SAT Practice Test 3 - SAT Reading & Writing

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
   Answer: substantive The passage stresses that the plan sets binding codes, funds specific upgrades, imposes deadlines, and attaches penalties—concrete, enforceable content rather than mere show. "Substantive" captures exactly this: real, meaningful, and consequential, the direct opposite of "performative." "Provisional" would suggest the measures are temporary or tentative, but the deadlines and penalties describe firm, lasting commitments, not placeholders. "Ceremonial" means done for form or symbolism, which is precisely what the sentence rules out with "not merely performative." "Conciliatory" would describe an effort to soothe or make peace with critics; while engineers and neighborhood groups were consulted, the sentence contrasts real substance with empty gesture, not compromise with conflict. Only "substantive" fits both the concrete details and the contrast the sentence draws.
2. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
   Answer: strategic Aligning resources with stability and retention goals indicates a strategic recalibration. Capricious, punitive, and nostalgic do not fit the purposeful business rationale described.
3. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
   Answer: tenuous Given temporary permissions and uncertain votes, approval is tenuous. Immutable, ornamental, and intractable do not fit the idea of fragility and conditional support.
4. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
   Answer: pragmatic Pragmatic means practical, fitting the emphasis on evidence and safety over appearance. Ornamental stresses decoration, while volatile and impetuous suggest instability or rashness, which contradict the careful, evidence-based approach.
5. Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?
   Answer: Infers an implication that sets up the next line of investigation. It draws a logical implication from the observations and prepares for the tests described next. The other choices misstate its role as topic introduction, counterexample, or definition.
6. Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?
   Answer: Qualifies a generalization by noting an uneven distribution of benefits The sentence limits the broad claim by pointing out that benefits are not uniform. The other choices mischaracterize the sentence as posing a question, rebutting a later claim, or comparing methods.
7. Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
   Answer: The text contends that patient, attentive care yields better results than hurried effort. By contrasting rushed watering with slow, observant care, the narrator concludes that patience sustains the garden. The other options either focus on narrow or unsupported points (weather, tools) or misstate the emphasis as criticism of the neighbor.
8. Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
   Answer: To suggest that daily rituals can steady a person confronting solitude The passage emphasizes how routine tasks anchor the keeper against isolation. The other options introduce claims about technology, danger, or a debate the text does not pursue.
9. Based on Text 2, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to Text 1's preference for targeted vouchers over free admission days?
   Answer: They would contend that free days can better foster a sense of welcome and that crowding can be mitigated through management strategies. Text 1 advocates for targeted vouchers over free admission days because crowds create problems and vouchers can assist those who need help without causing bottlenecks. Text 2 responds by emphasizing that free days accomplish something vouchers cannot: changing 'who feels welcome.' The author argues vouchers require people to 'identify themselves as needing help' and navigate extra steps, which discourages first-time visitors. Text 2 also proposes that crowding can be managed through 'timed entry and extended hours.' Choice C accurately captures this response - Text 2 contends free days better foster belonging and suggests management strategies for crowding. Choice A reverses the position. Choice B incorrectly suggests agreement about eliminating free days. Choice D introduces an unrelated solution about raising fees.
10. Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the text?
    Answer: 8 minutes (from 22 to 30) The passage claims that Harborview had the largest increase in commute time from 2015 to 2025, so we need to calculate the change for each neighborhood and identify the largest. Looking at the table, Harborview increased from 22 to 30 minutes (8-minute increase), Northgate from 28 to 31 (3-minute increase), Easton from 34 to 36 (2-minute increase), and Westfield from 26 to 29 (3-minute increase). Since Harborview's 8-minute increase is indeed the largest, choice C correctly states '8 minutes (from 22 to 30).' Choice A incorrectly uses Westfield's data, while choices B and D use data from other neighborhoods that had smaller increases.
11. Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the text?
    Answer: 0.9 percentage points, from 6.8% in 2019 to 5.9% in 2023. The passage claims that unemployment fell overall from 2019 to 2023 despite a temporary increase, so we need the difference between these two years. Looking at the table, unemployment was 6.8% in 2019 and 5.9% in 2023, representing a decrease of 0.9 percentage points (6.8 - 5.9 = 0.9). The data confirms there was indeed a temporary increase in 2020 (8.1%) and 2021 (7.5%) before declining again. Choice D shows the largest decrease but uses 2020 as the starting point, which doesn't match the claim about the overall change from 2019 to 2023. When a claim specifies particular years for comparison, use only those years regardless of whether other years show more dramatic changes.
12. Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the text?
