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Standardized
Test Sample Questions
The following are sample test questions from both the
SAT and ACT.
ACT & SAT Sample Questions: Math |
ACT | SAT |
Solve the problem and choose the correct answer.
1. If a + 4, 2a – 3, and 3a – 10 are all
integers, and
a + 2 is the median of these integers,
which of the following could be a value for a?
A. 7
B. 5
C. 4
D. 3
E. 1 |
Solve the problem and record the result.
2. Over a period of 11 days, Seth counted a total of 143 customers
in his father’s diner. Throughout the 11-day period, exactly
two more customers came in each day compared to the previous day.
What was the difference between the average (arithmetic mean) number
of customers per day and the median number of customers per day during
the 11-day period? (grid in) |
ACT & SAT Sample Questions: Grammar
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ACT
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SAT
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In the passages
that follow, certain words and phrases are underlined
and numbered. Below the passage, you will find
alternatives for the underlined part. In most
cases, you are to choose the one that best expresses
the idea, makes the statement appropriate for
standard written English, or is worded most consistently
with the style and tone of the passage as a whole.
You are to choose the best answer to the question.
There was something exciting that was keeping us going, however. The man at
the shop told my dad to look for a Great Blue Heron that lived out in the woods,
so my dad brought a pair of binoculars for bird watching. The only birds I
saw was a couple of
crows (3) traveling from tree to tree.
My dad was still excited, though; he says (4) that
he thought there was a nice stretch of river in a few minutes upcoming. (5)
3. F. NO CHANGE
G. were a couple of crows
H. were crows – a couple of them –
I. were nothing but a couple of crows
A black hole was created (4) by the death of star.
A star is kept burning by its (5) immense supply of gas, but when this gas eventually runs out, the star explodes
in what is called a supernova.
4. A. NO CHANGE
B. is created
C. are created
D. created
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The following
sentence tests correctness and effectiveness
of expression. Part of the sentence or the entire
sentence in underlined; beneath the sentence
are five ways of phrasing the underlined material.
Select the best answer from among the choices
given.
5. Jonah’s sense of humor, his keen
listening skills, and his being unfailingly
tactful, make him naturally suited to the role
of diplomat.
(A) humor, his keen listening skills, and his being unfailingly tactful, make
(B) humor, together with his keen listening skills and unfailing tact, making
(C) humor, keen listening skills, and unfailing tact make
(D) humor, having keen listening skills, and being unfailingly tactful, has
made
(E) humor, keen listening skills, and unfailing tact makes
The following sentence tests your ability
to recognize grammar and usage errors. The
sentence contains either a single error or
no error at all. No sentence contains more
than one error. The error, if there is one,
is underlined and lettered. If the sentence
contains an error, select the one underlined
part that must be changed to make the sentence
correct. If the sentence is correct, select
choice E.
6. While it (A) is
true that we require (B) oxygen
to breathe, our atmosphere is actually being
composed (C) primarily of
(D) nitrogen.
No error (E) |
ACT & SAT Sample Questions: Critical Reading
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30 Walcott never
had the time to work on the fossils he discovered
as thoroughly as he wished, but he did make some
preliminary observations. These observations
were highly influential. Walcott placed all the
Burgess Shale fossils into already known groups
of animals, noticing resemblances to shrimp,
crabs, and so on. This seemed to make sense to
many people. After all, you might expect that
if you traced life back over 500 million years,
you would come to some ancestors of species that
exist in the present day.
37 But this did not turn out to be true. Walcott did not place the fossils so
much as shoe-horn them into these groups. In 1966, a Cambridge geologist names
Harry Whittington reexamined the fossils. He discovered they had a three-dimensional
structure, preserved within the rocks. Walcott had thought the fossils were squashed
flat on the rock surface. Whittington drilled down with a dentist’s drill
and found there was more structure below. He was thus able to reconstruct the
animal in much more detail.
