SAT PRACTICE TEST 4

Math Test
55 Minutes — 38 Questions
CALCULATOR SECTION

Turn to Section 4 of your answer sheet to answer the questions in

this section.

Directions
For this section, solve each problem and decide which is the best of
the choices given. Fill in the corresponding oval on the answer
sheet. You may use any available space for scratch work.

Notes:

1. Calculator use is permitted.

2. All numbers used are real numbers.
3. All figures used are necessary to solving the problems that they
accompany. All figures are drawn to scale EXCEPT when it is
stated that a specific figure is not drawn to scale.
4. Unless stated otherwise, the domain of any function f is assumed
to be the set of all real numbers x, for which f(x) is a real number.
Information:

The sum of the degree measures of the angles in a triangle is 180.

The number of degrees of arc in a circle is 360.
The number of radians of arc in a circle is 2π.

1.
Rating Score 1 2 3 4 5

Frequency 0 4 6 8 2

In a market where approximately 44% of all book purchases are

made online, customer reviews are extremely important from a
sales and marketing perspective. Early reviews are most important,
as they help or hinder a book’s momentum in the marketplace. The
 frequency table shown above gives the first 20 customer ratings for
a certain book sold online. What is the mean rating for this book?

(A) 3
(B) 3.4
(C) 3.7
(D) 4

2. Hardwood trees take much longer to grow than so wood trees.

Once harvested, however, hardwood is much stronger and more
durable. Because of its higher density, a piece of hardwood that is
the same size as a piece of so wood weighs considerably more. A
lumberyard ships both kinds of wood to home improvement stores.
The cost C, in dollars, to ship a pallet of wood weighing p pounds
can be found using the equation C = 6.5p + 16. What is the cost
difference to ship a pallet of hardwood weighing 170 pounds versus
a pallet of so wood weighing 80 pounds?

(A) $90
(B) $325
(C) $585
(D) $715

3. The First Transcontinental Railroad, which was 1,907 miles long,

was completed in 1869 to connect the West Coast of the United
States to the existing rail system that ran from the Missouri River to
the East Coast. During the early years a er building the railroad,
 dangerous conditions and mechanical problems could delay the
train significantly. For a person traveling from one end of the First
Transcontinental Railroad to the other, which inequality represents
all possible values of t, where t is the time it took to complete the
journey, if, while in motion, the train traveled at an average speed
of m miles per hour?

(A)

(B)

(C)

(D)

4.

Which value of x satisfies the equation given above?

(A)

(B)

(C) 2

3
(D)
5.
Bargain High-End

Price (per sq. ) $1.89 $5.49

Rating 2.8 8.2

Life Expectancy 5 years

The table above shows the price per square foot, the average
customer rating (out of 10), and the life expectancy (before needing
replacement) of the bargain version and the high-end version of
carpet at a flooring warehouse. If the ratio of the life expectancies is
roughly the same as the ratios of the prices and the ratings, about
how many years can the high-end carpet be expected to last?

(A) 10
(B) 12
(C) 15
(D) 18

6.
The bar graph shows median household incomes in a certain
geographic region according to the age of the highest earner in the
household. When presenting the data, the researcher who
compiled the data decides to exclude the first age bracket (15-24),
because it includes minors, which will likely skew the results
because most minors do not have full-time jobs. The researcher
also decides to exclude the last age bracket (65+) because it
includes retirees, which is again likely to skew the results for the
same reason. Which of the following statements most likely
describes how this will affect the data overall?

(A) It will significantly change the median, but not the mean.
(B) It will significantly change the mean, but not the median.
(C) There will be no significant change to either the mean or the
median.
(D) There is not enough information to determine what effect, if
any, it will have on either the median or the mean.
7. If the graph of y = mx + b passes through quadrants I, III, and IV on
a coordinate plane, which of the following must be true about m
and b ?

(A) m < 0, b < 0

(B) m < 0, b > 0
(C) m > 0, b < 0
(D) m > 0, b > 0

8.

