ the museum is able to display close to 30% of its collection. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A) Additionally,
B) For example,
C) Nevertheless,
D) Today,
D) Today,
The following text is from Betty Smith’s 1943 novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Francie, a young girl, visits the library often.
Francie thought that all the books in the world were in that library and she had a plan about reading all the books in the world. She was reading a book a day in alphabetical order and not skipping the dry ones. She remembered that the first author had been Abbott. She had been reading a book a day for a long time now and she was still in the B’s. Already she had read about bees and buffaloes, Bermuda vacations and Byzantine architecture. For all her enthusiasm, she had to admit that some of the B’s had been hard going. But Francie was a reader.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
A) To illustrate Francie’s enjoyment of an unusual topic
B) To explain why Francie prefers reading over other activities
C) To portray Francie’s determination to meet a goal
D) To describe a book that Francie greatly admires
C) To portray Francie’s determination to meet a goal
k2 − 53 = 91
What is the positive solution to the given equation?
A) 144
B) 72
C) 38
D) 12
D) 12
A) randomly pick an answer.
B) eliminate wrong answers, use context clues, and then pick the best one remaining.
C) just pick C.
D) pick whichever answer is the longest, even if that answer makes no sense, because the flying purple hippo said that the longest answers are usually the best answers
B) eliminate wrong answers, use context clues, and then pick the best one remaining.
Louise Bennett (1919–2006), also known as “Miss Lou,” was an influential Jamaican poet and folklorist. Her innovative poems _______ the use of Jamaican Creole (a spoken language) in literature.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) popularized;
B) popularized,
C) popularized
D) popularized:
C) popularized
In 1891, design artist William Morris cofounded the Kelmscott Press, which printed editions of books using preindustrial methods. Historians argue that Morris’s repudiation of industrialization is _______ the Kelmscott editions’ use of handmade materials and intricate ornamentation reminiscent of medieval manuscripts: these meticulously handcrafted elements exemplify the artistry involved.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A) insensible to
B) manifest in
C) scrutinized by
D) complicated by
B) manifest in
“Lines Written in Early Spring” is a 1798 poem by William Wordsworth. In the poem, the speaker describes having contradictory feelings while experiencing the sights and sounds of a spring day: _______
Which quotation from “Lines Written in Early Spring” most effectively illustrates the claim?
A) “Through primrose-tufts, in that sweet bower, / The periwinkle trail’d its wreathes; / And ’tis my faith that every flower / Enjoys the air it breathes.”
B) “The budding twigs spread out their fan, / To catch the breezy air; / And I must think, do all I can, / That there was pleasure there.”
C) “The birds around me hopp’d and play’d: / Their thoughts I cannot measure, / But the least motion which they made, / It seem’d a thrill of pleasure.”
D) “I heard a thousand blended notes, / While in a grove I [sat] reclined, / In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts / Bring sad thoughts to the mind.”
D) “I heard a thousand blended notes, / While in a grove I [sat] reclined, / In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts / Bring sad thoughts to the mind.”
How many yards are equivalent to 1,116 inches?
(1 yard = 36 inches)
31
Which of the following is an example of good test taking advice?
A) There is no need to keep track of time, you can spend as much time on any question as you like.
B) The directions are way too long, so just skip them. There's nothing important in them anyway.
C) Check your test over when you are finished. Look back at questions you marked questionable.
D) Always second guess yourself. Your first choice is usually the wrong one.
C) Check your test over when you are finished. Look back at questions you marked questionable.
Jamaican British artist Willard Wigan is known for his remarkable _______ so small that they are best viewed through a microscope, Wigan’s sculptures are made from tiny natural materials, such as spiderweb strands.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) microsculptures creations
B) microsculptures, creations
C) microsculptures. Creations
D) microsculptures and creations
C) microsculptures. Creations
The practice of logging (cutting down trees for commercial and other uses) is often thought to be at odds with forest conservation (the work of preserving forests). However, a massive study in forest management and preservation spanning 700,000 hectares in Oregon’s Malheur National Forest calls that view into question. So far, results of the study suggest that forest plots that have undergone limited logging (the careful removal of a controlled number of trees) may be more robust than plots that haven’t been logged at all. These results, in turn, suggest that _______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A) logging may be useful for maintaining healthy forests, provided it is limited.
B) other forest management strategies are more effective than limited logging.
C) as time passes, it will be difficult to know whether limited logging has any benefits.
D) the best way to support forest health may be to leave large forests entirely untouched.
A) logging may be useful for maintaining healthy forests, provided it is limited.
