Free printable PSAT practice test for Grade 11

Reading and Writing

Circle the letter of the best answer. About 12 minutes.

1. Victory gardens

   During World War II, millions of American families planted 'victory gardens' in backyards and city lots. By growing their own vegetables, they ______ the demand for canned food, freeing more of it to be shipped to soldiers overseas.

   1.

   Which choice gives the most logical and precise word or phrase for the blank?

   1. Areduced
   2. Bincreased
   3. Cignored
   4. Dmeasured

2. Flying buttresses

   Builders of Gothic cathedrals wanted tall walls filled with large stained-glass windows, but thin walls with many openings could not hold up a heavy stone roof on their own. Flying buttresses, stone arms that brace the walls from outside, offered a ______ solution: they carried the roof's weight outward and down, so the walls themselves could remain slender.

   2.

   Which choice gives the most logical and precise word or phrase for the blank?

   1. Adecorative
   2. Bpractical
   3. Creluctant
   4. Dtemporary

3. The piano tuner

   The piano tuner worked in silence for an hour, striking one key at a time and turning a small wrench. Malik, who had been told to stay out of the way, watched from the doorway. When the tuner finally played a full chord, the old piano sounded like a different instrument. Malik decided then that he would learn to play it.

   3.

   Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

   1. AIt suggests that the tuner made the piano sound worse.
   2. BIt reveals that the tuner had trouble finishing the job.
   3. CIt describes the moment that leads Malik to make a decision.
   4. DIt explains why Malik was told to stay out of the way.

4. Printing and spelling

   Before printing presses with movable type spread through Europe in the late 1400s, books were copied by hand, and scribes often spelled the same word several ways, sometimes on a single page. Printers, who produced hundreds of identical copies, tended to settle on one spelling for each word so that their typesetters could work quickly. As printed books reached more readers, those choices became familiar, and spelling in many languages gradually grew more uniform.

   4.

   What is the main idea of the text?

   1. ATypesetters invented most of the spellings used in modern languages.
   2. BScribes were more careful about spelling than early printers were.
   3. CPrinted books took longer to produce than books copied by hand.
   4. DPrinting helped make spelling more consistent as well as making books more common.

5. Melting ice

   Substances dissolved in water lower the temperature at which it freezes. A student placed identical ice cubes on three plates, sprinkled one with salt, one with sugar, and left one bare, and timed how long each took to melt completely. She found that salt sped melting more than sugar did: ______

   5.

   Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?

   1. Athe bare cube took 48 minutes to melt, the longest time of all three cubes.
   2. Bthe cube with sugar melted 7 minutes sooner than the bare cube.
   3. Cthe cube with salt melted in 22 minutes, compared with 41 for sugar.
   4. Dthe cube with sugar melted faster than the cube with salt did.

6. The recital

   Leo told everyone that the spring piano recital was no big deal. Still, his little sister heard him practicing the same piece every night for a month, sometimes until their mother called lights out. On the morning of the recital, he ironed his best shirt twice and checked his sheet music three times before leaving. Taken together, these details suggest that Leo ______

   6.

   Which choice most logically completes the text?

   1. Ahad forgotten the piece he was supposed to play.
   2. Bhad decided not to attend the recital at all.
   3. Cwanted his sister to perform in his place.
   4. Dcared about the recital more than he admitted.

7. The lighthouse stairs

   Mara climbed the one hundred and twelve stairs of the lighthouse every evening at ______ knew that the fishing boats still out on the water depended on the lamp to find the harbor.

   7.

   Which choice completes the text so that it follows the conventions of Standard English?

   1. Adusk, she
   2. Bdusk; because she
   3. Cdusk she
   4. Ddusk; she

8. A ship's clock

   In the 1700s, sailors needed accurate clocks to work out their position at sea. Trained as a watchmaker in a small mountain town, ______ a ship's clock that kept steady time even in rough seas.

   8.

   Which choice completes the text so that it follows the conventions of Standard English?

   1. Askill allowed the inventor to build
   2. Bthe inventor's workshop produced
   3. Cit was possible for the inventor to build
   4. Dthe inventor built

9. Gothic windows

   Romanesque churches in medieval Europe had thick walls and small windows, since the walls had to bear the full weight of heavy stone roofs. ______, Gothic builders used flying buttresses to carry much of that weight outside the walls, which allowed for tall windows of stained glass.

   9.

   Which choice gives the most logical transition for the blank?

   1. ASimilarly
   2. BFor example
   3. CIn addition
   4. DIn contrast

10. Stepwells

    While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
    • Stepwells are wells reached by long flights of steps.
    • They were built in western India for centuries.
    • The steps let people reach the water as its level rose and fell with the seasons.
    • Rani ki Vav, a stepwell in Gujarat, was built in the 11th century.
    • It is decorated with hundreds of carved sculptures.

    10.

    The student wants to explain why stepwells were built with steps. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

    1. AFor centuries, people in western India built wells that were reached by long flights of steps.
    2. BRani ki Vav, a stepwell in the state of Gujarat, was built in the 11th century.
    3. CStepwells had steps so that people could reach the water as its level changed with the seasons.
    4. DRani ki Vav, a stepwell, is decorated with hundreds of carved sculptures.