SAT Math Level 1 Practice Questions and Solutions

8/13/2017 Math 1 - SAT Subject Test Math Level 1 Practice Questions
SAT Subject Test Practice - Results Summary
Mathematics Level 1
1Your answer Omitted!
The stem-and-leaf plot above gives the height, in inches, of evergreens in a nursery. What percent
of the evergreens are over inches tall?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Easy
The heights of evergreen trees are represented in the stem-and-leaf plot. There is tree that is
inches tall, trees that are inches tall, and so on. There are trees over inches tall -
they range from inches tall to inches tall. Six of the trees is .
A band wants to distribute its music on compact discs (CDs). The equipment to produce the CDs
costs , and blank CDs cost for a package of . Which of the following represents
the total cost, in dollars, to produce CDs, where is a multiple of ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Easy
https://subjecttestspractice.collegeboard.org/practice/practice-test-section-review?pageId=practiceSubjectTestMathLevel1&practiceTestSectionI 1/24
The correct answer is B.
The cost of the equipment is , and each package of blank CDs costs . The total
cost for the band to produce CDs, that is, package, is dollars, and
the total cost to produce CDs, that is, packages, is
dollars.
One way to determine the correct expression is to find the slope-intercept form of the equation of
the line that passes through the two points given by the ordered pairs and
. The line has slope and -intercept , which is the
cost, in dollars, for the band to produce CDs after purchasing the equipment. The equation of
this line is , where is the number of CDs used.
Alternatively, note that the total cost to produce CDs is

dollars, and the cost to produce CDs is dollars, so, in
general, if is a multiple of , then the total cost to produce CDs is
dollars.
In the figure above and are parallel. What is in terms of and ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Easy
The correct answer is A.
Let be the point of intersection of lines and .
One way to determine in terms of and is to find the measure of each of the angles of
in terms of , and and then apply the triangle sum theorem. Since is
supplementary to and the measure of is given to be , the measure of is
. Since line is a transversal to the parallel lines and , the alternate
interior angles and are of equal measure. Thus the measure of is , which
is also the measure of . The measure of is given to be . Therefore, the sum of the
angle measures of , in degrees, is . The triangle sum theorem applied
to gives the equation , which can be solved for to arrive at
.
Alternatively, one can apply the interior angle sum theorem to pentagon . Since line
is a transversal to the parallel lines and , it follows that and are
supplementary; that is, the sum of the measures of these two angles is The measure of
, interior to polygon , is . The measure of is given to be ,
and the measure of is given to be . Therefore, the sum of the measures of the interior
angles of pentagon is . The interior angle sum theorem
applied to pentagon gives the equation , which can be
solved for to arrive at .
A number is increased by . If the cube root of that result equals , what is the value of ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Easy
The correct answer is C.
One way to determine the value of is to create and solve an algebraic equation. The phrase a
number is increased by is represented by the expression , and the cube root of that
result is equal to , so . Solving for gives ,
and so .
Alternatively, one can invert the operations that were done to . Apply the inverse of each
operation, in the reverse order: First cube to get , and then decrease this value by
to find that .
Tickets for a show cost or . If tickets were sold for a total of , how many tickets
were sold for ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
One way to solve this problem is to set up an equation using one variable. Let represent the
number of tickets sold; then represents the number of tickets sold.
There were tickets sold.
Simultaneous equations can also be set up to solve the problem. Let represent the number of
tickets sold and represent the number of tickets sold.
Another way to solve this problem is to realize that each of the tickets costs at least . At each,
a total of would be collected from selling all of the tickets. Since the remaining
was the extra collected from each of the tickets, of the tickets were sold. This
implies that of the tickets were sold.
The sum of the two roots of a quadratic equation is and their product is . Which of the
following could be the equation?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
One way to do this problem is to think about the properties of roots. Suppose the two roots of a
quadratic equation are and . Then the quadratic equation can be written in factored form as
. The sum of the roots is , and the product is .
Note that . In this question the sum of the roots is and

the product is . Therefore, and . The equation could be
, which is choice B. Note that the roots of this equation are and . Their sum
is and their product is .
If you know these properties of roots, you do not need to factor all of the equations to find the one
that fits the given conditions.
The figure above shows a square region divided into four rectangular regions, three of which have
areas , , and , respectively. If the area of is , what is the area of square
?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
Since and are squares, and . Thus, and the

