3 English and 3 math
Here are 6 random questions to try. Takers earning below 75% are unlikely to receive an offer. You have 1 minute 48 seconds per question on the real exam.
Question 1 of 6
2024 Test B English, question 47Passage Snowy Mountains
Snowy Mountains
by John Gould Fletcher
Higher and still more high,
Palaces made for cloud,
Above the dingy city-roofs
Blue-white like angels with broad wings,
Pillars of the sky at rest
The mountains from the great plateau
Uprise.
But the world heeds them not;
They have been here now for too long a time.
The world makes war on them,
Tunnels their granite cliffs,
Splits down their shining sides,
Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements,
Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.
Vaster and still more vast,
Peak after peak, pile after pile,
Wilderness still untamed,
To which the future is as was the past,
Barrier spread by Gods,
Sunning their shining foreheads,
Barrier broken down by those who do not need
The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone,
The mountains swing along
The south horizon of the sky;
Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice
The mists that dance and drive before the sun.
“Snowy Mountains” by John Gould Fletcher—Public Domain
Question
Read lines 21–22 from the poem.
Barrier broken down by those who do not need
The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone,
How do the lines help convey the speaker’s point of view?
- AThey suggest that the speaker wants to remove the obstacles that prevent others from experiencing the wonders of nature.
- BThey reveal the speaker’s opinion that some people are too busy to appreciate natural beauty.
- CThey reflect the speaker’s dismay that people destroy the natural landscape without understanding the ramifications of their actions.
- DThey explain that the speaker is confident that nature will never be fully destroyed by people.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how lines 21–22 help convey the speaker’s point of view.
A. Incorrect. The word “barrier” (line 21) refers to the speaker’s opinion that the mountains were “spread by Gods” (line 19) and not to an obstacle that the speaker thinks should be removed.
B. Incorrect. While the lines indicate that people have lost the need to connect with nature, they do not reveal that the speaker thinks that the cause of this loss is busyness.
C. CORRECT. The words “those who do not need / The joy” in lines 21–22 reflect the speaker’s sadness that people do not realize that they are destroying something wonderful and irreplaceable.
D. Incorrect. Although the speaker does say that the stone is “time-resisting” (line 22), this belief is only a small detail of the speaker’s point of view.
Question analysis
Two lines from the final stanza of “Snowy Mountains” describe a barrier broken down by people who do not need “The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone,” and students must explain how these lines convey the speaker’s point of view. The phrasing is compact and old-fashioned, with an unusual use of “need,” so working out the plain meaning comes before choosing among close descriptions of the speaker’s feelings.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students often infer a speaker’s attitude from clear statements. Here the attitude must be drawn from a compressed sentence broken across two lines, and the choices differ in fine shades of feeling and cause.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Complex sentences major
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Hard words minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 99 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Before any choice can be judged, the compressed, inverted verse has to be put into plain English: people with no use for the old stone’s joy have broken the barrier down. Once that paraphrase is in hand, the speaker’s sorrow is clear, yet two wrong choices offer nearby readings. One supplies a cause the lines never give, busyness, and the other turns the stone’s endurance into a promise that the same sentence contradicts.
Complex sentences major Understanding the question
The lines break mid-phrase, “those who do not need / The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone,” inside a sentence whose subject arrives only in line 23, so who breaks what must be untangled first. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Neither dismay nor ignorance is stated; both must be inferred from describing the people as not needing “The joy” of the stone they break down. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words minor Understanding the question
“Barrier” here means the mountain range as a great wall, not an obstacle, and the key turns on “ramifications,” a word many seventh graders will not know. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Strategy: Read lines 21–22 with the lines just before them, restate the sentence in your own words, and then decide what the speaker thinks of the people it describes.
Traps
- Dictionary meaning, not meaning here: A common meaning of the word that does not fit its use in this text.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
- Too broad or too strong: A choice overstates, generalizes, or uses absolute words the text does not support.
The wrong answers, classified
A Dictionary meaning, not meaning here (Perfetti, 2007)
Hears “Barrier” in its everyday sense of something blocking the way, but here it is the mountain range itself, “spread by Gods,” and the speaker regrets its breaking.
B Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Supplies a familiar modern explanation, people too busy for nature, though the lines say only that some people do not need this joy and never say why.
D Too broad or too strong (King et al., 2004)
Stretches “time-resisting” into certainty that nature can never be destroyed, overlooking that these lines show the barrier already “broken down” by people.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks about point of view: what the speaker thinks and feels. Read lines 21 and 22, and decide what they show about the speaker’s attitude toward the people in them.