Manufacturing companies typically have a number of fixed costs

(such as rent, machinery, insurance, etc.), which do not depend on
output, and variable costs (such as wages, utilities, materials, etc.),
which vary with output, usually at a constant rate. The graph shows
a company’s costs for manufacturing a particular product over the
 course of two years. Which of the following could explain the
difference between the 2013 and 2014 costs?

(A) The company reduced its fixed costs by 50%.

(B) The company reduced its variable costs by 50%.
(C) The company reduced the number of units produced by 50%.
(D) The company reduced its fixed costs, variable costs, and the
number of units produced by 50%.

9.

Which of the following is the y-coordinate of the solution to the

system of equations given above?

(A) –8
(B) –2
(C) 2
(D) 4

10. Premature babies are typically born underweight and are cared for
in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). At a certain NICU, the mean
weight of all the male babies is 4 pounds, and the mean weight of
all the female babies is 3.6 pounds. Which of the following must be
true about the mean weight w of the combined group of male and
female babies at this NICU?
 (A) w = 3.8
(B) w > 3.8
(C) w < 3.8
(D) 3.6 < w < 4

11.

Given that sin 53° ≈ 0.8, what is the approximate length of side AB in
the figure above?

(A) 6
(B) 7.2
(C) 8
(D) 8.5

12. When most people buy a house, they take out a mortgage to cover
at least part of the cost of the home and then pay the loan back
over time. The most common kind of mortgage is a 30-year loan. A
couple buys a home and takes out a 30-year loan in the amount of
$220,000 (called the principal). They decide they want to pay it off
early to save money on interest. They set a goal of reducing the
principal amount of the loan to $170,000 in four years. Suppose
 during the first two years of their four-year timeline, the couple
pays down the loan by 10%. By approximately what percent do
they need to pay down the rest of the loan to reach their overall
goal?

(A) 10%
(B) 14%
(C) 18%
(D) 20%

13.
x 1 2 3 4 5 6

f(x) 3.5 0 –2.5 –4 –4.5 –4

The table above shows several points through which the graph of a
quadratic function f(x) passes. One of the x-intercepts for the graph
is given in the table. What is the other x-intercept for the graph?

(A) (–2, 0)
(B) (5, 0)
(C) (8, 0)
(D) (10, 0)

Questions 14 and 15 refer to the following information.

A college cafeteria received a petition from students to offer healthier
meat, vegetarian, and vegan dishes. In response to the petition, the
cafeteria conducted an analysis of its existing menu to determine the
current state of those options. The results are summarized in the table
below. The analyst used a sliding scale based on the nutrient levels
compared against calorie, sugar, and sodium counts to determine the
health score, a score of 1 being the least healthy and 5 being the healthiest.

Health Score Meat Dishes Vegetarian Dishes Vegan Dishes

1 3 1 1

2 4 3 1

3 8 5 4

4 5 4 2

5 0 1 0

14. What fraction of the vegetarian and vegan dishes received a health
score greater than 2 ?

(A)

(B)

(C)

(D)
15. If a student chooses a dish at random for lunch one day, what is the
probability that it will be a meat dish with a health score of at
least 4 ?

(A)

(B)

(C)

(D)

16.

Ideally, blood should flow smoothly through the arteries in our

bodies. When there are problems, or as a natural part of aging,
there is an increased amount of resistance to blood flow. Viscosity
is a term used to describe the thickness or stickiness of the blood
and is directly related to this resistance, as are the radius and the
length of the artery through which the blood flows. The formula
given above relates the radius (r) of an artery to the viscosity (k),
resistance (R), and length (l) of that artery. Which of the following
represents the viscosity in terms of the other variables?
 (A)

(B)

(C)

(D)

17. Two muffins and a carton of milk cost $3.35. If five muffins and a
carton of milk cost $5.60, what is the cost of two cartons of milk?

(A) $0.75
(B) $1.50
(C) $1.85
(D) $3.70

18.
 The calculator screenshot above shows the x- and y-values for the
first few data points shown in the scatterplot, which can be
modeled using an exponential function. Which of the following
scenarios could be represented by this function?