rectangle with area must be a square with sides of length . The rectangles with area must
have sides of length and . Thus, the area of is equal to .
Another approach is the following. Since is a square, . Thus, and

is a square with sides of length . The rectangles with area must have sides of length
and . Since the area of is :
Thus, the area of is .
In the , the points with coordinates and lie on line . Line

contains the point with coordinates and is perpendicular to line . What is the
of the point where lines and intersect?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
It is often helpful to make a sketch for this type of question.
The slope of line is equal to .
Since is the , the equation of is .
Since line is perpendicular to line , the slope of is equal to (the negative reciprocal of
the slope of ). Since line contains the point with coordinates , the equation of line
can be found by substitution.
To find the of the point where the two lines intersect, solve the equation
. The lines intersect at the point where .
It is also possible to graph the two linear equations to determine where they intersect. Using a
graphing calculator, let and . You can find the point of intersection
graphically in the standard viewing window, or you can examine a table of values to find the
where .
If rectangle in the figure above is rotated about side , it generates a cylinder of volume
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
If is rotated about side , the height of the cylinder formed is and the radius is .
Thus, the volume of the cylinder is . The correct answer is D.
A pole meters tall is perpendicular to level ground. A taut wire that is meters long extends
from the top of the pole to the ground. What is the angle of elevation, to the nearest degree, from
the bottom of the wire to the top of the pole?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
It is helpful to draw a figure.
Let represent the angle of elevation (the angle between the line of sight and the horizontal).
You can find by setting up the equation . To find you need to find .
(For the Level 1 Test, make sure your calculator is in degree mode.) To the nearest degree, the angle
of elevation is .
In the figure above, if , then
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
The tangent of an acute angle in a right triangle is defined as the ratio of the length of the side
opposite the angle to the length of the side adjacent to the angle. You can find the length of the
adjacent side by using the Pythagorean theorem. Using the given information, let the length of
be and the length of be . Then, or .
Thus and .
The correct answer is (B).

Ralph was on his way from home to work when he remembered that he left his briefcase at home.
He drove home and then drove back to work. Which of the following graphs could represent his
distance from home as a function of time?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
It is important to keep in mind that the -values of the graph are showing Ralph's distance from
home. When Ralph starts out in the morning his distance from home is zero. This distance from
home increases until he turns around to go back home for his briefcase. The distance decreases as
he travels back home. When he gets back home, his distance from home is again zero for a short
time while he gets the briefcase. The distance from home then increases again.
The function ,where , is defined for . What is the range of ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
Since is a perfect square, the minimum value of the function is 0, which occurs when
. The maximum value of occurs when ; . Thus, the range is
. You can also graph the function and see what values the function takes on for the
given domain. The graph is a parabola that opens up and has a vertex at . The correct
answer is (B).
What is the least positive integer that has the same number of positive factors as ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
The number is equal to . It has a total of positive factors: , , , , , and

. The numbers with positive factors are of the form or . The least number of
the first form is . The least number of the second form is . Thus, the answer is
, which has the positive factors , , , , , and .
You could also test each of the choices, but that may take additional time.
If and are real numbers, , and , what is the value of ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
To determine the value of apply the fact that two complex numbers are equal if and only if the
real and pure imaginary parts are equal. Since , this gives the two equations
and , that is, and . Therefore, , and .
What are all values of for which ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D) or
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
One way to determine all values of for which is first to rewrite the inequality in
an equivalent form that compares a factored expression to and then reason about the arithmetic
sign of the product of the factors. The inequality is equivalent to
, which in turn is equivalent to . Since factors
as , the original inequality is equivalent to
or . To solve , notice that this
inequality is satisfied by a value of precisely when either , or the product of the
factors and is negative; this last condition is true for , as shown in the
table below:
Therefore, all values of for which are described by the extended inequality
.
Alternatively, one can use a graphing calculator. Graph the two equations and
.
The values of for which are the same as the values of for which the parabolic
graph of lies above or intersects the line . Therefore, all values of for
which are described by the extended inequality .
If , which of the following must be true?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
The correct answer is D.
One way to determine which equation must be true is to apply the laws of logarithms to the given
equation. It is given that , so must be true. One of the laws of logarithms
states that must be true. Therefore, must be true.
Alternatively, one can recall the definition of logarithms. The logarithm of to the base
,represented by the symbol , is the exponent to which the base must be raised to obtain
. In other words, means precisely that .
If and , which of the following statements are true about the graphs of
and in the ?
I. The graphs are exactly the same.
II. The graphs are the same except when .
III. The graphs have an infinite number of points in common.
(A) I only
(B) II only
(C) III only
(D) I and III
(E) II and III
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
The correct answer is E.
Statement I is false: The function has the real line as its domain. The function has as its
domain all values of except , because the value of the expression is undefined when
is substituted for . This means that the graph of contains a point with -coordinate equal to
,but the graph of contains no such point.
Statement II is true: For any not equal to , the expressions and give the same
value, since for , the expression . It follows that for , the

