questions about practice PSAT questions from college board

Test Preparation
1

<p>These problems are from the psat practice booklet the CB gives u when u sign up for the psats.</p>

<h1>28, CR: While serving as surgeon general during the early 1990's, Antonia C. Novello endeaovored to discourage teen smoking by---- prior demands that the tobacco industry ----- advertising directed at young people.</h1>

<p>a) rejecting...prohibit
b)reiterating...curtail
c)limiting...revoke
d)renewing...sustain
e)investigating...increase</p>

<p>I said that answer was A. The right answer is B. Could someone explain this to me?</p>

<h1>38, Section 4, Math:</h1>

<p>This is the one with the ratio of trapezoid to the ratio of the big triangle. Does anyone know how to do this?</p>

<h1>8, section 5, writing:</h1>

<p>Many people believe that television programs (are harmful to children which depict violence).
I put choice D: are harmful for depicting violence to children
but the answer is
c: depicting violence are harmful to children</p>

<p>why is c a better choice?</p>

<p>same section, #27:
Because Roberto wants (to help preserve) marine life, he intends (on declaring) marine biology as his major when he (begins college) next fall.</p>

<p>Choice B is correct. Why? </p>

<p>same section, #32
(Setting herself) up (as) a preserver of the Classical tradition, Clara Schumann was an outspoken (critic toward) Romantic composer Franz Liszt.</p>

<p>choice D is correct.</p>

<p>thanks so much everyone!</p>

2

<p>Here are the answers to your questions:</p>

<h1>28, CR:</h1>

<p>I too at first made the same mistake as you. However, after reviewing my answers I realized why. The key word here is "prior." It wouldn't make any sense that he discouraged teen smoking by REJECTING prior demands that it should be PROHIBITED. This would actually mean that he would want teen smoking!</p>

<h1>38, MATH:</h1>

<p>They try to trick you here. You don't need the formula for the area of a trapezoid at all. Since there are midpoints plug in PQ and QR as 6. Then plug in RS and ST as 8. (you can plug in any numbers, but these are the ones I chose). This will give you two nice right triangles to work with. Then find the area of the two triangles. The big triangle's area is 96 while the the smaller triangle's area is 24. That would mean the trapezoid's are would be 96-24= 72. Now you can reduce 72/96= 3/4! </p>

<h1>8, section 5, writing:</h1>

<p>Choice D is passive writing. Try to go with active writing choices on the SAT!</p>

<p>same section, #27:</p>

<p>There's a parallel error. "To help preserve" is not consistent with "on declaring." It should be "To declare." I suppose it could also be an idiom/tense error.</p>

<p>same section, #32:</p>

<p>Verb agreement error. "Clara Schumann was an outspoken (critic toward)" This is incorrect since Clara Schumann is singular while "toward" is plural. It should be "towards." </p>

<p>By the way how are you doing on your PSAT? I'm guessing your going for National Merit. So am I. I scored 223 on the practice PSAT. -1 on Math, -0 on Writing, and -8 on Critical Reading. However, it is the same practice PSAT as last year so that may have had some influence. Even though I barely recognized it!</p>

3

<p>I got 226. 76 CR, 77 math, 73 writing.</p>

<p>But I realized that this was the same test as last year's practice test! I still got 3 of the same questions wrong!!!!</p>

<p>I'm aiming for national merit, but I always come SOOO close. I'm not like one of those geniuses who score almost perfect on each test. I'm consistently scoring around 210-220 on psat tests. This one was an exception since i took the same pratice test last year.</p>

4

<p>Nice! Do you have any tips on Critical Reading?</p>

5

<p>wait. i have a question. for the math trapezoid problem, do u just assume that the triangles are right triangles?</p>

6

<p>I'm pretty sure it would work with any triangles; right would be easiest.</p>

7

<p>This is funny because I JUST finished taking that practice test...</p>

<p>you know it's a right triangle because you draw a line that goes from the top point to the base, and make the line perpendicular to it.</p>

8

<p>wait. sorry again. i still don't get the tobacco sentence completion. Why would he reiterate "repeat again" prior demands that the tobacco industry curtailed "restricted" advertising directed at young people.
Does this mean if teens know that the tobacco company ISN'T advertising at them, then teens would be discouraged to smoke?</p>

9

<p>It's like he's enforcing it again. By restriciting tobacco companies from advertising to teenage audiences, it discourages teen smoking.</p>

10

<p>twinkletoes,</p>

<h1>29 is an idiom error (not an agreement error). Most English idioms involve using the incorrect preposition. You wouldn't say Clara is a critic toward or towards Liszt...but a critic against.</h1>

11

<p>...or critic of.</p>

12

<p>what did you guys score last year?</p>

13

<p>Last year I scored a 187. I didn't have any SAT prep. I just did some over this past summer and am scoring 220+!!!! Question: Does this mean that I am in the 2200 for the SAT? Or does it fluctuate a bit? Thanks!</p>

14

<p>bump.........</p>