miniQUIZ Week of 3/31/2026

1. One way to organically commit things to memory is to physically(whether this be by hand or by keyboard) copy things. Accordingly, in your reply to this week’s miniQUIZ, type out what’s below.

Finding your own path through this process is significant. That said, for possibly all of us, wouldn’t it be a great thing to get to the end of every section on our own terms? So, within both Math sections, get to #22, having mcm’ed as many questions as we like, as there will likely be plenty of time to return to questions. Within R/W, get to the end of the front half(the classic finish), and then, potentially return to any initially skipped questions.

*Bonus - What does the transition “That said”(used above) indicate?

The transition “That said” indicates contrast. If you do not immediately agree, this is understandable. But, our bottom line is this is how the test writers consistently use it.

ex. Karla was planning to go to the concert. That said, she ended up deciding to stay home.

2. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

Having written dozens of books, Agatha Christie, a truly prolific author, had an exceptional career, its origin _____ back to a challenge issued by her sister.

A) can be trace B) tracing C) has traced D) traces

The correct answer is (B).

The issue with all of the answer options other than (B) is that they create a comma splice.

“Having written dozens of books, Agatha Christie, a truly prolific author, had an exceptional career” is a complete sentence. Inserting option (A) in to the blank, we get “its origin can be traced back to a challenge issued by her sister”, which is also a complete sentence.

Two complete sentences cannot be connected by a comma, which is the grammatical issue known as a comma splice. Options (C) and (D) also create comma splices.

One way to potentially avoid a comma splice is by using an “-ing” verb. Knowing this idea is certainly a way to more directly end up clicking on (B) as the correct answer.

3. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

The hare, a creature oft mistaken as simply another type of rabbit, is indeed quite a _____ breeder, even being able to carry more than one litter of offspring at once, a phenomenon known as superfetation.

A) despondent B) ineffective C) noticeable D) prolific

The correct answer is (D).

Some people eliminate option (B) because the word starts with a vowel. This is not a thing the test writers have cared about/played around with in the past, and so we do not think about this. If you do not know what we’re talking about right now, don’t worry about it. We could legitimately eliminate (B) because “ineffective” is the opposite of what we are looking for.

We wrote option (C) here to be a tempting stretched/sort of answer. If you really think that “noticeable” is a word that really fits this blurb, this is not a big issue, especially when we’re on certain Paths(such as the Path to 600+). But….if you had a sense that “noticeable” was not quite right, this is a good indication that you’re understanding what we mean by a sort of answer.

Having eliminated (B) and (C), many of us would now be facing a classic 50-50 guess. We’re cool with guessing wrong. We’re also cool with not knowing what “prolific” means.

It would be more impactful(but still not major) to have on our boards somewhere what we mention about the word “despondent” in this week’s nsivwotw down below, as knowing what we mention could lead us to eliminating (A) as well and potentially arriving at the correct answer of (D) by default.

4. A researcher conducted a survey to determine whether thinner pizzas are superior. For the survey, the researcher chose a random sample of 117 people from the city of Genova in Italy. The researcher found that people do think that thinner pizzas are superior. What is the largest group to which the results of the survey can be generalized?

A) The 117 people in the sample B) All people whoo live in Genova C) All people who live in Italy D) All people who live in Europe

The correct answer is (B).

It will be interesting for us to see how regularly this type of question appears on upcoming tests.(We’re counting on you to keep us posted!)

This is our “new” friend the survey Q.

The reason why (A) is not correct is because this wouldn’t be generalizing the results in any way, as these are the actual people who were surveyed in the first place.

But, from what we learned from those 117 people living in the city of Genova, we can now apply to all of the people from the same city. This is what we could consider going one level up.

In this case, we could consider option (C) two levels up and option (D) three levels up. For this kind of question, we’re only meant to go one level up. Why? The best answer to give probably is because that’s what the test writers want.

5. The value of a is 224.5% of the value of b. The value of a is 62.1% of the value of d. What percent of d is b?

The correct answer is 27.66.

Of the three Math questions this week, this is the one that most people would find the least comfortable. Keep this firmly in mind, as you could be on the Path to 650+ and not get this one.

For so many of us, if we are going to approach this question, then bringing our friend Sub Numbers(SN) in to the mix is the move.

We could start by subbing in 100 for $b$. This would make a 224.5(224.5% of 100 means doing 2.245 x 100).

One reason this question is a challenge is that with a value for a in place, we could still misstep in regards to determining the corresponding value of $d$. Given the statement that a is 62.1% of $d$, it could be best to write out….

$224.5 = .621d$

With that statement in place, we could then divide both sides by .621 to arrive at 361.5136876 as our value of $d$.

A second potential challenge is what is done to finish things out. To determine what percent “of” d “is” b, we put our value for $b$ over our value for $d$.(There’s a percent thing you could read if you’re wondering why we quoted the words “is” and “of”.) Doing so and firing 100 / 361.5136876 in to our calculators, we get 0.276614699. Converting this decimal into a percent, we get 27.6614699.

Given the space restriction of a non-multiple choice question, we type in 27.66.

6. Two variables, p and q, are related such that for each increase of 1 in the value of p, the value of q decreases by 20%. When q = 153.6, p = 2. Which equation represents this relationship?

A) $q = 240 - 0.20p$ B) $1 = 240(0.80)^p$ C) $q = 240(0.20)^p$ D) $1 = 153.6(0.20)^{p/2}$

The correct answer is (B).

First, this question is one we basically all want to get. Second, it is a great example of how many questions can be done in multiple ways.

Let’s explore the PiP route first. If we plug in 2 for $p$, we are supposed to get 153.6 for $q$. Executing this, only option (B) gives us what we want.

Second, let’s acknowledge how and understanding of exponential equations also leads us to (B). We could see the decrease of 20% leading to the decimal 0.80(1 - .20) that is within the parentheses.

On test day, executing either of the two routes above is excellent. Here in training, it would be great to become fluent with both.

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the nsivwotw(not-so-important-vocab-word-of-the-week)

despondent

definition - in low spirits

more importantly….let’s acknowledge how many words(not all) that start with “dis” lean toward the negative side of the spectrum. Knowing this, we could correctly think that this word starting with “des” also leans in that direction. Be wary, though, of various exceptions.

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