Read the lines with the ones before
Two lines earlier, the poem names the mountains a “Barrier spread by Gods” (line 19). A barrier is a wall, and here the wall is the mountain range itself. Line 21 says this barrier is “broken down by those who do not need” something. Line 22 says what that something is: “The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone.”
Put the lines in plain words
Time-resisting means the stone has held out against ages of time. Storm-worn means storms have rubbed it down. So this stone is very old and very tough. In plain words: the mountains are being torn down by people who have no use for the joy this ancient stone can give. The speaker sounds sad and troubled that something so lasting is wrecked by people who do not value it.
Check each choice
- A does not fit. Here “Barrier” means the mountains, not something blocking the way. The speaker is sorry it was broken, not eager to remove it.
- B does not fit. The lines never give a reason, such as being too busy. That idea comes from outside the poem.
- C fits. Dismay is a mix of sadness and alarm. Ramifications are the effects an action leads to later on. The speaker is dismayed that people wreck the mountains with no thought for what they are losing.
- D does not fit. The stone is “time-resisting,” but the same lines show it broken down. They express sorrow, not confidence.
Choose the answer
The lines show the mountains being broken by people who see no value in them, and the speaker is upset. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the strongest trap, because being too busy for nature sounds like a fair reason. But lines 21 and 22 never explain why these people do not need the stone’s joy. B adds a cause from outside the poem. C stays with what the lines show: damage to the mountains, done by people who do not value them, and the speaker’s distress.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed (page 142)
Question 2 of 6
2026 Practice Test D English, question 17Passage Wolves of the Sea
Wolves of the Sea
The cool and misty landscape of the Great Bear Rainforest can be found along the coast of British Columbia, Canada, and its nearby islands, from Vancouver Island to the Alaskan border. Within this protected area, wolves roam the forests, islands, and beaches. When biologist Chris Darimont began to study these wolves, he wanted to confer with local First Nations groups, as aboriginal Canadians are known, in order to learn what they knew about these wolves. He spoke with Chester Starr, an elder of the Heiltsuk Nation that has occupied the Great Bear Rainforest for thousands of years. What Starr had to say about the wolves changed Darimont’s perception of the animals.
Starr asked Darimont which wolves he and his team were going to study—the timber wolves (mainland wolves) or the coastal wolves on the islands. The question took Darimont by surprise. Biologists had always believed that the wolves that are sometimes spotted swimming between islands and eating salmon are the same wolves that live on the mainland. Darimont was intrigued by Starr’s classification of the wolves as two different groups. At first, he was hesitant to accept the idea. The distances between the mainland and the islands are small, less than a mile. Why would the wolves on the islands be any different from the wolves on the mainland? To find out, Darimont and his research team studied the wolves on the islands and in the densely forested territory of the Great Bear Rainforest for ten years.
Throughout the study, Darimont recorded several significant, observable differences between the “sea wolves,” as they are nicknamed, and the mainland wolves. Compared with the mainland wolves, the sea wolves are smaller in size and are strong swimmers. In 1996 sea wolves were spotted on an island nearly eight miles from any other land formation. While mainland wolves almost exclusively eat meat, such as deer and elk, and teach their young to hunt for land animals, sea wolves get as much as 90 percent of their nutrition from the sea and teach their young to dig for clams and to catch fish. Sea wolves regularly swim between islands and have been known to sneak up on a seal sunning itself on a rock and make a leaping attack from the water. Some salmon-eating mainland wolves come and go from the islands with the fish-spawning season, but the sea wolves are full-time island residents. Darimont suspects that some sea wolves live their entire life on the islands.
The sea wolves displayed not only physical and behavioral differences but also genetic variations from the mainland wolves. After collecting and analyzing the DNA in 800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste, researchers could produce hard biological evidence that sea wolves had genetic markers that made them distinct from the mainland wolves. A genetic marker is a variation in a DNA sequence that can be used to identify individuals or a species because it is passed down to offspring. Darimont hypothesizes that a change in habitat led to the eventual genetic differences between sea wolves and mainland wolves. Many years ago, loss of habitat and food sources forced some mainland wolves out to the islands. They learned to eat everything from kelp and fish eggs to the remains of sea creatures that washed up on the beach. Wolves living on the islands and mainland wolves became more isolated and rarely mated with each other. Over time the two types of wolves became more distinct.
It turned out that Chester Starr was right all along. “It sounded totally bizarre at first,” admits Darimont, “that there could be two versions of the species.” But he now realizes that this skepticism “definitely reflected my ignorance of indigenous knowledge at the time.” Learning to trust the wisdom of the Heiltsuk people opened Darimont up to knowledge accumulated over millennia and positioned him so that he could gather new scientific evidence about one of British Columbia’s most elusive species, the sea wolf.
Question
Read this sentence from paragraph 4.