    Answer: 40%, from 10 thousand to 14 thousand. The passage claims Town L had the highest percentage growth, so we need to calculate the percentage increase for each town. Looking at the table: Town J grew from 24 to 27 thousand (12.5% increase), K from 18 to 19 (5.6%), L from 10 to 14 (40%), and M from 30 to 33 (10%). Town L's 40% growth is calculated as (14-10)/10 × 100 = 40%, which is indeed the highest. Choice D shows M's growth but incorrectly identifies it as the highest when L's 40% far exceeds M's 10%. For percentage growth, always divide the change by the original value, and smaller starting values often yield larger percentage increases.
13. Which finding, if true, would most directly support the scholar's claim?
    Answer: A longitudinal study of 28 cities finds that fare changes have no significant effect on ridership beyond 12 months, while a 10% increase in service frequency predicts a 7% ridership gain sustained for at least three years. The scholar argues that cheaper fares bring only temporary gains, while frequent, reliable service is what keeps riders long term. The study of 28 cities matches this exactly: it shows fare changes fade after a year, but added frequency produces gains that last for years. The free-ride-day finding is loosely consistent with her point but far too thin to establish it: a single promotional day whose spike vanishes within a week says nothing about what sustains ridership over years, and it never weighs fares against frequency. The satisfaction survey is tangential: liking cleaner stations or courteous staff isn't the same as returning to ride, and it never links fares to lasting ridership. The correlation between low fares and high ridership looks supportive, but it explicitly leaves cause unknown—low fares might follow high ridership rather than drive it—so it can't establish that fares (or frequency) cause sustained gains. Only the longitudinal study isolates a long-term causal effect and points to frequency, not price, which is precisely the scholar's claim.
14. Which finding, if true, would most directly support the scholar's claim?
    Answer: Nestlings cross fostered with recorded city noise produced high frequency songs as adults that persisted after weeks in a silent lab, while rural raised nestlings did not. The claim is that city rearing causes lasting pitch changes through development, not momentary adjustment. The winning finding tests this directly: nestlings raised with city noise still sang high after weeks in silence, and rural raised controls did not—showing the change is developmental and persistent, exactly what the hypothesis predicts. The traffic correlation across neighborhoods shows a link between noise and pitch but cannot separate cause from effect or rule out immediate adjustment, since the birds were still living in the noise. The construction site finding actually points the other way: birds raised their pitch temporarily and dropped back once noise stopped, which is the flexible, short term behavior the hypothesis rejects. The single captive finch has no comparison group and rests on one individual, so it cannot show that rearing, rather than something unique to that bird, drives lasting change. Only the cross fostering result includes both persistence after removal from noise and a control group, so it is the single best support.
15. Which choice most logically completes the text?
    Answer: The mask is not among the objects currently held in Vault C. The passage says Vault C holds only untagged items awaiting conservation, and it also states that the mask is on display and carries a blue tag. Since an object cannot be both tagged and untagged, a tagged object cannot be in Vault C—so the mask is not among the objects held there. The choice claiming the mask has been moved into locked storage contradicts the passage, which places the mask on public display in the east gallery. The choice saying the mask lost its blue tag also contradicts the passage, which says its case still bears the standard blue label. The choice describing Vault C as holding tagged pieces on loan reverses the museum's policy, which states that Vault C contains only untagged items and that tagged items are never placed there. Only the choice about the mask not being in Vault C follows necessarily from the facts given.
16. Which choice most logically completes the text?
    Answer: cannot be true given the documents. The diary places the poet in Brighton across May 2, 3, and 4, and the train tables show the last Brighton-to-London service left before dusk and took over two hours, so no route to an 8 p.m. London lecture exists. Together these documents rule out Thomas's claim, which is why it cannot be true. The choice saying the timetables prove the diary unreliable reverses the evidence: the timetables actually agree with and support the diary, not undermine it. The choice about a later train contradicts the passage, which states plainly that no later service operated that day. The choice claiming the diary confirms the claim misreads the entry, since the diary keeps the poet in Brighton the whole day and therefore rebuts, rather than supports, the London lecture. Only the option stating the claim cannot be true follows from all the evidence at once.
17. Which choice most logically completes the text?
    Answer: that the mentorship program caused participants' higher GPAs Because participation was self-selected and confounded by prior performance, causation cannot be inferred. B is an unsupported assumption about values, C is an overgeneralization, and D reverses cause and effect.
18. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
    Answer: Dr. Lee was surprised by the findings The opening modifier "As a historian" describes a person, so the subject that immediately follows must be that person—Dr. Lee. In the correct completion, "Dr. Lee was surprised by the findings," Dr. Lee is the subject, so "As a historian" logically attaches to her. Each other option places a non-person subject right after the comma: "the findings surprised Dr. Lee" makes "the findings" the historian; "this surprising pattern led Dr. Lee" makes "this surprising pattern" the historian; and "the research surprised Dr. Lee" makes "the research" the historian. In every case the modifier dangles, describing something that cannot be a historian, even though Dr. Lee is mentioned later in the clause. Note that mentioning Dr. Lee somewhere in the sentence is not enough—she must be the grammatical subject of the main clause for the introductory modifier to be correct. Only the keyed choice satisfies that requirement.
19. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
    Answer: the visitors The modifier 'Climbing the narrow staircase' must logically describe people, so 'the visitors' is correct. The other choices are inanimate objects that cannot notice anything, creating a misplaced modifier.
20. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
    Answer: will have completed The future perfect will have completed matches the time marker by the time the panel convenes next week. The other tenses do not align with the specified future-by time frame.
21. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
    Answer: artists' signatures The plural possessive 'artists'' correctly indicates that the signatures belong to multiple artists. The singular possessive 'artist's' conflicts with 'dozens of painters,' the version without an apostrophe is incorrect, and 'artists's' is nonstandard.
22. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
    Answer: as follows: the The phrase 'as follows' conventionally requires a colon to introduce the explanation. A comma, semicolon, or period after 'as follows' is not standard in this context.
23. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
    Answer: creative; it Use a semicolon to join two closely related independent clauses. A comma creates a splice, a colon is not appropriate here, and no punctuation results in a run-on.
24. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
    Answer: Meanwhile, The second sentence describes actions occurring during the same period, so the time/simultaneity transition "Meanwhile" fits best. The other options indicate contrast, causation, or simple addition rather than concurrent events.
25. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
    Answer: Nevertheless, Nevertheless signals concession: despite the disturbed layers, researchers obtained firm dates from the baskets. Consequently would wrongly suggest the difficulties caused the precise dating, In addition implies simple accumulation, and Meanwhile only denotes time.
26. The student wants to emphasize the plan's equity-focused strategies. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
    Answer: Recognizing analysis showing low-income areas are about four degrees hotter at night, the city prioritizes tree-planting in high-exposure, limited-canopy tracts and extends cooling-center hours with multilingual signage to better reach vulnerable residents. Choice B connects hotter low-income areas to targeted tree-planting and expanded, multilingual cooling-center access, directly highlighting equity. A and C are true but general; D proposes cash assistance not supported by the notes.
27. The student wants to emphasize how native plants conserve water in urban gardens. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
    Answer: Because native plantings require less irrigation after establishment, they reduce municipal water use during summer, and mulched native beds retain soil moisture, decreasing runoff and the frequency of watering. Choice C directly highlights reduced irrigation needs and improved moisture retention, both of which conserve water. A and B focus on biodiversity and replanting or workshop outcomes, and D contradicts the notes.
28. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
    Answer: Restrained Restrained' fits the cautious, understated presentation. 'Bombastic,' 'Ornate,' and 'Raucous' suggest showiness or noise that the passage explicitly rejects.
29. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
    Answer: clarify The system is intended to make the route easier to understand, so clarify fits. Obscure is the opposite, prolong suggests time not clarity, and glamorize concerns appearance rather than navigation.
30. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
    Answer: exacerbated Because benefits concentrated among already advantaged firms, disparities were made worse, i.e., exacerbated. Mitigated is the opposite, while justified and clarified do not describe increasing inequality.
31. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
    Answer: tenuous Tenuous precisely conveys that the connection is weak and uncertain. Opulent refers to wealth, vociferous to loudness, and redundant to unnecessary repetition.
32. Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?
    Answer: Explains a mechanism behind uneven effects The underlined sentence explains why the printing press had uneven effects by identifying the specific mechanism: low literacy and limited distribution networks in rural areas caused printed materials to circulate more slowly than in ports. This explanation bridges the general claim about uneven effects to the specific consequence about political reforms appearing at different times. Choice A (counterexample) might seem plausible, but the sentence doesn't contradict the main claim—it explains it by showing how the unevenness worked. When analyzing function, look for causal explanations that use phrases like 'meant that' to show how one factor led to another.
33. Based on Text 2, how would its author most likely respond to Text 1's suggestion that bike-share should be judged primarily by measurable declines in car miles traveled?