graphs of and contain the same point with that .
Statement III is true: Since statement II is true, for every number not equal to , the point
is on both the graph of and the graph of . Since there are infinitely many numbers
not equal to , the graphs have an infinite number of points in common.
Twenty students have each sampled one or more of three kinds of candy bars that a school store
sells. If students have sampled all three kinds, and have sampled exactly two kinds, how many
of these students have sampled only one kind?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
It is given that students have sampled all three kinds of candy bars and that students have
sampled exactly two kinds, so a total of students have sampled more than one kind of
candy bar. Since students have sampled one or more of the three kinds of candy bars, the
number of students that have sampled only one kind is .
In the figure above, has a right angle at If the length of side is and the
measure of is , what is the length of side ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
To determine the length of side , apply the definition of the tangent of an angle in a right
triangle: the tangent of is equal to the length of the side opposite angle divided by the length
of the side adjacent to angle . Thus in this case, , which gives
. Use a calculator, set to degree mode, to compute that .
If , for how many real numbers does ?
(A) None
(B) One
(C) Two
(D) Three
(E) Four
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
The correct answer is E.

To determine how many real numbers satisfy is to determine how many solutions the
equation has, which in turn is to determine how many solutions the
equation has. It is not difficult to see, using the Rational Roots Theorem,
that has no factor of the form for any whole or rational number value
of , but there are real number values of such that is a factor. This problem must be
solved using a non-algebraic method.
One way to determine how many numbers satisfy is to examine the graph of the
function . Use a graphing calculator to graph
for on a suitably large interval to see all intersections of the graph with the line , and then
count the number of points of intersection.
There are at least four such points: A first point with -coordinate between and , a second
point with -coordinate between and , a third point with -coordinate between and
and a fourth point with -coordinate between and . The fact that is a
polynomial of degree means that there can be at most four such points. Therefore, there are four
values of for which .
Alternatively, one can examine a table of values of the function and

then identify intervals for which the values of at the endpoints have different signs and
apply the Intermediate Value Theorem to each of those intervals. Create a table of values for
for whole number values of between and , inclusive, and count
the number of intervals of length for which the value of is greater than for one of the
endpoints and less than for the other endpoint.
There are four such intervals: , , and . By the Intermediate Value

