ISEE practice, Grade 10

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Scholar Tests · Set 1

ISEE practice test, Grade 10

Name ______________________ Date ____________

Verbal Reasoning

Circle the letter of the best answer. About 5 minutes.

  1. 1.

    DELETERIOUS

    Which word means most nearly the same as the word in capital letters?

    1. Aharmful
    2. Bsudden
    3. Cdelicious
    4. Dcareless
  2. 2.

    Far from ______ the problem, the new law has actually ______ it.

    Which pair of words best completes the sentence?

    1. Astudying . . . named
    2. Bcausing . . . fixed
    3. Csolving . . . worsened
    4. Dcausing . . . worsened
  3. 3.

    UBIQUITOUS

    Which word means most nearly the same as the word in capital letters?

    1. Aeverywhere
    2. Bancient
    3. Cnoisy
    4. Duseful
  4. 4.

    His apology seemed ______, since he repeated the same insult the very next day.

    Which word best completes the sentence?

    1. Agenuine
    2. Bearnest
    3. Cinsincere
    4. Dheartfelt
  5. 5.

    Unlike her ______ brother, who spent every dollar he earned, Mara saved carefully.

    Which word best completes the sentence?

    1. Acautious
    2. Bprudent
    3. Cthrifty
    4. Dprofligate
  6. 6.

    EQUIVOCAL

    Which word means most nearly the same as the word in capital letters?

    1. Agenerous
    2. Banxious
    3. Cambiguous
    4. Ddefinite
  7. 7.

    Her ______ in the face of danger was ______, given that she had never trained for an emergency.

    Which pair of words best completes the sentence?

    1. Acalm . . . expected
    2. Bpanic . . . remarkable
    3. Cpanic . . . ordinary
    4. Dcalm . . . remarkable
  8. 8.

    QUIXOTIC

    Which word means most nearly the same as the word in capital letters?

    1. Aidealistic
    2. Brealistic
    3. Cgloomy
    4. Dquick
  9. 9.

    The old rule had become ______: no one could remember why it existed, and no one followed it.

    Which word best completes the sentence?

    1. Aobsolete
    2. Bpopular
    3. Cessential
    4. Drecent
  10. 10.

    BELLIGERENT

    Which word means most nearly the same as the word in capital letters?

    1. Afragile
    2. Bgraceful
    3. Chostile
    4. Dnoisy

Quantitative Reasoning

Circle the letter of the best answer. About 9 minutes.

  1. 1.

    Sunflowers in three gardens were measured in centimeters. In Garden A, the shortest sunflower was 72 and the range was 8; in Garden B, the shortest sunflower was 50 and the range was 26; and in Garden C, the shortest sunflower was 68 and the range was 31. What is the range of the heights of all the sunflowers together?

    1. A31
    2. B99
    3. C49
    4. D65
  2. 2.

    The same whole number is added to the top and to the bottom of 16/25. The fraction this makes is exactly 3/4. What number was added?

    1. A13
    2. B12
    3. C11
    4. D27
  3. 3.

    A bottle of juice is meant to hold 1,450 milliliters. The machine that fills it can put in up to 7% more or 7% less than that. What is the difference between the greatest and the least possible amount of juice in a bottle, in milliliters?

    1. A203
    2. B101.5
    3. C1,551.5
    4. D14
  4. 4.

    Column A: |10 − 8|
    Column B: |10| − |8|

    Compare the quantity in Column A with the quantity in Column B.

    1. AColumn A is greater.
    2. BColumn B is greater.
    3. CThe two quantities are equal.
    4. DIt cannot be decided from the information given.
  5. 5.

    A group of 485 people is made up of adults, teenagers and children. There are three times as many teenagers as adults. The number of children is 15 less than twice the number of teenagers. How many more children than adults are there?

    1. A335
    2. B235
    3. C220
    4. D50
  6. 6.

    Column A: |7 − 10|
    Column B: |7| − |10|

    Compare the quantity in Column A with the quantity in Column B.

    1. AColumn A is greater.
    2. BColumn B is greater.
    3. CThe two quantities are equal.
    4. DIt cannot be decided from the information given.
  7. 7.

    A right triangle has legs of length 12 and 16.
    Column A: The length of the hypotenuse
    Column B: 19

    Compare the quantity in Column A with the quantity in Column B.

    1. AColumn A is greater.
    2. BColumn B is greater.
    3. CThe two quantities are equal.
    4. DIt cannot be decided from the information given.
  8. 8.

    A company charges $5 to ship a package that weighs up to 3 pounds, plus $2 for each pound over 3 pounds. Which equation gives the cost C, in dollars, to ship a package that weighs p pounds, where p is greater than 3?

    1. AC = 5(p − 3) + 2
    2. BC = 5 + 2(p − 3)
    3. CC = 5 + 2(p + 3)
    4. DC = 5 + 2p
  9. 9.

    Today is Monday. What day of the week will it be 233 days from today?