As media consumption has become increasingly multiplatform and socially mediated, active news acquisition has diminished in favor of an attitude known as “news finds me” (NFM), in which people passively rely on their social networks and ambient media environments for information about current events. Homero Gil de Zúñiga and Trevor Diehl examined data on a representative group of adults in the United States to determine participants’ strength of NFM attitude, political knowledge, and political interest. Although no major election took place sufficiently near the study for Gil de Zúñiga and Diehl to identify causality between NFM and voting behavior, they did posit that NFM may reduce voting probability through an indirect effect.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the idea advanced by Gil de Zúñiga and Diehl?
A) NFM attitude tends to increase in strength as major elections approach, and people are significantly more likely to vote in major elections than in minor elections.
B) NFM attitude has a strong negative effect on political knowledge and interest, and there is known to be a strong positive correlation between political knowledge and interest and the likelihood of voting.
C) Political interest is known to have a strong positive effect on likelihood of voting but shows only a weak positive effect on political knowledge, and NFM attitude shows little correlation with either political knowledge or political interest.
D) The likelihood of voting increases as political knowledge increases, and the relationship between NFM attitude and political knowledge tends to strengthen as the size of people’s social networks increases.
B) NFM attitude has a strong negative effect on political knowledge and interest, and there is known to be a strong positive correlation between political knowledge and interest and the likelihood of voting.
P(t) = 1,800(1.02)t
The function P gives the estimated number of marine mammals in a certain area, where t is the number of years since a study began. What is the best interpretation of P(0) = 1,800 in this context?
A) The estimated number of marine mammals in the area was 102 when the study began.
B) The estimated number of marine mammals in the area was 1,800 when the study began.
C) The estimated number of marine mammals in the area increased by 102 each year during the study.
D) The estimated number of marine mammals in the area increased by 1,800 each year during the study.
B) The estimated number of marine mammals in the area was 1,800 when the study began.
One of the best 'Test Tips' is to practice, practice, practice. So let's practice...
Contrary to popular belief, your best strategy for this section is to not read the passage at all, as it will just distract you from the question waiting for you. And yet you are still reading this paragraph for some reason, as if you are enthralled by what can happen next, keeping you on the hook, waiting. Waiting for anything that might assist you on this question, yet there is truly no information in this overly drawn out paragraph. And now are you wondering what the question is? Well in about two more sentences I will tell you. I have to keep you in suspense since you waited this long. You may call it hubris, but instead I call it humorous. Now for the question: what is my name?
A) Hollaway
B) Hollowoy
C) Hollywood
D) Hollway
Trick Question:
The right answer is "Holloway"
Consider the mechanics of the pinhole camera: light passes through a small hole, resulting in a focused projected image. A ray diagram reveals how this _______ the hole’s small size restricts light to a single ray, all light passing through the hole can only arrive at a single destination, eliminating diffraction and ensuring a clear image.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) works because
B) works. Because
C) works, it’s because
D) works: it’s because
B) works. Because
Even with the widespread adoption of personal computers, many authors still choose to write and revise their novels by hand and only then transcribe the final version on a computer. It may be tempting to speculate about how a novel written this way would be affected if it had been exclusively typed instead, but each novel is a unique entity resulting from a specific set of circumstances. Therefore, _______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A) in order to increase their efficiency, authors who currently write their novels largely by hand should instead work only on a computer.
B) authors who do most of their drafting and revising by hand likely have more success than those who work entirely on a computer.
C) novels written by hand take less time to produce, on average, than novels written on a computer do.
D) there is no way to reasonably evaluate how a work would be different if it had been written by other means.
D) there is no way to reasonably evaluate how a work would be different if it had been written by other means.
To understand how temperature change affects microorganism-mediated cycling of soil nutrients in alpine ecosystems, Eva Kaštovská et al. collected plant-soil cores in the Tatra Mountains at elevations around 2,100 meters and transplanted them to elevations of 1,700–1,800 meters, where the mean air temperature was warmer by 2°C. Microorganismmediated nutrient cycling was accelerated in the transplanted cores; crucially, microorganism community composition was unchanged, allowing Kaštovská et al. to attribute the acceleration to temperature-induced increases in microorganism activity.
It can most reasonably be inferred from the text that the finding about the microorganism community composition was important for which reason?
A) It provided preliminary evidence that microorganism-mediated nutrient cycling was accelerated in the transplanted cores.
B) It suggested that temperature-induced changes in microorganism activity may be occurring at increasingly high elevations.
C) It ruled out a potential alternative explanation for the acceleration in microorganism-mediated nutrient cycling.
D) It clarified that microorganism activity levels in the plant-soil cores varied depending on which microorganisms comprised the community.
C) It ruled out a potential alternative explanation for the acceleration in microorganism-mediated nutrient cycling.
What is the y-coordinate of the y-intercept of the graph of 3x/7 = − 5y/9 + 21 in the xy-plane?
189/5