After collecting and analyzing the DNA in 800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste, researchers could produce hard biological evidence that sea wolves had genetic markers that made them distinct from the mainland wolves.
The phrase “hard biological evidence” conveys that the goal of the research team was to
- Adevelop a procedure in order to ensure their study yielded plentiful data about the wolves.
- Bseek definitive scientific proof of the number of wolf species present in the area of the study.
- Cconduct a study to evaluate multiple theories about the diets of different wolf species.
- Ddiscover if the new data would provide information different from that of previous studies.
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
The question asks what the phrase “hard biological evidence” in the sentence from paragraph 4 conveys about the goal of the research team.
A. Incorrect. Although the research team followed a labor-intensive procedure, the phrase “hard biological evidence” refers to the product of their scientific research (the genetic markers revealed within the DNA samples), not the process by which they collected it. Their goal was not to develop a procedure for data collection but to determine precisely how many species of wolf were present in the area.
B. CORRECT. The research team wanted to prove or disprove the theory that two separate groups of wolves were present in the area, an idea that was already supported by the observations of scientists and local indigenous people. The phrase “hard biological evidence” conveys that the scientists wanted to bolster their observations of the wolves with concrete scientific data about the wolves’ biological makeup. The goal of the researchers was to use the data to prove how many species of wolf were present in the area of the study.
C. Incorrect. The research team gathered extensive data during their study (“After collecting and analyzing the DNA in 800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste” [paragraph 4]), and their goal in doing so was to evaluate a single theory about the wolves: that the wolves had evolved into two separate and genetically distinct species. The research team did not conduct the study in order to evaluate multiple theories about the diets of the wolves.
D. Incorrect. The phrase “hard biological evidence” does not suggest that the research team was hoping to discover if the new data would provide information that was different from previous studies. In fact, the goal of the research team was to use the genetic data to supplement their initial sources of information about the wolves and their own observations from the field.
Question analysis
This word-in-context question quotes a sentence from paragraph 4 of “Wolves of the Sea” about DNA taken from 800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste, and asks what the phrase “hard biological evidence” shows about the research team’s goal. Students must work out what the phrase says about the evidence and then turn that into a statement of purpose, choosing among four plausible aims for a study.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students regularly interpret a phrase in context. Here the phrase must be turned into a claim about the team’s purpose, which the passage never states outright, and the four choices are abstract research goals that each sound reasonable.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Hard words moderate
- Evidence in several places minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 10, 662 words; question and choices: about grade 10, 114 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The question asks for a purpose, but the phrase it quotes describes a result, so students have to reason from the kind of evidence produced to what the team wanted it for. Readers who take “hard” as difficult drift toward a goal about procedure, and those who remember that biologists had long thought the wolves were one group are drawn to a goal of overturning earlier studies. The key’s “number of wolf species” is looser than the passage’s “two versions of the species,” which can make careful readers hesitate.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The passage never states the team’s goal, so students must work back from “hard biological evidence” to the question paragraph 2 set up: whether island and mainland wolves are really two groups. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Hard words moderate Understanding the question
“Hard” here means solid and conclusive, as in hard evidence, not difficult; students who know only the everyday sense connect it to the labor of analyzing 800 samples of fur and waste. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Evidence in several places minor Working it out
The goal the phrase points to lies two paragraphs back, in Starr’s two-group question and Darimont’s ten-year study “to find out,” not in the sentence the stem quotes. (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
Strategy: Replace “hard” with a word that fits evidence produced by DNA analysis, then ask what the team wanted that kind of evidence for, recalling the question Darimont set out to answer.
Traps
- Dictionary meaning, not meaning here: A common meaning of the word that does not fit its use in this text.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Dictionary meaning, not meaning here (Perfetti, 2007)
Reads “hard” as difficult and ties it to the labor of analyzing 800 samples, so takes the goal to be a thorough procedure rather than conclusive proof.
C Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Brings in the diet differences of paragraph 3, clams, fish and seals, as theories under test, though the DNA work in paragraph 4 asked whether two groups exist.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Knows that biologists “had always believed” the wolves were one group and assumes the team set out to contradict earlier studies, which the phrase about solid proof does not suggest.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks what a phrase shows about the team’s goal. A goal is what you are trying to get. The phrase names the kind of evidence the team got. Work back from that to what they wanted it for.
Read the sentence with the phrase
In paragraph 4, the team studied “800 samples of gray fur and wolf waste.” Then they “could produce hard biological evidence that sea wolves had genetic markers that made them distinct from the mainland wolves.” A genetic marker is a small difference in the DNA that parents pass to their young. Distinct means clearly different.
