PSAT 8/9 Problem-Solving and Data Analysis Practice

What the test measures

Problem-Solving and Data Analysis skills

Ratios, rates, proportional relationships, and units
Percentages
1-variable data: distributions and measures of center and spread
2-variable data: models and scatterplots
Probability and conditional probability

Standards basis

Common Core State Standards (CCSS-M) / college-and-career-readiness aligned SAT Suite math framework — national

How the PSAT 8/9 reports it

PSAT 8/9 uses the SAT Suite’s shared digital math framework and the same four content domains as the other suite tests, with PSAT 8/9 adjusted for a younger grade band. College Board notes that PSAT 8/9 does not test trigonometry.

Blueprint & weighting

PSAT 8/9 Math has 44 questions total over 2 modules and 70 minutes total. Published question distribution is Algebra 16–18, Advanced Math 7–9, Problem-Solving and Data Analysis 9–11, and Geometry 4–6; College Board also summarizes these as approximately 42.5%, 20%, 25%, and 12.5%, respectively.

Official sources

College Board PSAT 8/9
College Board Math Specifications - SAT Suite of Assessments
College Board PSAT 8/9 Student Guide PDF

Practice by skill

Topics mapped to this domain

Try it now

8 free questions · 0/0 correct

Practice playeasy

A trend line predicts that a bakery will sell $75$ bagels on Monday. The bakery actually sells $79$ bagels. What is the residual (actual value minus predicted value)?

Residual $=$ actual $-$ predicted $= 79 - 75 = 4$ .

Practice playeasy

A package of nuts weighs $112$ ounces. What is the weight in pounds? ( $1$ pound $= 16$ ounces)

Use a conversion factor with pounds in the numerator so ounces cancel: $112 \text{ oz} \times \dfrac{1 \text{ lb}}{16 \text{ oz}} = 7 \text{ lb}$ .

Practice playeasy

Write $0.36$ as a percent.

Multiply by 100: $0.36 \times 100 = 36\%$ .

Practice playeasy

There are $250$ students in sixth grade. On Friday, $20\%$ of the students went on a field trip. How many students went on the field trip?

Convert $20\%$ to a decimal and multiply: $0.20 \times 250 = 50$ students.

Practice playeasy

Mia can pick from $5$ shirts and $2$ hats. How many different (shirt, hat) outfits are possible?

By the counting principle: $5 \times 2 = 10$ .

Practice playeasy

A jar contains $5$ red tokens and $7$ blue tokens. One token is chosen at random. What is the probability that the token is red?

There are $5 + 7 = 12$ tokens in all and $5$ are red, so $P(\text{red}) = \dfrac{5}{12}$ .

Practice playeasy

One letter is chosen at random from the word GAMES. What is the probability the letter is a vowel?

GAMES has $5$ letters, and $2$ of them ( $A$ and $E$ ) are vowels, so $P = \dfrac{2}{5}$ .

Practice playeasy

The whole numbers $1$ through $24$ were each written on separate cards. Those $24$ cards were placed in a bag. One card will be randomly drawn from this bag. What is the probability that the card will show a number divisible by $4$ ?