Question ID 005e9982

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Math Advanced Math Nonlinear functions Hard

ID: 005e9982

The given function models the number of advertisements a company sent to its clients each year, where represents the
number of years since , and . If is graphed in the xy-plane, which of the following is the best
interpretation of the y-intercept of the graph in this context?

A. The minimum estimated number of advertisements the company sent to its clients during the years was .

B. The minimum estimated number of advertisements the company sent to its clients during the years was .

C. The estimated number of advertisements the company sent to its clients in was .

D. The estimated number of advertisements the company sent to its clients in was .

ID: 005e9982 Answer

Correct Answer: D

Rationale

Choice D is correct. The y-intercept of a graph in the xy-plane is the point where . For the given function , the y-
intercept of the graph of in the xy-plane can be found by substituting for in the equation ,
which gives . This is equivalent to , or . Therefore, the y-intercept of the graph of
is . It’s given that the function models the number of advertisements a company sent to its clients
each year. Therefore, represents the estimated number of advertisements the company sent to its clients each year. It's
also given that represents the number of years since . Therefore, represents years since , or .
Thus, the best interpretation of the y-intercept of the graph of is that the estimated number of advertisements the
company sent to its clients in was .

Choice A is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice B is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice C is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 54bf74ea
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Math Advanced Math Nonlinear functions Hard

ID: 54bf74ea

The given function models the population of Lowell years after a census. Which of the following functions best models
the population of Lowell months after the census?

A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: 54bf74ea Answer

Correct Answer: D

Rationale

Choice D is correct. It’s given that the function models the population of Lowell years after a census. Since there are
months in a year, months after the census is equivalent to years after the census. Substituting for in the
equation yields . Therefore, the function that best models the
population of Lowell months after the census is .

Choice A is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice B is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice C is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 427f0eea
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Math Advanced Math Nonlinear functions Hard

ID: 427f0eea

The function gives the product of a number, , and a number that is more than . Which equation defines ?

A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: 427f0eea Answer

Correct Answer: C

Rationale

Choice C is correct. It’s given that the function gives the product of a number, , and a number that is more than . A
number that is more than can be represented by the expression . Therefore, can be defined by the equation
, or .

Choice A is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice B is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice D is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID b939a904
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Math Advanced Math Nonlinear equations Hard

in one variable and
systems of equations
in two variables

ID: b939a904

In the given equation, is a constant. For which of the following values of will the equation have more than one real
solution?

A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: b939a904 Answer

Correct Answer: A

Rationale

Choice A is correct. A quadratic equation of the form , where , , and are constants, has either no real
solutions, exactly one real solution, or exactly two real solutions. That is, for the given equation to have more than one real
solution, it must have exactly two real solutions. When the value of the discriminant, or , is greater than 0, the given
equation has exactly two real solutions. In the given equation, , and . Therefore, the
given equation has exactly two real solutions when , or . Adding to both sides
of this inequality yields . Taking the square root of both sides of yields two possible inequalities:
or . Of the choices, only choice A satisfies or .

Choice B is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice C is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice D is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 9298a52e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Math Advanced Math Nonlinear equations Hard

in one variable and
systems of equations
in two variables

ID: 9298a52e

The solution to the given system of equations is . What is the value of ?

ID: 9298a52e Answer

Correct Answer: -10

Rationale

The correct answer is . Adding to both sides of the second equation in the given system yields .
Substituting for in the first equation in the given system yields . Subtracting from
both sides of this equation yields . Factoring the left-hand side of this equation yields
, or . Taking the square root of both sides of this equation yields .
Subtracting from both sides of this equation yields . Therefore, the value of is .

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 536832c0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Math Advanced Math Nonlinear equations Hard

in one variable and
systems of equations
in two variables

ID: 536832c0

In the -plane, a line with equation intersects a parabola at exactly one point. If the parabola has equation
, where is a positive constant, what is the value of ?

ID: 536832c0 Answer

Correct Answer: 6

Rationale

The correct answer is . It’s given that a line with equation intersects a parabola with equation ,
where is a positive constant, at exactly one point in the xy-plane. It follows that the system of equations consisting of
and has exactly one solution. Dividing both sides of the equation of the line by yields
. Substituting for in the equation of the parabola yields . Adding and subtracting
from both sides of this equation yields . A quadratic equation in the form of ,
where , , and are constants, has exactly one solution when the discriminant, , is equal to zero. Substituting for
and for in the expression and setting this expression equal to yields , or
. Adding to each side of this equation yields . Taking the square root of each side of this equation
yields . It’s given that is positive, so the value of is .

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID bcbf0e45
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Math Advanced Math Equivalent Hard

expressions

ID: bcbf0e45

One of the factors of is , where is a positive constant. What is the smallest possible value of ?