Theorem, for each of these four intervals there is a value in that interval such that . This
shows that there are at least four such values of and the fact that is a
polynomial of degree means that there can be at most four such values of Therefore, there are
four values of for which .
Marigolds are to be planted inside a circular flower garden so that there are 4 marigolds per square
foot. The circumference of the garden is 20 feet. If marigolds are available only in packs of 6, how
many packs of 6 flowers are needed?
(A) 6
(B) 13
(C) 14
(D) 20
(E) 22
Explanation
Difficulty: Hard
The first step is to determine the area of the garden. Since the circumference is feet, the radius
is and the area is or square feet. If there are marigolds per
square foot, marigolds are needed. To find out how many packs of flowers are needed,
divide by . The result is ; thus, packs would be needed. The correct answer is E.
The line with equation is graphed on the same as the circle with center
and radius . What are the of the points of intersection of the line and the
circle?
(A) and
(B) and
(C) and
(D) and
(E) and
Explanation
Difficulty: Hard
For this question, it may help to draw a diagram.
The line intersects the circle in points. These two points and the center of the circle form a
triangle with two sides of length (since the radius of the circle is ) and with height . (The
distance between the point and the line is the distance between and .)
Using the Pythagorean theorem, you can find that . Point has .
Therefore, the of the points of intersection are and or
and . The correct answer is D.
You could also solve the problem algebraically. A circle with center and radius has
equation . Substitute into the equation, and it simplifies to
. Solving for produces the two of the points of intersection of
the circle and the line.
The dimensions of a rectangular solid are inches by inches by inches. The length of each
edge of the solid is to be increased by . What is the surface area, in square inches, of the new
solid?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Hard
If the length of each edge is increased by , then the area of each face of the new solid is
increased by ( , where and represent the dimensions of a face).
The surface area of the original solid is equal to square
inches. Thus, the surface area of the new solid is equal to square inches,
which rounds to . The correct answer is D.
Another way to solve the problem is to find the lengths of each edge of the new solid by multiplying
the length of each edge by and then compute the surface area. The dimensions of the new solid
are inches by inches by inches, so the surface area is equal to
square inches.
Before 1990, telephone area codes in the United States were three-digit numbers of the form .
Shown above are sets , , and from which the digits , , and , respectively, were chosen.
How many possible area codes were there?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Hard
There are possible digits for the first digit, , of the area code, possible digits for , and
possible digits for . Therefore, the number of possible area codes would be .
The numbers , , and are three consecutive odd numbers that are prime. How many other
triplets of consecutive odd numbers greater than consist entirely of primes?
(A) None
(B) One
(C) Two
(D) Three
(E) More than three
Explanation
Difficulty: Hard
You can look at some triplets of consecutive odd numbers greater than :
5, 7, 9
11, 13, 15
25, 27, 29
53, 55, 57
93, 95, 97
You should quickly observe that any triplet of consecutive odd numbers would have one multiple of
. (The numbers that are multiples of are bolded and underlined.) Therefore, the only triplet of
consecutive odd numbers greater than 1 that contains all primes is , , . The correct answer is
(A).
The graphs above show United States Census Bureau population figures for the year for
various age groups, together with projections for the year . Of the following age groups, for
which is the projected percent increase in population from to greatest?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Hard
To determine for which of the five age groups in the options the projected percent increase in
population from to is greatest, estimate the ratio of the projection for the year
to the population figure for for each age group. Each of the ratios described is equal
to plus the decimal corresponding to the projected percent increase in population from
to , so the greatest ratio will correspond to the greatest projected percent increase in
population.
For the age group, the ratio is less than , since the projected
population is less than million and the population is greater than million. Thus
the projected percent increase in population from to for this age group is less than
percent.
population is less than million and the population is greater than million. Thus
the projected percent increase in population from to for this age group is less than
percent.
population is less than million and the population is greater than million. The
projected percent increase in population from to for this age group is less than
percent.
For the year age group, the ratio is approximately million to million, or as a
decimal, , corresponding to an approximate percent increase in population for this age
group.
For the year age group, the ratio is approximately million to million, or as a
decimal, approximately , corresponding to an approximate percent increase in
population for this age group.
Therefore, the year age group has the greatest projected percent increase in population
from to among the given options.
If line is the perpendicular bisector of the line segment with endpoints and ,
what is the slope of line ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Hard

Since line is perpendicular to the line segment with endpoints and , the slope of
line must be the negative reciprocal of the slope of the line segment. The line segment has slope
, so the slope of line equals .
The function given by represents the height of a ball, in feet,

seconds after it is thrown. To the nearest foot, what is the maximum height the ball reaches?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Hard
One way to determine the maximum height the ball reaches is to rewrite the quadratic expression
that defines the function by completing the square:
It is not necessary to simplify any further, as the maximum height must correspond to ,
which is the only value of that makes the term nonnegative. By substitution,
. Therefore, to the nearest foot, the maximum height the ball
reaches is feet.
Alternatively, one can use a graphing calculator to determine the maximum value of the function
. Since , and
, the maximum value of must occur for some

