SAT Practice Test

Your score on the SAT will help determine which schools you are accepted to. The SAT tests both your math and verbal skills, and features six different question types:

Verbal Section:
  Analogy Questions
  Sentence Completion Questions
  Critical Reading Questions
  
Math Section:
  Quantitative Comparison Questions
  Regular Math Questions
  Grid In Questions

Go through the practice questions below and see how well you do. The answers are listed at the end of the questions. Then jump to our SAT Guide to learn more about the SAT.

Directions: In the following two questions, a related pair of words or phrases is followed by five pairs of words or phrases. Choose the pair that best expresses a relationship similar to that in the original pair.

1) MEDICINE : ILLNESS ::

a) law : anarchy
b) hunger : thirst
c) etiquette : discipline
d) love : treason
e) stimulant : sensitivity

2) EQUANIMITY : HARRIED ::

a) celebrity : infamous
b) erudition : urbane
c) moderation : dissolute
d) distinction : singular
e) intuition : logical

Directions: The sentences below have one or two blanks, each blank indicating that a word or set of words has been omitted. Beneath the sentence are five lettered words or sets of words. You are to choose the word or set of words that, when inserted into the sentence, best fits in with the meaning of the sentence as a whole.

3) While the aphorism "beauty is only skin deep" is often repeated, the growing ----- of cosmetic surgery among mainstream consumers belies Americans' purported lack of concern for ----- beauty.

a) incidence .. inner
b) popularity .. surface
c) affordability .. fading
d) controversy .. comparative
e) stereotype .. perfect

4) Always painfully shy, he was averse to forging relationships on his own, but once he developed a friendship he was ---- in its perpetuation.

a) negligent
b) unflagging
c) quixotic
d) deferential
e) equivocal

Directions: Answer the following two questions after reading through the accompanying passage. Base your answers on information that is either stated or implied in the passage.

The following passage is an excerpt from an article written by a zoologist.

Ever since the giant panda was discovered in the middle of the nineteenth century, a controversy has raged over its relation to other species. While the general public tends to view the giant panda as a kind of living teddy bear, biologists have not been sure how to classify this enigmatic animal. At different times, the panda has been placed alternately with bears in the Ursidae family, with raccoons in the Procyonidae family, and in its own "Ailuropodidae" family.

Biologists who classify animal species have tried to categorize the panda according to whether its traits are "homologous" or merely "analogous" to similar traits in other species. Homologous traits are those which species have in common because they have descended from a common ancestor. For instance, every species of cat has the homologous trait of possessing only four toes on its hind foot, because every member of the cat family descended from a common feline ancestor. The greater the number of such traits that two species share, the more closely they are related. A cat and a lion have more homologous traits between them than a cat and a human, for example—so cats and lions are more closely related, biologically.

What appears to be a homologous trait may only be an analogous trait, however. An analogous trait is a trait that two species have in common not because they are descended from a common ancestor but because they have different ancestors that developed in similar ways in response to their environment. The eagle and the butterfly, for example, both possess the trait of wings.

It is often difficult to distinguish homologous from analogous traits, which is why analysis of the panda's traits has raised more questions than it has answered. The panda may look like a bear, for example, but its appearance could just be an analogous trait; the panda also has many traits that bears do not possess. It has a more massive jaw than a bear since its diet consists primarily of bamboo. Giant pandas also have thumbs which are used to strip leaves from bamboo stalks. Bears do not have a similar digit. Furthermore, most bears growl or roar, but giant pandas bleat.

Progress has been made on the panda mystery only through examination of its genetic material. Using a technique known as DNA hybridization, biologists have demonstrated that the giant panda is indeed a relative of the bear, but the relationship is distant indeed. Their most recent common ancestor lived over fifteen million years ago.

5) The primary purpose of the passage is to:

a) praise the work that has been done by biologists in the attempt to classify the panda.

b) draw attention to the fact that the giant panda is not really a species of bear.

c) discuss the difficulty of determining to which category the giant panda belongs.

d) point out the similarities between the panda and certain other animal species.

e) prove that the giant panda has long been incorrectly classified.

6) The author refers to "the eagle and the butterfly" in the third paragraph chiefly to illustrate that

a) many species have developed the means to fly

b) similar traits in two species do not necessarily indicate that they are related

c) the eagle and the butterfly may be descended from a common ancestor

d) all of animal life is not descended from a single common ancestor

e) there are diverse ways that animals can adapt to their environment

Practice Questions - Math

Directions: The following question consists of two quantities, one in Column A and one in Column B. You are to compare the two quantities and decide whether the quantity in Column A is greater, the quantity in Column B is greater, the two quantities are equal, or the relationship cannot be determined from the information given.

7)

a) The quantity in Column A is greater.
b) The quantity in Column B is greater.
c) The two quantities are equal.
d) The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.

Directions: Solve the following problems and choose the best answer.

8) A family pays $800 per year for an insurance plan that pays 80 percent of the first $1,000 in expenses and 100 percent of all medical expenses thereafter. In any given year, the total amount paid by the family will equal the amount paid by the plan when the family's medical expenses total which of the following?

a) $1,000
b) $1,200
c) $1,400
d) $1,800
e) $2,200

 

9) What is the area of square ABCD above?

a) 9
b) 12
c) 18
d) 21
e) 25

 

10) The diagram above represents a square lawn. If a is increased by 50 percent and b is decreased by 20 percent, by what percent is the area of the lawn increased?

a) 15%
b) 20%
c) 30%
d) 45%
e) 70%

Answers:

1) a; 2) c; 3) b; 4) b; 5) e; 6) b; 7) a; 8) b; 9) e; 10) b.

What's next:
SAT Guide
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