43 The animal turned out to be very different from what Walcott had believed.
Scientists who studied Whittington’s drawings have come to the conclusions
that these were not primitive versions of modern animals. These animals, they
believe, were related to modern forms, but as separate early radiations within
a broad category and not as ancestors.
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ACT
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SAT
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After reading
the passage, choose the best answer to the question.
7.As it is used in line 38, shoe-horn most nearly
means:
A. To categorize something inaccurately and with considerable effort.
B. To pry something away from its surface.
C. To squeeze a large item into a small area.
D. To isolate something from its main structure.
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Answer the question
on the basis of what is stated or implied in
the passage.
8.By using the word “shoe-horn” in
line 38 the author implies that
(A) Walcott should not have attempted to classify the fossils without further
research
(B) The fossil record itself was distorted and inaccurate
(C) The fossils really did not belong in the groups to which Walcott assigned
them
(D) The scientific community did not question his work closely enough
(E) Walcott could have benefited from scientific discoveries later in the twentieth
century |
ACT Sample Questions: Science
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| After reading the passage,
choose the best answer to the question.
Experiments have shown that the rate at which
a chemical reaction can take place can be affected
by experimental variables, such as temperature
and atmospheric pressure. In this study, two
experiments were run to test the effects of these
variables on the reaction rate.
Experiment 1
In the first experiment, 0.1 M butyl chloride is placed in water. As the reaction
proceeded forward the concentrations of the reactants (butyl chloride and
water) should drop as the products form. Data was taken every 100 seconds
to measure the concentration of the remaining butyl chloride as the reaction
went forward at 20?C. The experiment was repeated in two identical setups
with the exception that they had the temperatures of 50?C and 80?C respectively.
The data is represented in Table 1 below:
| Table 1 |
| Time (seconds) |
| Concentration of Butyl Chloride [M] |
20 degrees C | 50 degrees C | 80 degrees C |
|
| 0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| 100 |
0.92 |
0.88 |
0.8 |
| 200 |
0.84 |
0.78 |
0.62 |
| 300 |
0.77 |
0.69 |
0.46 |
| 400 |
0.71 |
0.61 |
0.33 |
| 500 |
0.66 |
0.55 |
0.22 |
| 600 |
0.62 |
0.51 |
0.14 |
Experiment 2
The same chemical reaction of butyl chloride and water was repeated. In this
experiment, all trials were performed at 20?C. Two different samples of butyl
chloride were used: the first at a standard pressure of 1 atm and the second
under pressurized conditions of 1.3 atm. Table 2 summarizes the results:
| Table 2 |
| Time (seconds) |
| Concentration of Butyl Chloride [M] |
| 1 atm |
1.3 atm |
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| 0 |
1 |
1 |
| 100 |
0.92 |
0.93 |
| 200 |
0.84 |
0.85 |
| 300 |
0.77 |
0.75 |
| 400 |
0.71 |
0.71 |
| 500 |
0.66 |
0.65 |
| 600 |
0.62 |
0.61 |
9.Ideal conditions for a slow reaction rate would be:
F. 0?C at 1 atm of pressure.
G. 20?C at 1.3 atm of pressure.
H. 60?C at 1 atm of pressure.
J. 80?at 1.3 atm of pressure.
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SAT Sample Questions: Sentence Completions
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The sentence
below has 2 blanks, each blank indicating that
something has been omitted. Beneath the sentence
are five words or sets of words labeled A through
E. Choose the word or set of words that, when
inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning
of the sentence as a whole.
10.Disregarding her exceptional_________mathematics
and science, Jasmine__________a career in the
arts.
(A) disinterest in .. entertained
(B) vacuity in .. looked into
(C) facility in .. aspired to
(D) dissatisfaction with .. entered on
(E) interest in .. refused |
Answer Key
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Section |
ACT |
SAT |
| Math |
1. B |
2. 0 (zero) |
| Grammar |
3. G
4. B |
5. C
6. C |
| Reading |
7. C |
8. C |
| Science |
9. F
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| Sentence Completion |
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10. C |
(All questions used with the permission of Summit Educational Group, Inc.)
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