ID: bcbf0e45 Answer

Correct Answer: 8

Rationale

The correct answer is . Since each term of the given expression, , has a factor of , the expression
can be rewritten as , or . Since the values and have a sum of
and a product of , the expression can be factored as . Therefore, the given
expression can be factored as . It follows that the factors of the given expression are , , , and
. Of these factors, only and are of the form , where is a positive constant. Therefore, the
possible values of are and . Thus, the smallest possible value of is .

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 6b56736a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Math Advanced Math Equivalent Hard

expressions

ID: 6b56736a

Which of the following expressions is(are) a factor of ?

I.
II.

A. I only

B. II only

C. I and II

D. Neither I nor II

ID: 6b56736a Answer

Correct Answer: B

Rationale

Choice B is correct. The given expression can be factored by first finding two values whose sum is and whose product is
, or . Those two values are and . It follows that the given expression can be rewritten as
. Since the first two terms of this expression have a common factor of and the last two terms of
this expression have a common factor of , this expression can be rewritten as . Since the two
terms of this expression have a common factor of , it can be rewritten as . Therefore, expression
II, , is a factor of , but expression I, , is not a factor of .

Choice A is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice C is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice D is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 3138e379
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Math Advanced Math Equivalent Hard

expressions

ID: 3138e379

For what value of is the given expression equivalent to , where ?

ID: 3138e379 Answer

Correct Answer: .0177, .0178, 4/225

Rationale

The correct answer is . An expression of the form , where is an integer greater than and , is equivalent to

. Therefore, the given expression, where , is equivalent to . Applying properties of exponents,

this expression can be rewritten as , or , which can be rewritten as , or .

It's given that the expression is equivalent to , where . It follows that is equivalent
to . Therefore, . Dividing both sides of this equation by yields , or . Thus, the value
of for which the given expression is equivalent to , where , is . Note that 4/225, .0177, .0178, 0.017, and
0.018 are examples of ways to enter a correct answer.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID eafd61d3
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Math Advanced Math Equivalent Hard

expressions

ID: eafd61d3

The expression is equivalent to the expression , where , , and are constants. What
is the value of ?

ID: eafd61d3 Answer

Correct Answer: -419

Rationale

The correct answer is . It's given that the expression is equivalent to the expression
, where , , and are constants. Applying the distributive property to the given expression,
, yields , which can be rewritten as
. Combining like terms yields . Since this expression is equivalent to
, it follows that the value of is .

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 2d8f1f6a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Math Advanced Math Nonlinear equations Hard

in one variable and
systems of equations
in two variables

ID: 2d8f1f6a

The graphs of the equations in the given system of equations intersect at the point in the -plane. What is a possible
value of ?

A.

B.

C.

D.

ID: 2d8f1f6a Answer

Correct Answer: A

Rationale

Choice A is correct. It's given that the graphs of the equations in the given system of equations intersect at the point .
Therefore, this intersection point is a solution to the given system. The solution can be found by isolating in each equation.
The given equation can be rewritten to isolate by subtracting from both sides of the equation, which
gives . The given equation can be rewritten to isolate by subtracting from both sides
of the equation, which gives . With each equation solved for , the value of from one equation can be
substituted into the other, which gives . Adding and to both sides of this equation results in
. Dividing both sides of this equation by results in . This equation can be
rewritten by factoring the left-hand side, which yields . By the zero-product property, if
, then , or . It follows that , or . Since only is
given as a choice, a possible value of is .

Choice B is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice C is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice D is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Question Difficulty: Hard

Question ID 455fd7e9
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Math Advanced Math Nonlinear functions Hard

ID: 455fd7e9

y


x
‒10 ‒8 ‒6 ‒4 ‒2 O 2 4 6 8 10
‒2

‒4

‒6

‒8

‒10 
 
The graph of is shown, where , and , , and are constants. For how many values of does
?

A. Three

B. Two

C. One

D. Zero

ID: 455fd7e9 Answer

Correct Answer: D

Rationale

Choice D is correct. Each point on the graph of in the xy-plane gives a value of and its corresponding
value of , or . For any value of for which , there is a corresponding point on the graph of with a y-
coordinate of . A point with a y-coordinate of is a point where the graph intersects the x-axis. It's given that
, where , , and are constants. In the xy-plane, the graph of an equation of this form will lie entirely either
above or below the horizontal line defined by . The part of the graph of shown lies entirely below the
horizontal line defined by , and thus the entire graph of must lie below the line defined by . It
follows that the graph of will never intersect the x-axis. Therefore, there are zero values of x for which .
Choice A is incorrect and may result from conceptual errors.

Choice B is incorrect and may result from conceptual errors.

Choice C is incorrect and may result from conceptual errors.

Question Difficulty: Hard