    1. ASaturday
    2. BThursday
    3. CTuesday
    4. DWednesday
  10. 10.

    A circle has radius 8. A square has sides of length 4.
    Column A: The area of the circle
    Column B: The area of the square

    Compare the quantity in Column A with the quantity in Column B.

    1. AColumn A is greater.
    2. BColumn B is greater.
    3. CThe two quantities are equal.
    4. DIt cannot be decided from the information given.

Reading Comprehension

Circle the letter of the best answer. About 10 minutes.

  1. The Price Tag You Cannot See

    Suppose a friend gives you a free ticket to a concert on Saturday night. The ticket cost you nothing, so going seems to cost nothing as well. An economist would disagree. If attending means giving up a shift at a part-time job that would have paid sixty dollars, or an evening you had planned to spend finishing a project, then the concert has a real cost after all. It is simply a cost that does not appear on any receipt.

    Economists call this opportunity cost: the value of the best alternative you give up when you make a choice. The idea rests on a plain observation about scarcity. Time, money and attention are limited, so every decision to use them one way is also a decision not to use them another way. The old saying that there is no such thing as a free lunch makes the same point. Even when someone else pays for the meal, the hour you spend eating it is an hour you cannot spend on anything else.

    Opportunity cost is easy to state and surprisingly easy to forget. A price tag is visible and specific; the alternative a purchase rules out is usually vague and unspoken. As a result, people tend to weigh what they can see. A shopper choosing between two phones may spend an hour comparing features while never asking what else the extra two hundred dollars could have bought. Researchers who study decision making have found that simply reminding people of what else they could do with their money can make them noticeably more cautious about spending it.

    The concept also explains choices that look puzzling at first. Consider the full cost of attending college. Tuition and books are the obvious expenses, but economists add another: the wages a student could have earned by working full time during those years. For most students, the investment still pays off over a lifetime. For a rare few with an unusually valuable opportunity, such as a promising young athlete, the income given up may be large enough that delaying college makes sense.

    It is worth separating opportunity cost from a related idea that often causes confusion. A sunk cost is money or effort already spent that cannot be recovered. Because it is gone whichever way you decide, it should not influence what you do next. The person who sits through a dull movie only because the ticket was expensive is letting a sunk cost steer the decision, while ignoring the opportunity cost of the next two hours.

    None of this means every choice requires a spreadsheet. The value of the concept lies in a single habit of mind: asking, before committing, "Compared with what?" That question turns invisible costs into visible ones, and visible costs are far easier to weigh.

    1.

    Which choice best states the main idea of the passage?

    1. AEvery choice carries the hidden cost of the best alternative given up, and noticing that cost leads to better decisions.
    2. BFree gifts such as concert tickets usually end up costing more than items people buy for themselves.
    3. CSunk costs should always be recovered before a person makes any new decision.
    4. DShoppers make better choices when they compare the features of many different products.
  2. 2.

    According to the passage, what expense do economists add to the obvious costs of college?

    1. AThe money spent on application fees
    2. BThe wages a student could have earned by working full time
    3. CThe cost of books and supplies
    4. DThe price of housing near the campus
  3. 3.

    Based on the passage, a diner who keeps eating an unappetizing restaurant meal only because it was expensive is

    1. Afollowing the habit of asking "Compared with what?"
    2. Bcorrectly weighing the meal's opportunity cost
    3. Creducing the meal's opportunity cost to zero
    4. Dallowing a sunk cost to influence a decision
  4. 4.

    As it is used in the passage, the word "rests" most nearly means

    1. Apauses
    2. Bremains
    3. Clies down
    4. Ddepends
  5. 5.

    The author would most likely agree with which statement?

    1. AA decision is easier to judge well when its alternatives are made explicit.
    2. BGood decisions require detailed calculations every time.
    3. CChoices that cost no money do not need to be thought through.
    4. DMoney already spent should guide what a person does next.
  6. 6.

    The example of the free concert ticket in the first paragraph mainly serves to

    1. Ashow how a sunk cost differs from an opportunity cost
    2. Bexplain why concert tickets have become more expensive
    3. Cintroduce a hidden cost before the passage names the concept that describes it
    4. Ddescribe a study of how people choose to spend money

  7. Third Row, Aisle Seat

    Let me be clear about one thing: I was only at the recital because my mother had confiscated my car keys until I agreed to go. I had quit piano two years earlier, at fifteen, and I had never regretted it for a single afternoon. Lessons had been a weekly sentence, Mrs. Abernathy's metronome ticking like the clock in a dentist's waiting room. When I stopped, I felt nothing but relief, and I said so to anyone who asked, and to several people who did not.

    So I sat in the third row of the community hall with my arms folded, prepared to be bored. The program listed eleven students. My sister, Lena, was ninth, playing a Chopin nocturne, the one in E-flat. I knew it was the one in E-flat only because it was printed in the program.