    Answer: Qualify it, arguing that bike-share can matter even when it replaces non-car trips because it may produce indirect and longer-term reductions in driving. Text 1 claims that bike-share should be judged primarily by measurable declines in car miles traveled, arguing that if bikes mainly replace bus or walking trips, they don't reduce congestion. Text 2 directly responds to this narrow metric by arguing for a broader view of impact. The author of Text 2 would qualify Text 1's position by acknowledging that direct car mile reduction matters but arguing that bike-share can still reduce congestion through indirect effects (freeing bus space, shortening dwell times) and longer-term cultural shifts (normalizing cycling, leading to personal bike purchases that eventually replace car trips). Choice B correctly captures this nuanced response that accepts the importance of the metric while expanding the scope of evaluation. Choice A incorrectly suggests Text 2 would agree that non-car replacements have no effect. Choice C wrongly claims Text 2 would reject the importance of what trips are replaced. Choice D falsely states Text 2 would claim bike-share already proves large declines in car miles.
34. Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
    Answer: To argue that evaluating free-transit pilots requires considering longer-term shifts in rider behavior. The passage argues that free-transit pilot programs must be evaluated by their long-term effects on rider behavior, not just immediate revenue changes. Rees shows that while weekend fares dropped, the program created positive ripple effects: weekday ridership increased as people learned routes, and some households delayed car purchases. The conclusion explicitly states that "the program's value cannot be assessed by weekend fares alone" because its main impact was "changing habits and expectations." Choice B misrepresents the critics' concern as permanent elimination of all fare revenue, when the passage focuses on the need to look beyond immediate weekend losses to broader behavioral changes.
35. Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
    Answer: To show that overlooked historical field notes now provide crucial baselines for environmental research The passage argues that Morton's neglected records have become valuable baseline data for climate studies. The other choices are either too narrow, too broad, or assert conclusions the text does not make.
36. Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
    Answer: To express ambivalence about how preserving the lighthouse through modernization both alters and honors it. The narrator balances loss with gratitude, showing how modernization both changes and preserves the site. B and D overstate a negative stance, and C misstates the passage's focus.
37. Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the text?
    Answer: 18 percentage points (12% with preservative vs. 30% control). The passage claims that the preservative was associated with a lower spoilage rate than the control, so we need data showing a smaller percentage of spoilage in the preservative batches and the precise difference. Choice A supports this by noting an 18 percentage point difference, with 12% spoilage in preservative samples versus 30% in controls, clearly demonstrating the lower rate and calculating the gap accurately as 30% - 12%. This directly completes the statement with evidence of reduced spoilage. Choice C appears similar with an 18-point difference but reverses the values (30% with preservative vs. 12% control), implying higher spoilage for the preservative, which contradicts the claim; choice D also shows higher spoilage for the preservative (18% vs. 12%). When reading table data, pay close attention to which group each value corresponds to, as swapping labels can lead to the opposite conclusion.
38. Which finding, if true, would most directly support Iqbal's hypothesis?
    Answer: Bee abundance rose most on medians where flower bloom periods overlapped least, creating continuous forage from spring through fall. The researcher claims that diverse native plantings on street medians increase wild bee abundance primarily by extending the season of nectar and pollen availability, not by reducing pesticide exposure. To support this claim, we'd need evidence showing that extended bloom periods correlate with increased bee abundance, regardless of pesticide levels. Choice B directly supports this by showing bee abundance rose most where flower bloom periods overlapped least, creating continuous forage from spring through fall—this demonstrates the importance of extended seasonal availability. Choice A addresses pesticide levels but doesn't show whether this affects bee abundance, Choice C is about a different location (rural county) and different intervention (cropland insecticide reduction), and Choice D mentions butterflies rather than bees and doesn't address the mechanism of extended bloom periods. In evidence questions, the correct answer must match both the specific claim (extended bloom periods) and the specific outcome (wild bee abundance).
39. Which choice most logically completes the text?
    Answer: increasing the overall number of weekday visits The passage stresses that total weekday visits stayed within 1 percent of last year's numbers, so the trial changed when students came, not how many came. The best completion says the hours shifted timing rather than increasing the overall number of weekday visits. Reducing earlier-evening attendance is wrong because the drop in evening traffic is described as part of the timing shift itself, not something separate the hours are being contrasted with; saying the hours shifted timing 'rather than' reducing evening visits misreads the data. Claiming the hours demonstrated that late-night hours are universally preferred goes far beyond the evidence, which only tracks one library over four weeks and never measures preference. Altering the library's needs for its research collection is off-topic, since the passage discusses visit timing and gate counts, never anything about the collection. Only the first choice matches the passage's own conclusion that overall attendance did not rise.
40. Which choice most logically completes the text?
    Answer: the companywide trend does not isolate the pilot's effect beyond the participating units. C follows because the concurrent reorganization confounds companywide comparisons, so only within-pilot reductions are informative. A reverses causality, B is an overgeneralization, and D is a non sequitur.