Work out what “hard” means
Here “hard” does not mean difficult. Hard evidence is solid proof that is tough to argue with. Biological means it comes from living things and their bodies. So the team wanted firm proof from the wolves’ own bodies.
Connect the proof to the question
What did they want to prove? Go back to paragraph 2. Starr said there were two groups of wolves. Darimont was unsure. “To find out,” his team studied the wolves. The DNA gave a firm answer: the sea wolves really are a separate group. So the goal was solid proof of how many groups of wolves live there.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. It reads “hard” as hard work. The phrase is about how firm the proof is, not about a procedure.
- B is right. Definitive means final and settled. The team wanted settled proof of how many groups of wolves live there. B says “species,” which goes further than the passage. Darimont speaks only of “two versions of the species.”
- C is wrong. Diets come up in paragraph 3. The DNA work tested whether there were two groups.
- D is wrong. The phrase says nothing about earlier studies.
Watch out: D is tempting because biologists “had always believed” the wolves were one group. But “hard” evidence is about firm proof, not about beating old studies.
Choose the answer
“Hard biological evidence” shows the team wanted firm, scientific proof. So the answer is B, “seek definitive scientific proof of the number of wolf species present in the area of the study.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D is the closest wrong answer. Biologists had thought the wolves were one group, so D can seem to fit. But the phrase “hard biological evidence” is about how firm the proof is. It says nothing about earlier studies. B matches that: the team wanted settled proof of how many groups there were.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Wolves of the Sea” as printed (pages 23–24)
Question 3 of 6
2024 Test A English, question 20Passage At Dusk
At Dusk
by Natasha Trethewey
At first I think she is calling a child,
my neighbor, leaning through her doorway
at dusk, street lamps just starting to hum
the backdrop of evening. Then I hear
the high-pitched wheedling1 we send out
to animals who know only sound, not
the meanings of our words—here here—
nor how they sometimes fall short.
In another yard, beyond my neighbor’s
sight, the cat lifts her ears, turns first
toward the voice, then back
to the constellation of fireflies flickering
near her head. It’s as if she can’t decide
whether to leap over the low hedge,
the neat row of flowers, and bound
onto the porch, into the steady circle
of light, or stay where she is: luminous
possibility—all that would keep her
away from home—flitting before her.
I listen as my neighbor’s voice trails off.
She’s given up calling for now, left me
to imagine her inside the house waiting,
perhaps in a chair in front of the TV,
or walking around, doing small tasks;
left me to wonder that I too might lift
my voice, sure of someone out there,
send it over the lines stitching here
to there, certain the sounds I make
are enough to call someone home.
“At Dusk” from NATIVE GUARD by Natasha Trethewey, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. Copyright © 2006 by Natasha Trethewey. All rights reserved.
1wheedling: speaking in a flattering manner
Question
The isolation of the words “—here here—” in line 7 contributes to the meaning of the poem mainly by
- Ademonstrating how people try to communicate in familiar ways but are still sometimes misunderstood.
- Bshowing how people can feel desperate to connect with others but give up quickly when their first attempts are ignored.
- Cusing the unspoken bond between the neighbor and her cat to highlight the understanding people have with their pets.
- Dillustrating the use of a simple expression to call home those who are loved and missed.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how the isolation of the words “—here here—” in line 7 mainly contributes to the meaning of the poem.
A. Incorrect. The words “—here here—” do interrupt the speaker’s observation in lines 7–8 that “our words . . . / . . . sometimes fall short.” However, in lines 5–7, the speaker observes that the neighbor accompanies her words with a “high-pitched wheedling” that people “send out” because they are aware that animals “know only sound, not / the meanings of our words,” indicating that the neighbor does not actually expect her words to be understood. The description of the cat’s response in lines 10–11 (“the cat lifts her ears, turns first / toward the voice, then back”) does not suggest that the neighbor’s message is misunderstood but rather suggests that the cat prefers not to respond to it.
B. Incorrect. In lines 20–21, the “neighbor’s voice trails off,” and she does give up calling the cat. However, rather than any desperation to connect, the neighbor’s use of a “high-pitched wheedling” (line 5) simply indicates her understanding that the cat, like other animals, understands “only sound, not / the meanings of our words” (lines 6–7) such as “here here.” Furthermore, the neighbor does not give up quickly. In lines 21–22, the speaker says the neighbor has “given up calling for now” but is still “waiting” for the cat.
C. Incorrect. In lines 4–7, the speaker describes the neighbor calling to the cat with a “high-pitched wheedling.” The sound may indicate a bond between the neighbor and the cat because the neighbor does understand that animals “know only sound, not / the meanings of our words” (lines 6–7). However, the use of the words “here here” in line 7 does not indicate that bond, because they are used as an example of the type of words that animals do not understand.
