Quizzes, exams, and flashcards about Data, Geometry and Trigonometry: PSAT Data — reading distributions: frequency tables, histograms, box plots, range…
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The smaller half of the Math section: Problem-Solving and Data Analysis, and Geometry and Trigonometry. Fewer questions than Algebra and Advanced Math, and more of them turn on reading than on calculating.
Problem-Solving and Data Analysis is the quantitative-literacy domain: ratios, rates, proportional relationships and units; percentages; one-variable data — center, spread, and what an outlier does to each; two-variable data, scatterplots and models; probability, including conditional probability; inference from sample statistics. (Margin of error and the difference between an observational study and an experiment are tested on the SAT, not on the PSAT/NMSQT; the materials include them as preparation for it.)
Two SAT ideas sit just beyond this domain and are worth learning now, because nothing about them is arithmetic. A margin of error tells you how much a sample result might move, not how likely a claim is to be true. And a study that merely observed a difference cannot establish that one thing caused the other, however large the difference is.
Geometry and Trigonometry is area and volume; lines, angles and triangles, including similarity and the Pythagorean theorem; right-triangle trigonometry; and scale factors and congruence. Circles — arcs, sectors, central and inscribed angles, and the equation of a circle — are tested on the SAT, not on the PSAT/NMSQT. A reference sheet of formulas is available during the test, so what is being examined is knowing which formula the situation calls for, not whether you memorized it.
Thirteen materials, 154 questions in all: rates, ratios and unit conversion; square and cubic units; percentages and the base; centers, probability and what a sample supports; distributions and spread; scatterplots and growth models; two-way tables; from a random sample to the population; entering your own answers; a mixed set in words; and three on geometry — angles, congruence and similarity, area and volume with the reference sheet, and figures and trigonometric ratios in words. Each also has flashcards, a printable written sheet and an oral exam. Margin of error, observational studies and circles are listed in College Board's detailed skill table for the SAT but not for the PSAT/NMSQT, so they are included as SAT preparation.
All data sets are invented and small enough to hold in your head, since none of the arithmetic is the point. Every dollar amount is written in words, never with a dollar sign.
Some data sets are drawn — bar charts, a histogram, a box plot, scatterplots, tree diagrams — but the geometry is stated in words with no diagram, so for reading a drawn geometric figure, use College Board's own practice.
PSAT/NMSQT® is a registered trademark of the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which are not affiliated with and do not endorse Zestly. All questions here are original; nothing reproduces official test material.