between and . Set the window so that the independent variable goes from to and the
dependent variable goes from to to view the vertex of the parabola. Upon tracing the graph,
the maximum value of is slightly greater than . Therefore, to the nearest foot, the maximum
height the ball reaches is feet.
The front, side, and bottom faces of a rectangular solid have areas of square centimeters,
square centimeters, and square centimeters, respectively. What is the volume of the solid, in
cubic centimeters?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Hard
One way to determine the volume of the solid is to determine the length , width , and height
of the solid, in centimeters, and then apply the formula to compute the volume. Let
, , and represent the length, width, and height, in centimeters, respectively, of the solid.
The area of the front face of the solid is square centimeters, the area of the side face is
square centimeters, and the area of the bottom face is square centimeters.
Elimination of by using the first two equations gives , which simplifies to , or
. Substitution of for in the third equation gives , or , so
(since only positive values of make sense as measurements of the length of any edge of a
rectangular solid). Substitution of for in the equation gives , and substitution
of for in the equation gives , so . Therefore, the volume of the
solid, in cubic centimeters, is .
Alternatively, one can recognize that the square of the volume of a rectangular solid is the product
of the areas of the front, side, and bottom faces of the solid. That is, squaring both sides of the
formula gives . Therefore, in this case,
, so . Note that it is not necessary to solve for the values
of , , and .
Rectangle is inscribed in the circle shown above. If the length of side is and the
length of side is , what is the area of the shaded region?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Hard
The area of the shaded region can be found by subtracting the area of rectangle from the
area of the circle. To determine the area of the circle, first find the radius , and then compute the
area . Since rectangle is inscribed in the circle, is an inscribed right angle, and
thus is a diameter of the circle. Applying the Pythagorean theorem to right triangle ,one
finds the length of side is Thus the radius of the circle is , and
the area of the circle is . The area of rectangle is , and
therefore, the area of the shaded region is .
When purchased, an automobile is valued at Its value depreciates at the rate shown in
the table above. Based on a least-squares linear regression, what is the value, to the nearest
hundred dollars, of the automobile when ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Explanation
Difficulty: Hard
To determine the value, to the nearest hundred dollars, of the automobile when , find the
equation of the least-squares regression line and then evaluate that equation at .
A calculator can be used to find the least-squares regression line. The specific steps to be followed
depend on the model of calculator, but they can be summarized as follows. Enter the statistics
mode, edit the list of ordered pairs to include only the four points given in the table, and perform
the linear regression. The coefficients will be, approximately, for the -intercept and
for the slope, so the regression line is given by the equation .
When , one gets . Therefore, based on the least-
squares linear regression, the value, to the nearest hundred dollars, of the automobile when
is .

SAT Math Level 1 Practice Questions and Solutions

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8/13/2017 Math 1 - SAT Subject Test Math Level 1 Practice Questions

SAT Subject Test Practice - Results Summary

2Your answer Omitted!

The correct answer is B.

Alternatively, note that the total cost to produce CDs is

3Your answer Omitted!

In the figure above and are parallel. What is in terms of and ?

The correct answer is A.

Let be the point of intersection of lines and .

4Your answer Omitted!

The correct answer is C.

5Your answer Omitted!

There were tickets sold.

6Your answer Omitted!

Note that . In this question the sum of the roots is and

7Your answer Omitted!

Since and are squares, and . Thus, and the

Another approach is the following. Since is a square, . Thus, and

Thus, the area of is .

8Your answer Omitted!

In the , the points with coordinates and lie on line . Line

It is often helpful to make a sketch for this type of question.

The slope of line is equal to .

Since is the , the equation of is .

9Your answer Omitted!

10Your answer Omitted!

It is helpful to draw a figure.

11Your answer Omitted!

In the figure above, if , then

The correct answer is (B).

12Your answer Omitted!

13Your answer Omitted!

The function ,where , is defined for . What is the range of ?

14Your answer Omitted!

The number is equal to . It has a total of positive factors: , , , , , and

15Your answer Omitted!

If and are real numbers, , and , what is the value of ?

The correct answer is A.

16Your answer Omitted!

What are all values of for which ?

The correct answer is C.

17Your answer Omitted!

If , which of the following must be true?

The correct answer is D.

18Your answer Omitted!

I. The graphs are exactly the same.

II. The graphs are the same except when .

III. The graphs have an infinite number of points in common.

The correct answer is E.

value, since for , the expression . It follows that for , the

19Your answer Omitted!

The correct answer is B.

20Your answer Omitted!

The correct answer is B.

21Your answer Omitted!

If , for how many real numbers does ?

The correct answer is E.

Alternatively, one can examine a table of values of the function and

There are four such intervals: , , and . By the Intermediate Value

22Your answer Omitted!

is and the area is or square feet. If there are marigolds per

23Your answer Omitted!

For this question, it may help to draw a diagram.