D. CORRECT. The speaker’s initial thought in line 1 that the neighbor is calling a child, rather than a cat, suggests that the neighbor loves and misses the cat. Lines 4–7 then present the speaker’s observation that the neighbor uses a “high-pitched wheedling,” to emphasize the simple words of her call, “—here here—.” The idea that the words are an example of a simple expression used to call home a missed loved one is reinforced in lines 25–29, when the speaker is “left . . . to wonder” whether the speaker, too, “might lift / [his or her] voice” and be able “to call someone home.”
Question analysis
This reading question asks how setting off the words here here with dashes in line 7 adds to the meaning of At Dusk, Natasha Trethewey's poem about a neighbor calling her cat at nightfall. Students must work out what two plain, isolated words contribute to the whole poem, choosing among four readings about how people and animals communicate and connect.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 students explain how a line adds to a poem, but here the feature is a tiny typographic choice, and its meaning has to be built from the whole poem rather than nearby lines, which goes beyond typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- A very close wrong answer major
- Evidence in several places moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from the whole text
- Reading level
- Passage: 236 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 9, 87 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A grammar slip in the explanation was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The words sit inside a sentence about animals not knowing the meanings of our words and about words that “sometimes fall short,” so the nearest lines point toward miscommunication. The poem's frame points elsewhere: it opens with a call that sounds like a parent's, ends with the speaker hoping a voice can “call someone home,” and even repeats “here” in line 27. Students who read only around line 7 choose the misunderstanding; those who connect the isolated call to the first and last lines see what it is for.
A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer
The misunderstanding choice and the right one agree that “here here” is a familiar way of calling; they part only on what it shows, failed communication or a call home to someone missed. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Evidence in several places moderate Working it out
The right reading rests on lines far from line 7: the speaker's first guess that a child is being called, and the last line's wish “to call someone home.” (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990; Gorin & Embretson, 2006)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The question asks what setting two words apart with dashes and italics does for the poem, a typographic choice whose purpose the poem never explains. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Ask what the two words are meant to do and whom they are aimed at, then keep the choice that the poem's other lines confirm.
Traps
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reads the words through line 8's “sometimes fall short” as failed communication, but the cat does hear and turn toward the call, and the ending hopes such sounds can bring someone home.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Sees the neighbor stop calling and calls her desperate and quick to quit, though she has given up only “for now” and is still waiting inside.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Assumes an owner and a pet share a silent understanding, but “here here” is spoken aloud, and the poem offers it as words animals cannot follow.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: In rejecting choice C, the handbook reads “the use of the words “here here” in line 7 do not indicate that bond.” It now reads “does not,” to agree with “use.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
In line 7 the words here here are set apart by dashes and slanted letters (italics). The question asks what this does for the poem’s meaning. Think about what the words are for and who they are aimed at.
Look at line 7
Line 7 reads “the meanings of our words—here here—.” These are the words the neighbor calls to her cat. Setting them apart lets you hear them, as if spoken aloud. They are simple words that mean “come here.” Lines 6–7 say animals know “only sound, not / the meanings of our words.”
Connect to the start and end
In line 1 the speaker first thinks the neighbor “is calling a child.” So the call sounds like a parent calling someone they love. The poem ends with the hope that a voice can be “enough to call someone home” (line 29). So here here is a simple call to bring a loved one home.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The cat isn’t confused. She “lifts her ears” and turns “toward the voice.” She just doesn’t come yet.
- B is wrong. The neighbor isn’t shown as desperate. She stops only “for now,” and the speaker pictures her waiting inside.
- C is wrong. Here here is spoken out loud. The poem treats it as words animals don’t understand, not a silent bond.
- D is right. It is a simple call to someone loved and missed.
Watch out: Line 8 says words “sometimes fall short,” which points toward A. But read the first and last lines too.
Choose the answer
The two words stand for the simple call people use to bring loved ones home. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, because line 8 says our words “sometimes fall short.” But the cat does hear the call and turn toward it. And the poem ends by hoping the sounds “are enough to call someone home.” D links the two words to that wish, and to the first guess that a child is being called.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “At Dusk” as printed (page 48)
Question 4 of 6
2024 Test B Math, question 52Question
Five numbered balls are placed in two boxes as shown in the figure above. Davina picks one ball at random from Box B and places it in Box A. Then Yusuf picks one ball from Box A without looking. What is the probability that Yusuf will pick a ball with an odd number?
- A
- B
- C
- D
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The probability of Davina picking an odd-numbered ball from Box B is . If Davina places an odd-numbered ball in Box A, then the probability of Yusuf picking an odd-numbered ball from Box A is . The probability of both of these events happening is the product of the two probabilities.