41. Which choice most logically completes the text?
    Answer: 50 orders received the discount By inclusion–exclusion, the number meeting both is $120 + 90 - 160 = 50$, so 50 orders received the discount. The other choices either assume one criterion suffices, overcount or generalize beyond the data, or reverse cause and effect about logging and discounts.
42. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
    Answer: the analyst The introductory modifier describes the entity doing the work, so the subject must be 'the analyst.' The recordings, the hypothesis, and the dataset cannot logically perform the action of identifying a pattern.
43. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
    Answer: its Journal' is a singular nonhuman antecedent, so the correct pronoun is 'its.' 'It's' is a contraction, and 'their' and 'his or her' do not match the antecedent.
44. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
    Answer: As I walked down the corridor Only 'As I walked down the corridor' correctly assigns the action of walking to the narrator. The other choices create dangling or illogical modifiers that make the corridor or the portraits seem to walk.
45. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
    Answer: subject: three-dimensional art A colon appropriately introduces a list after a complete clause. A semicolon or comma would not correctly introduce the list, and a period would wrongly break the sentence.
46. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
    Answer: neighbors' favorite Plural possessive 'neighbors'' is needed because the dishes belong to multiple neighbors. The other choices are missing the apostrophe, incorrectly singular, or use an incorrect formation.
47. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
    Answer: clear: to A colon correctly introduces the explanation after the complete statement 'The mission is clear.' A comma or semicolon is incorrect here, and 'clear to' changes the meaning of the sentence.
48. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
    Answer: As a result, Cause/effect: increased support and participation led to a record harvest, so 'As a result,' fits. The other options signal contrast, addition, or time and do not match the causal link.
49. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
    Answer: However, Contrast is appropriate because the audit's findings oppose the company's promise. Addition, cause/effect, and time sequencing do not signal that reversal.
50. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
    Answer: Moreover, Addition: the second sentence supplies another facet of Morales's style. Contrast, cause/effect, or concession would misrepresent the relationship between the two points of praise.
51. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
    Answer: Meanwhile, Time/simultaneity: the second sentence describes what was happening at the same time elsewhere. Contrast, concession, and cause/effect do not emphasize concurrent timing.
52. The student wants to emphasize the environmental benefits of community gardens in cities. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
    Answer: Community gardens deliver environmental gains, notably cooling nearby summer air by up to two degrees and boosting urban pollinator habitat, while composting workshops reduce organic waste sent to landfills. B highlights environmental outcomes—cooler temperatures, enhanced pollinator habitat, and reduced landfill waste—directly matching the goal. A, C, and D focus on food donations, operational constraints, or land availability rather than environmental benefits.
53. The student wants to emphasize how the video series effectively engages teens. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
    Answer: Teen engagement rose measurably: Friday event attendance increased 28 percent after the weekly 60-second videos began, aligning with surveys showing teens rarely read the print listings the museum previously relied on. The stem asks which choice best shows that the video series succeeds at reaching teens specifically. The best answer pairs the 28 percent jump in Friday event attendance after the weekly 60-second videos began with the survey finding that teens rarely read the print listings the museum used before, so it shows teen behavior changing once the videos started. The option about two-hour production time and sponsor-funded captioning describes how the videos get made and who else they reach, not whether teens engage. The option claiming the series doubled teen attendance and definitively proves it is the museum's single most effective youth outreach overstates the notes, which record a 28 percent increase and never rank outreach methods. The option about 200,000 views and frequent curator questions reports interest across the museum's whole social media following rather than teen-specific evidence. Only one choice uses notes that are actually about teens.
54. The student wants to emphasize why genetic diversity is important in coral restoration under warming oceans. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
    Answer: Because ocean conditions are changing and marine heatwaves drive bleaching, restoration should maintain genetic diversity and include corals hosting heat-tolerant symbiotic algae, boosting the population's chance to adapt without widespread bleaching. The best choice ties genetic diversity directly to the goal: it explains that keeping diverse corals—including ones with heat-tolerant algae—raises the whole population's ability to adapt and avoid bleaching as oceans warm. That cause-and-effect link is exactly what the stem asks you to emphasize. The choice about outplanting fragments and floating shades pulls true facts from the notes, but it explains recovery methods and temperature control, never mentioning genetic diversity, so it misses the goal. The choice about pollution and overfishing is also accurate, but it focuses on local stressors and regulations, not on why diversity matters. The choice favoring a single hardy genotype contradicts the notes: relying on one genotype would reduce diversity, not support adaptation, so it argues the opposite of the intended point.

Take this practice test