(A) The resale value of a car is cut in half for every 3,600 miles
driven.
(B) The resale value of a car decreases by $5,000 for every 3,600
miles driven.
(C) The resale value of a car decreases by $3,600 for every 5,000
miles driven.
(D) The resale value of a car decreases by approximately 12% for
every 5,000 miles driven.

19.
 The graph of the function f(x) = –x 2 – 2x + 8 is shown in the figure
above. For what values of x does f (x) = 5 ?

(A) –4 and 2
(B) –3 and 1
(C) –1 and 9
(D) 5 and 8

20.
 The pie chart above shows the distribution of registered voters in a
certain district in Illinois by party and by age. If there are
8,640 voters in the district, what is the ratio of Republicans to
Independents?

(A) 3:1
(B) 7:2
(C) 22:3
(D) 23:6

21. A DVD rental kiosk dispenses movies for $1 for a 24-hour rental.
A er the initial rental period has expired, customers are charged a
$0.50 late fee for every 24 hours that the movie is returned late. If a
customer rents four movies at one time, which of the following
graphs represents the total possible charges in late fees, assuming
he returns all the movies together?
(A)

(B)

(C)

(D)
22. There are many ways to defrost a turkey. One way is to let it thaw
slowly in the refrigerator, at a thaw rate of about 4 pounds per day.
Another way is to submerge the turkey in cold water, which thaws it
at a rate of 1 pound per 30 minutes. Approximately how many more
ounces of turkey can the cold-water method thaw in 2 hours than
the refrigerator method? (1 pound = 16 ounces)

(A) 16
(B) 27
(C) 32
(D) 59

23. A freight train operator knows that on a 200-mile trip, if the freight
cars are not fully loaded, she can save 1 hour of travel time by
increasing her normal speed by 10 miles per hour. What is her
normal speed in miles per hour?

(A) 40
(B) 45
(C) 55
(D) 60

24. A cable company offers movie rental packages. If you join the Movie
Fan club, you get 10 movies for $20 and each movie a er that costs
$2.50. If you join the Movie Super Fan club, you get unlimited
movies for a year for $75. How many movies would a person need
 to rent for each package to cost the same amount over a one-year
period?

(A) 22
(B) 30
(C) 32
(D) 57

25. Many wholesale businesses charge customers less per item when
they buy those items in bulk. Suppose a baseball cap distributor
charges $6 per cap for the first 25 caps the customer purchases, $5
per cap for the next 75 purchased, and $4 per cap for all additional
caps over 100. Which of the following piecewise functions
represents this scenario, where C represents the total cost and n
represents the number of caps purchased?
 (A)

(B)

(C)

(D)

26. The decline of a certain animal species’ population, currently

estimated to be 22,000, can be modeled using the quadratic
function p(x) = –0.5x 2 + 22,000, where x is the number of years a er
2015. Based on only this information, and assuming no
intervention to change the path of the population, which of the
following statements must be true?
 (A) This species will be extinct by the end of the year 2225.
(B) The animal population for this species is decreasing at a
constant rate.
(C) In approximately 100 years, the animal population for this
species will be about half what it was in 2015.
(D) The animal population will increase or decrease from the
initial 2015 level, depending on the year a er 2015.

27. In geology, the water table is the level below which the ground is
saturated with water. Wells must be dug below this point to bring
water up into the well. Except in cases of severe flooding, the water
level in a well does not rise above the water table. Suppose a
cylindrical well is 6 feet wide and 60 feet deep in an area where the
water table is 40 feet below ground level. Assuming no unusual
circumstances, what is the volume in cubic feet of the water in the
well at any given time?

(A) 180π
(B) 360π
(C) 540π
(D) 720π

28. Ramon graphed a line that has a slope of –2. The line he graphed
passes through the point (3, 5). If Ramon doubles the slope of his
line and then shi s it down 1 unit, through which point will the line
pass?
 (A) (3, –2)
(B) (3, 9)
(C) (6, 4)
(D) (10, 2)

29.