Question analysis
Two boxes hold five numbered balls, and Davina moves one ball at random from Box B into Box A before Yusuf draws one from Box A. Students find the probability that Yusuf's ball shows an odd number. It tests two-stage probability, and the tricky part is that the second draw depends on which ball was moved.
- NYS standards
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 compound probability lists outcomes for independent stages such as coins or spinners. Here the first random move changes what is in the second box, so students must follow two linked stages, a dependence typical grade 7 work does not include.
- Estimated difficulty
- Among the hardest on the SHSAT: a non-obvious approach, heavy reading, or a well-hidden trap.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 4, 57 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Two chance events are hidden in what reads like a question about a single draw. Every listed wrong answer is a reasonable single-stage answer, either one of the two factors on its own or a count of odd balls across both boxes. Listing the nine equally likely pairs, Davina's ball and then Yusuf's, shows that only two of them end with an odd ball and makes the structure visible without any formula.
No obvious method major Working it out
The stem asks one question about Yusuf's draw, but the answer depends on Davina's earlier random pick; the key is that Box A starts with only even balls, so Yusuf can draw odd only by drawing the ball she moved. (Schoenfeld, 1985)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
Multiplying the chances of the two stages, 2/3 for an odd ball moving and 1/3 for Yusuf then drawing it, is a rule students must bring themselves. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reading a figure, table or graph minor Understanding the question
The numbers appear only in the figure, Box A holding 2 and 6 and Box B holding 3, 4 and 5, so the odd balls have to be spotted there. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Strategy: List every equally likely pair of a ball moved by Davina and a ball picked by Yusuf, and count the pairs that end with an odd ball.
Traps
- Stops one step early: A choice is a number from partway through the solution.
- Numbers taken from the question: Combines the numbers in the question without a model of the situation, or is simply a number that appears in the question.
The wrong answers, classified
B Stops one step early (King et al., 2004; Gierl et al., 2017)
Finds Yusuf's chance of drawing the odd ball once one is in Box A, 1 out of 3, leaving out the chance that Davina moves an odd ball at all.
C Numbers taken from the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Counts the odd balls in the figure, 3 and 5, over all five balls, 2/5, ignoring that Yusuf draws only from Box A.
D Stops one step early (King et al., 2004; Gierl et al., 2017)
Gives the chance that Davina moves an odd ball, 2 out of 3, the first stage only, without multiplying by Yusuf's 1/3 chance of drawing it.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Probability
- P is the probability, the chance that something happens. It is a number from 0 to 1. The top counts the results you want. The bottom counts all the results that can happen. It works when every result is equally likely.
- Chance of events in a row
- A and B are two events that happen one after the other. P(A) is the chance of the first. P(B after A) is the chance of the second, counting only what is left after the first. You multiply because the second must also happen inside the share of times the first did.
Read the figure
Box A holds balls numbered 2 and 6. Box B holds balls numbered 3, 4 and 5.
An odd number does not divide evenly by 2. So the only odd balls are 3 and 5, and both start in Box B. Box A starts with no odd balls at all.
Spot the two chance events
Two things happen by chance, one after the other:
- Davina picks one of the 3 balls in Box B and moves it to Box A.
- Then Yusuf picks one of the 3 balls now in Box A.
Yusuf gets an odd ball only if both go right. Davina must move an odd ball. Then Yusuf must pick that very ball.
The question asks only about Yusuf. But his chance depends on Davina’s pick, which comes first.
Find the chance for Davina’s pick
Box B has 3 balls, and 2 of them, the 3 and the 5, are odd.
If she moves the 4 instead, Box A holds only even balls. Then Yusuf can’t get an odd ball at all.
Find the chance for Yusuf’s pick
Say Davina moved an odd ball. Box A now holds 3 balls: the 2, the 6 and that one odd ball.
Watch out: alone is choice B. It forgets that Davina might move the 4.
Multiply the two chances
Both events must happen, so use the rule for events in a row.
Watch out: alone, choice D, stops after Davina’s pick. , choice C, counts 2 odd balls out of all 5. But Yusuf picks only from Box A.
So the answer is A, .
Check your answer
List all 9 equally likely outcomes. Davina can move 3, 4 or 5. Then Yusuf picks one of 3 balls.
| Ball moved | Box A then | Odd picks |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2, 6, 3 | 1 |
| 4 | 2, 6, 4 | 0 |
| 5 | 2, 6, 5 | 1 |
That is 2 odd picks out of 9, or .
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 5 of 6
2026 Practice Test C Math, question 32Question
The box plot shows the average monthly high temperatures in New York City for 12 months. What is the difference between the range and the interquartile range of the temperature data?
Enter your answer in the space.