    The first eight performers were what you would expect. A boy in a clip-on tie rushed through a minuet as though it were chasing him. A girl stopped twice in the same measure and started over both times, her face burning. I happened to notice that she had been fine until her left hand crossed over, which is where everyone gets lost, but I mention it only because it was obvious.

    Then Lena walked out. She sat, adjusted the bench a quarter of an inch, and waited, which is something Mrs. Abernathy used to tell us to do and which I never once managed. The opening was steady. By the second page she had sped up slightly, and I caught myself leaning forward, because the trill near the bottom of that page is a trap if you take it too fast, and she was taking it too fast.

    She didn't fall into it. She came out of the trill clean and let the last chord ring until it dissolved into the hum of the heating vents. People applauded. I applauded too, because it would have been rude not to.

    Afterward, in the lobby, Lena found me by the table of lemon bars.

    "You were doing it again," she said.

    "Doing what?"

    "Your fingers. On your knee. The whole time." She grinned. "You played the entire left hand. Mom saw."

    I told her that was ridiculous, that it was a nervous habit, that it could have been any song at all. She just took a lemon bar and went off to find her teacher.

    On the drive home, with my keys returned, I did not turn on the radio. When we got back, I went upstairs and rearranged a few things in my closet, nothing important, just a box of old sheet music I had been meaning to throw out for two years and had somehow kept forgetting to. I set it on my desk, where it would be easier to remember.

    7.

    Which best describes what happens in the passage?

    1. AA narrator who insists he no longer cares about piano reveals his attachment to it at his sister's recital.
    2. BA teenager is punished by his mother for refusing to attend his younger sister's recital.
    3. CA young pianist overcomes her stage fright and wins first prize in a community competition.
    4. DA piano teacher persuades a former student to return to lessons after a two-year break.
  8. 8.

    According to the narrator, what did Lena do before she began to play?

    1. AShe adjusted the bench slightly and waited.
    2. BShe asked her teacher for her sheet music.
    3. CShe looked for her brother in the third row.
    4. DShe set a metronome on top of the piano.
  9. 9.

    The narrator's claim that he knew which nocturne Lena would play "only because it was printed in the program" most likely suggests that he

    1. Aknows the music far better than he is willing to admit
    2. Bhas never heard any of Chopin's music before tonight
    3. Cwas not told in advance which piece Lena had chosen
    4. Dnoticed several printing errors in the evening's program
  10. 10.

    As it is used in the passage, the word "sentence" most nearly means

    1. Aa short phrase of music
    2. Ba group of words expressing a thought
    3. Can official announcement
    4. Da punishment to be endured

Mathematics Achievement

Circle the letter of the best answer. About 9 minutes.

  1. 1.

    What is the slope of the line through (−8, 5) and (2, −5)?

    1. A−10
    2. B0
    3. C−1
    4. D1
  2. 2.

    Ben spent 3/4 of his money on a video game. Then he spent 1/3 of the money he had left on a phone case. He had $84 left. How much money did Ben have at the start?

    1. A$126
    2. B$504
    3. C$336
    4. D$196
  3. 3.

    A gym charges a $33 sign-up fee plus $31 each month. Which equation gives the total cost c, in dollars, after m months?

    1. Ac = 33m + 31
    2. Bc = −31m + 33
    3. Cc = 64m
    4. Dc = 31m + 33
  4. 4.

    600 students said how they get to school. The circle graph shows the results. How many students ride a bike?

    1. A540
    2. B10
    3. C150
    4. D60
  5. 5.

    What is the length of the dashed line from a bottom corner of the box to the opposite top corner?

    1. A√20 yards
    2. B36 yards
    3. C10 yards
    4. D6 yards
  6. 6.

    In a survey, 3 students have 0 pets, 1 student has 1 pet, 3 students have 2 pets, 4 students have 3 pets, and 9 students have 4 pets. What is the median number of pets for these students?

    1. A4
    2. B2
    3. C10.5
    4. D3
  7. 7.

    A cube has a volume of 8 cubic feet. What is its surface area?

    1. A16 square feet
    2. B4 square feet
    3. C24 square feet
    4. D8 square feet
  8. 8.

    Two parallel lines are cut by a transversal. One angle measures 139°. What is the measure of the angle marked with a question mark?

    1. A221°
    2. B41°
    3. C139°
    4. D49°
  9. 9.

    If 0 < x < y, which of these must be true?
    I. y/x < 0
    II. y − x > 1
    III. x² < y²

    1. AI and III only
    2. BIII only
    3. CI, II, and III
    4. DII and III only
  10. 10.

    In a board game, 2 bronze coins are worth 1 iron coin, and 5 iron coins are worth 7 crystal coins. How many crystal coins are 20 bronze coins worth?

    1. A140
    2. B10
    3. C56
    4. D14

Written by Scholar Tests in the style of the published ISEE question types. Not a real ISEE test, and a practice score is not a real score.