Free SAT: Scholastic Assessment Test Exam Questions and Answers

y = x² + 2x - 8 y = 2x + 1 The solutions to the given system of equations are (a, b) and (-a, c), where a > 0. What is the value of a + b?

• AA. 3
• BB. 7
• CC. 10
• DD. 21

A student is writing about Daniel Okafor's novel Harbor Lights. The student claims that the narrator feels ambivalent about leaving her hometown. Which quotation from Harbor Lights most effectively illustrates the student's claim?

• AA. "My mother pressed a jar of plum jam into my hands and told me to write to her every week without fail."
• BB. "I wanted the ferry to leave and wanted it to wait, and as the horn sounded I could not have said which wish was louder."
• CC. "Everyone on the dock assumed I would be glad to go, so I smiled for them until the gangway was pulled up."
• DD. "I had packed my bags a month before the sailing date and had stood by the front door every morning since."

Biologists have long explained the bright colors of poison dart frogs as a warning to predators. A 2012 field study complicates that account. In the population it examined, the frogs' brightness varied widely, yet predators avoided even the dullest individuals. The researchers suggest that predators may be responding to the frogs' overall pattern, which they learn to recognize, more than to the intensity of any color. Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

• AA. It states a hypothesis about frog coloration, then reports an experiment whose results confirm that hypothesis.
• BB. It criticizes the methods of an earlier field study, then proposes a new method for measuring frog coloration.
• CC. It presents a widely held explanation, then describes a study that complicates it and offers a tentative alternative.
• DD. It describes a feature shared by many frog species, then lists the predators that have adapted to that feature.

Machine A makes 36 parts every 45 minutes. Machine B makes 20 parts every 30 minutes. Both machines run at their constant rates at the same time. How many hours will it take the two machines, working together, to make 440 parts?

• AA. 5
• BB. 10
• CC. 11
• DD. 22

Dendrochronologists date wooden beams by matching their growth-ring patterns to master sequences built from living trees and older timber. The method works best in regions with sharp seasonal swings, where ring widths vary strongly from year to year. In the tropics, where growth is steadier, rings are often faint or absent, and the technique is far less reliable. Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

• AA. It explains why growth rings form in trees and then compares how quickly trees grow in different climates.
• BB. It presents a technique for dating timber and then argues that the technique should be replaced by newer methods.
• CC. It describes how a dating technique works and then identifies a condition under which the technique becomes less reliable.
• DD. It introduces a dating technique and then recounts how the technique was developed in several regions.

y = x^2 - 5 y = 2x + 3 The system of equations above has two solutions, (x, y). What is the y-coordinate of the solution with the greater x-coordinate?

• AA. -1
• BB. 4
• CC. 11
• DD. 16

The function g is defined by g(x) = 2x^3 - x. What is the value of g(2)?

• AA. 6
• BB. 14
• CC. 16
• DD. 62

3x + 2y = 18 2x − y = 5 The solution to the given system of equations is (x, y). What is the value of x + y?

• AA. 5
• BB. 7
• CC. 9
• DD. 12

Ecologists monitoring a mountain meadow found that plants blooming in the cold weeks of early spring were visited almost exclusively by bumblebees, which can generate body heat and fly in near-freezing temperatures. Most other pollinating insects in the meadow cannot fly until temperatures rise later in the season. Given these observations, a sharp decline in the meadow's bumblebee population would most likely mean that ______ Which choice most logically completes the text?

• AA. other pollinating insects would begin flying at colder temperatures to replace the missing bumblebees.
• BB. early-blooming plants would have fewer pollinators available to them than later-blooming plants would.
• CC. early-blooming plants would begin flowering in the summer instead of in the early spring.
• DD. later-blooming plants would be visited by fewer kinds of pollinating insects than early-blooming plants.

A botanist grew three fern species under low, medium, and high light for 8 weeks and measured the average height of each group. The results are shown in the table. Average height after 8 weeks (cm) Species | Low light | Medium light | High light Species A | 4 | 9 | 15 Species B | 6 | 11 | 8 Species C | 5 | 7 | 7 The botanist concludes that light intensity does not affect all three species in the same way. Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to support her conclusion?

• AA. Species A and Species B both reached their greatest average height under high light, while Species C reached its greatest under low light.
• BB. Species C grew taller under medium light than under high light, while Species A grew taller under low light than under medium light.
• CC. Species A reached its greatest average height under high light, while Species B reached its greatest average height under medium light.
• DD. Species B grew taller under high light than under medium light, while Species A grew taller under medium light than under high light.