Fill-in question: work out the answer and type it as a number.
Show the answer
Correct answer: 15
Determine the range by subtracting the minimum value on the box plot from the maximum value on the box plot:
Maximum value , Minimum value
Determine the interquartile range by subtracting the lower quartile value on the box plot from the upper quartile value on the box plot:
Upper Quartile Value , Lower Quartile Value
Determine the difference between the range (45° F) and the interquartile range (30° F):
Question analysis
A box plot of New York City's average monthly high temperatures for 12 months sits above a number line labeled every 4 degrees. Students type the difference between the range and the interquartile range of the data. Two of the plot's values fall between labeled ticks, so careful reading of the scale decides the answer.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Reading a box plot and finding its interquartile range are grade 7 skills. Here two of the five values fall between ticks spaced 4 apart, and the range, the IQR and their difference must all be found and typed with no choices.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- Solution
- 3 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 7, 36 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The method is standard, but the key rests on reading the scale between its labels. The axis is ticked only every 4 degrees, and the minimum and the upper quartile land off the ticks, so rounding either one to the nearest label moves the result by a degree or two with nothing to flag it. Students who find the range correctly can also stop there, entering 45, the larger of the two spreads, instead of the difference the question asks for.
Reading a figure, table or graph major Understanding the question
Two of the five values fall between ticks spaced 4 degrees apart: the left whisker ends just short of the 40 tick, at 39, and the box’s right edge sits midway between 76 and 80, at 78. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Many steps minor Working it out
Four values are read and combined in three subtractions, the range, the interquartile range and then their difference, so one misread value changes the final entry. (Daniel & Embretson, 2010; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
Something you must already know minor Working it out
Neither measure is defined on the page: the range spans the whiskers, and the interquartile range is the width of the box, the upper quartile minus the lower. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
An answer in an unexpected form minor Choosing the answer
The result is typed with no choices to compare, so an entry one or two degrees off, from rounding a value to the nearest tick, looks just as finished as the right one. (Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
Strategy: Read the minimum, both quartiles and the maximum, judging where each mark falls between the ticks, then subtract for the range and for the IQR, and subtract those two results.
Traps
- Misreads the figure: Reads a value, label or tick spacing in a figure, table or graph wrongly.
- Stops one step early: A choice is a number from partway through the solution.
The wrong answers, classified
14 Misreads the figure (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Reads the left whisker’s end as 40, the nearest labeled tick, instead of 39, so the range becomes 84 − 40 = 44 and 44 − 30 = 14.
45 Stops one step early (King et al., 2004; Gierl et al., 2017)
Finds the range, 84 − 39 = 45 degrees, and enters it, stopping before the interquartile range of 30 is subtracted from it.
17 Misreads the figure (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Reads the box’s right edge as 76, the tick just left of it, instead of 78, so the IQR becomes 76 − 48 = 28 and 45 − 28 = 17.
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Range
- The maximum is the greatest value, at the right end of the right whisker. The minimum is the least value, at the left end of the left whisker. The range tells how far the whole set of data spreads.
- Interquartile range (IQR)
- Q3 is the upper quartile, the right edge of the box. Q1 is the lower quartile, the left edge of the box. The IQR is the width of the box. It tells how far the middle half of the data spreads.
Sort out the question
A box plot shows data with five numbers. The two whiskers are the lines on each side of the box. Their ends are the minimum, the least value, and the maximum, the greatest. The box runs from the lower quartile to the upper quartile. These are the middles of the lower half and the upper half of the data. The line inside the box is the median, the middle value.
You need the range minus the interquartile range (IQR), in degrees.
Read the values between the ticks
The ticks on the number line are 4 degrees apart. So each degree is one quarter of the space between two ticks. Three values sit right on ticks: the box’s left edge at 48, the median at 64, and the right whisker’s end at 84.
- The left whisker starts just left of the 40 tick. It sits about one quarter of the way back toward 36. So the minimum is degrees.
- The box’s right edge is halfway between 76 and 80. Halfway is 78 degrees.
Find the range
Use the range formula:
The data spread over 45 degrees.
Watch out: rounding the minimum to the 40 tick gives a range of 44. Then the final answer comes out 14, which is wrong.
Find the IQR
Use the IQR formula with the two edges of the box:
The middle half of the data spreads over 30 degrees.
Watch out: reading the box’s right edge as 76 gives an IQR of 28. Then the final answer comes out 17.
Subtract the IQR from the range
The question asks for the difference between the two:
Watch out: 45 is only the range. Do not stop there. Type only the number, with no degree sign.
So you would enter 15.