Earthquakes occur when energy is released from deep inside the

earth, causing friction between the tectonic plates of the earth’s
crust. The magnitude, or intensity, of the earthquake is measured
on the Richter scale. The scatterplot above shows the earthquakes
experienced by California between December 2003 and December
2010. The line of best fit, which has a slope of 0, is a fairly good
indicator in California. Approximately what percent of the
earthquakes in California during this time period differed by 1 point
 or more on the Richter scale from the magnitude predicted by the
line of best fit?

(A) 22%
(B) 27%
(C) 33%
(D) 36%

30. If the equation has solutions x1 and x 2, what

is the product of x1 and x 2 ?

(A) – 45
(B) –15
(C) –5
(D) 3

Directions
For questions 31-38, solve the problem and enter your answer in
the grid, as described below, on the answer sheet.

1. Although not required, it is suggested that you write your answer

in the boxes at the top of the columns to help you fill in the
circles accurately. You will receive credit only if the circles are
filled in correctly.
2. Mark no more than one circle in any column.
3. No question has a negative answer.
4. Some problems may have more than one correct answer. In such
cases, grid only one answer.
5. Mixed numbers such as must be gridded as 3.5 or .
(If is entered into the grid as , it will be interpreted
as , not .)
6. Decimal answers: If you obtain a decimal answer with more
digits than the grid can accommodate, it may be either rounded
or truncated, but it must fill the entire grid.
31. If –10 < 14 – 2p < 6, what is the greatest possible integer value
of 7 – p ?
32.

The graph above shows Umberto’s distance from home over a one-
hour period, during which time he first went to the bank, then went
to the post office, and then returned home. How many minutes did
Umberto spend at the bank and at the post office combined?

33. Selena is taking a 90-minute test that consists of 50 multiple-choice

questions and 30 true-false questions. If she completes
48 questions in 50 minutes, how many seconds per question does
she have on average to answer each of the remaining questions?

34.
 If is a diameter of the semicircle shown above, and the arc
length of CD is π, what is the area of the shaded region? Use 3.14 to
approximate π and round your answer to the nearest tenth.

35. A bag valve mask is used to resuscitate patients who have stopped
breathing. It consists primarily of a bag attached to a mask. The
mask is fitted to the patient’s nose and mouth. Squeezing the bag
pushes air through the mask and into the patient’s lungs. For
sanitary reasons, most of these masks are disposable. Suppose a
hospital’s mask supplier sells them in boxes of 48 or 144, and the
supplier has 35 boxes in stock. If the supplier has 2,832 total masks
in stock, how many masks would the hospital receive if it ordered
all of the boxes of 144 that the supplier has in stock?

36.
 Patricia collected data for a school project, plotted the information
on a scatterplot (shown above), and drew the line of best fit. In
reviewing her notes, she realized that one of her data points was
wrong, so she eliminated that point and redrew the line of best fit.
If the new y-intercept of her line is 2 and the slope is steeper than
before, what was the y-value of the point she eliminated?

Questions 37 and 38 refer to the following information.

A company sponsors a health program for its employees by partnering with

a local gym. If employees pay for a yearlong membership at this gym, then
for every day the employee uses his or her swipe card to enter the gym
(and work out), the company reimburses the employee 0.2% of the cost of
the $220 membership. Additionally, any employee who goes to the gym
more than 60% of the days in the year gets one bonus paid day off of work.
The company uses a 365-day year.
37. If 246 employees participate in the program and they each go to the
gym an average of 84 days per year, how much money in
membership reimbursements will the company pay out? Round
your answer to the nearest whole dollar.

38.
Giving employees additional paid time off also costs the company
money because it is paying the salary of an employee who is not
actually doing any work on that day. The pie graph below shows
gym usage for the 246 employees who participated in the health
program.

If the average salary of workers who participated was $14.90 per

hour and one day off equals 8 hours, how much did the health
program day-off benefit cost the company? Round your answer to
the nearest whole dollar.