Check your answer
The range covers the whole plot, and the IQR covers only the box. So their difference is the two whiskers added together. The left whisker is degrees long. The right whisker is degrees long. , which matches.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
Question 6 of 6
2018 Test B Math, question 46Question
In a sample of 50 cars at a local dealership, there are 12 red cars and 10 cars with backup cameras. Of the 12 red cars, 4 have backup cameras. If a car is selected at random from the given sample, what is the probability that both of the following are true: the car is not red and does not have a backup camera?
- A
- B
- C
- D
Show the answer
Correct answer: B
Create a chart using the given information and use subtraction to figure out how many cars are not red and do not have a back-up camera:
| Red | Not Red | TOTAL | |
| Back-up Camera | 4 | 6 (10-4) |
10 |
| No back-up Camera | 32 (38-6) |
||
| TOTAL | 12 | 38 (50-12) |
50 |
The probability of selecting a car that meets both conditions from the total of 50 cars at the dealership is .
Question analysis
In a sample of 50 cars, 12 are red, 10 have backup cameras, and 4 of the red cars have cameras. Students find the probability that a randomly chosen car is neither red nor equipped with a camera. It tests compound probability with overlapping groups, and the overlap between red cars and camera cars is what makes it tricky.
- NYS standards
- Grade level
- Grade 7 content, by NYS standard
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 compound probability usually uses a ready-made table or tree. Here students must build the two-way table from words, handle an overlap, and use a "not this and not that" condition, several steps beyond typical work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly apply
- What makes it hard
- Much to keep track of major
- Many steps moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Solution
- 4 steps
- Reading level
- Question and choices: about grade 6, 63 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A grammar slip in the explanation was corrected.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
This is an overlap problem dressed as probability: the hard part is counting the cars that avoid both features, not the division by 50. A two-way table makes it routine, but students working in their heads often keep only one of the two conditions. The question rewards placing the 4 red cars with cameras in the table before doing any subtraction.
Much to keep track of major Working it out
Three overlapping counts, 12 red, 10 with cameras and 4 that are both, must be sorted into four groups before the wanted one, neither red nor with a camera, can be found. (Sweller, 1988; Carpenter, Just & Shell, 1990)
Many steps moderate Working it out
Find the non-red cars with cameras, 10 − 4 = 6, and the non-red cars, 50 − 12 = 38, subtract to get 32, then simplify 32/50. (Daniel & Embretson, 2010; Enright, Morley & Sheehan, 2002)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
19/25, or 38/50, has the same denominator as the right 16/25 and sits just above it; only removing the 6 non-red cars that have cameras from the 38 separates them. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The last sentence stacks "both of the following are true", a colon and two negatives, "not red" and "does not have"; untangling it is reading work, not extra math. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Draw a two-way table with red and not red across, camera and no camera down, fill in the given counts, and complete the missing cells by subtraction.
Traps
- Misreads the question: Misses or misreads a condition or a word in the question: "at least", "each", "remaining", "not".
- Answers a different question: A choice is right for another quantity: the other unknown, the rest instead of the part, the part instead of the whole.
The wrong answers, classified
A Answers a different question (King et al., 2004; Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Finds the 6 non-red cars with cameras and divides by the 10 camera cars, 6/10 = 3/5, a different probability from the one asked.
C Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Uses only the 38 cars that are not red, 38/50, and ignores the second condition that the car also lacks a backup camera.
D Misreads the question (Hegarty, Mayer & Monk, 1995)
Counts only the 40 cars without backup cameras, 40/50, dropping the requirement that the car must not be red as well.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook says “a car that meet both conditions”; the site says “a car that meets both conditions.”
Worked solution, step by step
Formulas used
- Probability
- P is the probability, the chance that something happens. The top counts the results you want. The bottom counts every possible result. Use it when each result is equally likely, like picking one at random.
Sort out what you know
There are 50 cars. Of these, 12 are red and 10 have backup cameras. Of the red cars, 4 have cameras. You pick one car at random. You need the chance that “both of the following are true”: the car is not red, and it has no camera.
Set up a two-way table
A two-way table sorts each car by two things at once: its color and its camera. Put in the numbers you know.
Red Not red Total Camera 4 ? 10 No camera ? Total 12 ? 50 Fill in the missing numbers
Not red with a camera: cars.
All cars that are not red: cars.
Not red with no camera: cars.
Watch out: the 38 cars that are not red include 6 with cameras. Using 38 gives , choice C. Using all 40 cars with no camera gives , choice D.
Write the probability
Use the probability formula. There are 32 cars you want out of 50 cars in all.
Divide the top and bottom by 2.
So the answer is B, .
Check your answer
Finish the table. Red cars with no camera: . Now add the four inside boxes: . That is every car, so the numbers fit. Also, the cars with no camera are , and too.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
